"The Assassin" and "Thanatos Drunk" seized the most awards during the 52 Golden Horse Awards that was held in the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei.
"The Assassin" seized most of the awards with a total of five awards that include Best Feature Film and Best Director while "Thanatos Drunk" won four awards.
Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien bagged the Best Director and best feature awards in a fierce competition between 39 other film nominations. As the director accepted his award, the 68-year-old director promised to continue making great films, until the time that he cannot do so, Focus Taiwan reported.
"I want to thank my team for their hard work and want to thank the jury for awarding this honor," the winning director said. "I hope I can shoot more films with the Tang Dynasty as a backdrop. I read lots of stuff about this when I was a student."
"The Assassin" received 11 nominations and also won Best Cinematography, Best Makeup/Costume Design and best sound effects. Although lead actress Shu Qi did not get the Best Actress award for the film since Karena Lam from the film "Zinnia Flower" received the award, the veteran actress is highly praised for the success of the film.
"Thanatos Drunk" on the other hand, won four awards, including the Best Supporting Actress award, Best New Performer award, Best Original Film Score and Best Film Editing. The film also received 10 nominations, making the movie the second biggest winner of the night.
According to Stamford Advocate, other winners at the 52 Golden Horse Awards include renowned director Feng Xiangong. He won the Best Actor award for the film "Mr. Six." The Best New Director went to 26-year-old director Bi Gan for his film "Kaili Blues" while popular mainland Chinese director Jiang Zhengke nabbed the Best Original screenplay for his movie "Mountains May Depart."