Hong Kong picks action drama “To The Fore” as Oscar contender

PanARMENIAN.Net - Hong Kong has selected sports action drama “To The Fore” as its contender for the foreign-language Academy Awards race, Variety reports.

The picture was directed Dante Lam, better known as a director of crime thrillers. It stars Eddie Choi, Shawn Dou and Wang Luo Dan.

The section was made by the selection committee of the Hong Kong Film Producers’ Association. The organisation said that it had also shortlisted Ringo Lam’s “Wild City”, Mabel Cheung’s Three Cities” and Lau Ho-leung’s “Two Thumbs Up.”

Despite the territory’s major role in Asian and global film history no Hong Kong film has ever won in the foreign-language category. Wearing the Hong Kong banner, two films by mainland Chinese directors — Zhang Yimou’s “Raise The Red Lantern” and Chen Kaige’s “Farewell My Concubine” — received Oscar nominations. More recently Won Kar-wai’s “The Grandmaster” made it to the January shortlist, but was not subsequently nominated.