Kong Sheng 孔笙
Singapore's Golden Singa Awards announce nominees: Gezhi Town leads with nine nods
Left to right: Yu Shi, Tan Jianci, Sean Xiao, Yang Mi. Photo: AsiaOne / Weibo
On October 26, Singapore announced the nominees for the second Golden Singa Awards (金狮大赏), a young prize for the best Chinese-language films. It was founded by the Singaporean media company NoonTalk Media with the support of the government media development agency IMDA. The first ceremony took place in December 2025: the best film then was the Hong Kong The Last Dance, and the best actor was Lau Ching-Wan for his role in Papa.
The most nominations this year — nine — went to Gezhi Town (得闲谨制), a war drama directed by Kong Sheng from a screenplay by Lan Xiao-Long about the residents of a small town during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In second place with seven nominations is Dear You (给阿嬷的情书) by Lan Hong-Chun: the main surprise of the Chinese box office this spring. The film is almost entirely in the Teochew dialect, cost about 14 million yuan and by the beginning of June had grossed more than 1.4 billion.
Also competing for best film are Girl — the directorial debut of Shu Qi, the Singaporean A Good Child and the Taiwanese Sunshine Women's Choir. Among the directors, besides Kong Sheng and Lan Hong-Chun, the nominees are Yuen Wo-Ping (Blades of the Guardians), Hong Zixuan (96 Minutes) and Ong Kuo-Sin (A Good Child).
Contending for the best actor prize are Sean Xiao (Gezhi Town), Austin Lin (96 Minutes), Joseph Chang, JC-T Tan Jian-Ci and Singaporean Richie Koh. Among the actresses are Ariel Lin, Ivy Chen and student Li Si-Tong, who played the lead role in Dear You. Yang Mi is nominated for a supporting role in The Lychee Road.
The final jury is headed by Kara Hui Ying-Hung. The ceremony will take place on November 28 at the Resorts World Sentosa resort in Singapore.
According to Golden Singa Awards, AsiaOne, 新华网
