Tony Leung Ka Fai, Digi Mart USA News (Xiamen, China): Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Ka Fai won the Best Actor award at the 39th China Film Golden Rooster Awards on Nov 10. He received the honour in the Chinese city of Xiamen, where the 2026 China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival was held.
The 68-year-old, who won his first Best Actor award at the ceremony, was seen holding his rooster-shaped trophy tightly in the interview room backstage. He won for his portrayal of the complex antagonist Fu Lung Sang in the action crime thriller The Shadow’s Edge.
Leung became the second actor after Tony Leung Chiu Wai to complete a sweep of top acting honours at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards, the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Golden Rooster Awards. He has won five Best Actor awards at the Hong Kong Film Awards, the most recent for The Shadow’s Edge, and one Best Leading Actor prize at the Golden Horse Awards for Farewell China (1990).
With an acting career spanning more than four decades, Leung recalled that a director once promised to make him a star, but he said that was not what he wanted. “I said: ‘I don’t want to be a star – I want to be an actor.’ I think ‘star’ is a title that other people give you,” Leung said.
“As an actor, you can play many different roles, and that enriches your life.”
Recently, a photograph of Leung at a high-speed railway station drew attention on social media, showing him exhausted and leaning on his suitcase while waiting for a train. Leung said the image left out context: he had rushed to Xiamen on the last high-speed train after finishing a shoot in another city, and his staff had stepped away to buy something at a convenience store when the photo was taken.
Another major winner of the night was Dead To Rights, which won Best Feature Film and Best Actress. Chinese actress Gao Ye, who won for her portrayal of singer-actress Lin Yuxiu, said she was “quite excited, quite dazed.” She thanked audiences, adding that the 137 minutes they spent watching the film contributed to the honour.
The Best Director award went to Zheng Dasheng for Hideaway: The Dossiers, a revolutionary-themed film. The Best Screenplay award went to the writing team behind Dear You, a story about Chaoshan immigrants’ struggles in South-east Asia.
The Best Supporting Actress award went to Lan Xiya for her role as a young deaf woman in Sound Of Silence, and Wushouer Sailai won Best Supporting Actor for Wan Tongshu.
