The Asian Movie Awards will considerably reduce their 2026 version, suspending aggressive classes and eliminating the standard crimson carpet, organizers stated Friday — a transfer supposed to mirror the somber public temper within the host metropolis of Hong Kong following final 12 months’s devastating residential fireplace.
The Asian Movie Awards Academy stated the nineteenth version of the pan-regional honors, set for March this 12 months in Hong Kong, will pivot to a stripped-down program centered on a small slate of particular awards offered “in a dignified and minimalist method,” fairly than the same old contest of greatest movie, director, performing prizes and crafts classes.
The choice, the group defined, was made after making an allowance for how the catastrophe has continued to weigh on the town and the regional movie neighborhood. As well as, organizers referenced the Hong Kong authorities’s personal determination to postpone official celebrations and to advocate a low-profile tone for public occasions within the close to time period.
“This can be a well-considered determination,” stated Asian Movie Awards Academy chairman Wilfred Wong. “Within the present surroundings, adopting a solemn and minimalist format for the awards ceremony is probably the most acceptable association. We’ve got chosen to honor filmmakers in a restrained method as a mark of respect to all sectors of the neighborhood.”
The scaled-back ceremony follows a 12 months wherein Hong Kong was left reeling from its deadliest fireplace in a long time — a blaze that swept by a residential complicated, claiming greater than 150 lives and displacing 1000’s. The tragedy prompted citywide mourning and heightened sensitivity round giant public celebrations, whereas officers urged warning as communities continued to course of the loss and its aftermath. On the similar time, authorities have moved shortly to discourage civic activism surrounding the catastrophe, warning towards public organizing and pushing again on requires unbiased investigations or official accountability.
Inside that context, organizers say the 2026 version is meant much less as a gala than as a respectful acknowledgment of the area’s filmmaking achievements. The Academy emphasised that whereas the ceremony’s trappings will likely be diminished, its mission of supporting Asian cinema — by screenings, academic packages and sustained trade outreach — stays unchanged.
Launched in 2007, the Asian Movie Awards have grown into one of many area’s main cinema honors, spotlighting movies and expertise from throughout Asia — together with Japan, Korea, India, mainland China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia — whereas usually providing an early snapshot of tendencies and rising voices. The occasion has additionally lengthy functioned as a casual gathering level for the area’s trade forward of Hong Kong’s Filmart content material market, often held the week following the awards present.
Finally 12 months’s ceremony, held at Hong Kong’s Xiqu Centre, Payal Kapadia’s All We Think about as Mild took greatest image, with Japan’s Yoshida Daihachi profitable greatest director for Teki Cometh and Hong Kong star Sean Lau incomes greatest actor for Papa.
For 2026, the Academy says it is going to as a substitute current a choose variety of honors to acknowledge excellent contributions to the trade — awarded, in Wong’s phrases, “in a restrained method.” Additional particulars on the recipients and program format will likely be introduced nearer to the occasion, organizers stated.