Ciao UFO Crowned Best Film at 2025 Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards

Nostalgic drama Ciao UFO scoops top prize, while Louis Koo (Behind the Shadows) and Fish Liew (Someone Like Me) pick up best actor awards Reading Time:2 minutes Why you can trust SCMP Published: 11:19am, 20 Jan 2026Updated: 11:38am, 20 Jan 2026 Ciao UFO, a nostalgic drama that waited over six years to reappear on the big screen after its film festival premiere, has been voted the best Hong Kong film of 2025 by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society (HKFCS), the organisation announced on January 19. The win is a vindication for the film, directed by Patrick Leung Pak-kin (Born Wild), that premiered at the 2019 Hong Kong Asian Film Festival but faced a prolonged delay in release, reportedly due to an investor’s reluctance to greenlight a theatrical run. Spanning around two decades of contemporary Hong Kong life, Ciao UFO stars Tsui Tien-you, Wong You-nam and Charlene Choi Cheuk-yin as former childhood friends from Hong Kong’s Wah Fu Estate bonded by a shared UFO sighting in 1985, who have grown up to find that adulthood is not quite what they had hoped for. Advertisement Since December 25, the film has screened in local cinemas more than a dozen times in a de facto limited release – after producer and co-screenwriter Amy Chin Siu-wai sought legal advice for it – although a full-scale cinema release remains uncertain. The best director prize was shared by Jonathan Li Tsz-chun and Chow Man-yu for the gritty Malaysia-set crime thriller Behind the Shadows. This marks Li’s second such honour in three years, after he won the category for the mainland Chinese production Dust to Dust in 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Select Voice Choose your listening speed Get through articles 2x faster 1.25 x 250 WPM Slow Average Fast 00:0000:00 1.25 x