AND THEY'RE OFF!!!

The Golden Horse nominations are in, and Johnnie To's ELECTION is leading the pack with 11 (count 'em - eleven!) nominations. KUNG FU HUSTLE is the runner up (10 nominations) and Hou Hsiao-hsien's THREE TIMES got nine noms.Jackie Chan, on the other hand, was totally dissed with THE MYTH, HOUSE OF FURY (which he produced) and EVERLASTING REGRET (which he also produced) nominated for nothing. For a full list of nominations, go to Screendaily here. Below is an abbreviated list, with commentary:

Best Feature Film:
Election (dir. Johnnie To)
Kung Fu Hustle (dir. Stephen Chow)
Three Times (dir. Hou Hsiao-hsien)
The Wayward Cloud (dir. Tsai Ming-liang) nice to see this getting some respect
A World Without Thieves (dir. Feng Xiaogang) I have no idea why this is here. A decent movie, but nothing that would have raised eyebrows in the past. Is this Taiwan showing some love for Andy Lau, the one remaining totally bankable Hong Kong box office star?

Best Director:
Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle)
Hou Hsiao-hsien (Three Times)
Johnnie To (Election)
Tsai Ming-liang (The Wayward Cloud)

Best Leading Actor:
Chang Chen (Three Times)
Chen Kun (West Lake Moment)
Aaron Kwok (Divergence) I have no idea why this is here.
Tony Leung Ka-fai (Election)

Best Leading Actress:
Cheng Shiang-chyi (The Wayward Cloud)
Michelle Krusiec (Saving Face) hey! This guy's Asian American! It is a small world after all.
Shu Qi (Three Times)
Miriam Yeung (Drink Drank Drunk)

Best Supporting Actor:
Alex Fong (Drink Drank Drunk)
Anthony Wong (Initial D)
Wong Tin-lam (Election)
Yuen Wah (Kung Fu Hustle)

Best Supporting Actress:
Hsiao Shu-shen (Love's Lone Flower)
Lu Yi-ching (Blue Cha-Cha)
Teresa Mo (2 Young)
Yuen Qiu (Kung Fu Hustle)

Best Action Choreography:
Election (Wong Chi-wai)
Kung Fu Hustle (Yuen Wo-ping)
Seven Swords (Lau Kar-leung, Stephen Tung, Xiong Xinxin)
A World Without Thieves (Benz Kong)
It's like a world in which Jackie Chan doesn't exist. Weird.

Best Original Film Score:
Blue Cha-Cha (Cin Cin Lee)
Divergence (Anthony Chue)
Election (Lo Ta-yu)
The Heirloom (Jeffrey Cheng) This is the only nod I could find for Taiwan's horror hit.