“Wandering Earth” Triumphs as Mainland China and Taiwan Film Awards Face Off

China’s epic sci-fi blockbuster The Wandering Earth took home some of the nation’s highest cinematic accolades on Saturday after winning the Golden Rooster Awards for Best Feature and Best Sound. 

After its release, the film quickly earned over 700 million USD at the box office, and rose to the second-highest grossing movie in Chinese history. It was adapted from the novella by China’s acclaimed sci-fi writer Liu Cixin, and follows a group of astronauts as they try to save planet Earth from being swallowed up by the sun. The Wandering Earth follows in the footsteps of other domestic box-office hits like Operation Red Sea and Wolf Warrior 2, with themes of homecoming and heroic nationalism driving the plot forward. Director Frant Gwo has already announced that a sequel to The Wandering Earth is in the works.

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“The Wandering Earth”: Propaganda, Ratings Wars, and the Future of Chinese Sci-Fi

The Golden Rooster Awards (known in full as the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival, no really) used to be held biannually; however, on the festival’s opening night, the head of the CPC Central Committee’s Propaganda Department announced that the Awards will now be held every year, starting this year. The move was seen as an attempt to compete with Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, which are commonly referred to as the Chinese Oscars. Mainland authorities ordered directors and stars not to attend this year’s Golden Horse Awards, apparently in response to Taiwanese filmmaker Fu Yue making comments about Taiwanese independence at last year’s ceremony. This year’s Golden Rooster Awards were scheduled to coincide with the Golden Horse Awards, with both taking place on Saturday. 

The gong for Best Feature at the Golden Rooster Awards was presented by Jackie Chan and Tian Hua.

Other winners included Wang Jingchun and Mei Yong for their lead roles in Wang Xiaoshuai’s one child policy drama So Long, My Son, Wen Muye for Best Directorial Debut with medication smuggling tragicomedy Dying to Survive, and Dante Lam as Best Director for nationalistic war film Operation Red Sea.