Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee believes the modest clout of the premier awards for Chinese-language films will grow as the market for such films increases.
The Taiwanese filmmaker spoke Tuesday in Taipei ahead of next week's 50th annual Golden Horse Awards, which showcases films from Taiwan, mainland China, Singapore and Hong Kong. The event is the equivalent of the Oscars, and Lee will be a juror selecting winners in 22 categories, ranging from Best Feature Film to Best Action Choreography.
Asked about Hollywood's relative indifference to the Golden Horse event, Lee says that will change as the market for Chinese films grows.
"I think in 10 years' time our market is bigger than the Hollywood market," he said. "So it comes naturally."
While the Golden Horse event is a staple for Asian film fans, with glitzy local television coverage and legions of screaming fans blanketing the award venue to get a close look at their favorite stars, it has little impact outside the region. A-list Hollywood personalities almost never attend, and few films showcased here make a splash in theaters outside of Asia.
Still, Lee said, it was not necessary for the Golden Horse Awards to do anything special to make a bigger impact in Hollywood, because "Chinese-speaking people are probably four times more than English-speaking people."
"I think as long as we're influential in the Chinese-speaking world it will prevail, it will ripple out," he said of the awards, adding that while the Golden Horse event will likely have its ups and downs "eventually, I think it will get picked up."
This year's Golden Horse awards are scheduled to be distributed Nov. 23.
Actor Anthony Head, known for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Ted Lasso,” dies at 72
Anthony Head, the suave, smooth-voiced British actor known for roles in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Ted Lasso," has died, his family said Friday. He was 72.
Head's daughters, actors Emily and Daisy Head, told the Press Association news agency that the actor passed away due to complications from pneumonia.
The stage and TV performer became well known to British audiences in the 1980s as one half of a will-they, won't-they romantic couple in a series of ads for Nescafe Gold Blend instant coffee. The ads were later re-shot for a U.S. audience for Taster's Choice.
Head achieved wider fame as librarian Rupert Giles, mentor to the title character in the cult-favorite supernatural series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," which ran from 1997 to 2003.
He most recently played Rupert Mannion, the villainous ex-husband of Hannah Waddingham's character Rebecca, in "Ted Lasso."
"Our grief is far greater than the hole he has left behind, but we know his legacy will live on, in the shows he was a part of, and in the audiences that love them," his daughters said. "How lucky we are to know we are able to watch him doing what he loved, even when he is no longer with us."
Head was born in London on Feb. 20, 1954 to Seafield Head, a documentary filmmaker, and Helen Shingler, an actor. His older brother, Murray, is also an actor.
Other notable roles included playing Geoffrey Howe, the deputy to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, played by Meryl Streep, in the Oscar-winning "The Iron Lady."
Head portrayed a prime minister himself in the sketch comedy show "Little Britain," as well as King Uther Pendragon, the father of Prince Arthur, in the "Merlin" TV series. He also appeared in "Motherland," Manchild," and "Silent Witness," along... Read More