It looks like Hong Kong’s dream of clinching an Oscar at next year’s Academy Awards has gone up in smoke.
Recently, it was revealed that the film Hong Kong put forward to represent it at the upcoming 96th Academy Awards — A Light Never Goes Out — had been disqualified from contention after one of the movie’s actors voted for it during the local selection process.
The person guilty of the boo-boo turned out to be Hong Kong actor-producer Simon Yam.
According to reports, the film was to be internally voted by the The Federation Of Motion Film Producers of Hong Kong before submitting it for the Oscars.
However, if a member of the film selection committee had voted for his own film, that will lead to a conflict of interest.
And unfortunately, that was what Simon, 68, accidentally did.
Earlier this week, Simon issued a statement to apologise for his blunder.
“A Light Never Goes Out is a movie I personally like a lot. There are different rules for different places. I’m willing to apologise to all the crew and colleagues of A Light Never Goes Out. It’s been tough on you,” wrote Simon.
He continued: “It’s my mistake for voting for A Light Never Goes Out. I’m so, so sorry. I’d also like to apologise to The Federation Of Motion Film Producers of Hong Kong for voting for my own movie. I’m so, so sorry. I’d like to say sorry to everyone who liked this movie as well.”
As a result of Simon’s oversight, and considering that A Light Never Goes Out had received significantly more votes than the runner-up from the selection committee, The Federation of Motion Film Producers of Hong Kong also confirmed that they will not be submitting another movie for the upcoming Oscars.
Yikes.
A Light Never Goes Out, directed by first-time feature filmmaker Anastasia Tsang, stars Sylvia Chang as a devastated widow who carries on her late husband’s (Simon Yam) unfinished dream of making neon signs, which once defined the city’s nightscape. The movie is said to be a love letter to a bygone Hong Kong.