The film that Hong Kong had submitted as best international feature for the Oscars this year has been disqualified from the race. Following Hong Kong being absent from the list of 88 films issued by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) that are eligible for running in the best international feature category, it has now been confirmed that A Light Never Goes Out was disqualified due to a conflict of interest.
According to the chairman of the Federation of Motion Film Producers of Hong Kong, Crucindo Hung, the selection committee was changed after they received a notice from AMPAS that members couldn’t vote if they’ve been on the Federation’s board for more than six years. This is a new criteria that came from the Academy revising its entry regulations in August. However, the swap resulted in a new committee member also being an actor in A Light Never Goes Out – Simon Yam.
Since this was a conflict of interest and an actor cannot vote for a film that they are in, AMPAS asked Hong Kong to submit another entry instead but this request was declined as the Federation deemed it unfair to A Light Never Goes Out – so our city is now entirely out of the running for an Oscars nomination. This would be the first time in almost 20 years that Hong Kong has not been in the running for the Oscars. Yam has since publicly apologised for the consequences of his vote.
The disqualification is all the more unfortunate since according to Hung, even after discounting Yam, A Light Never Goes Out would still have received the highest number of votes. Producer Saville Chan noted that this situation was the result of a procedural issue, with Hung adding that such a conflict of interest has never happened before. “In the past, the 19 members of the selection committee were also from the industry, including producers, actors, actresses, directors, gaffers, and cinematographers. Some of the films starred or were produced or directed by them. It has never been disallowed before,” he tells iCable news.
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