“Better Days” (少年的你) was the film Hong Kong submitted for the 93rd Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. It was one of the 15 shortlisted international feature films announced on February 9, 2021.
A romantic crime film, “Better Days” is about how a bullied high school girl and a teenage street thug changed each other’s lives. It is a film adaptation of “In His Youth, In Her Beauty,” a novel by Jiu Yuexi.
Written by Lam Wing Sum, Li Yuan and Xu Yimeng and directed by Derek Tsang, “Better Days” is 135 minutes long. Here is the list of its cast members:
- Zhou Dongyu
- Jackson Yee
- Yin Fang
- Huang Jue
- Wu Yue
- Zhou Ye
- Zhang Xinyi
- Liu Ran
- Xie Xintong
- Zhang Yao
- Zhang Yifan
- Zhao Runnan
- Gao Xuanming
- Luo Junlin
- He Liao Lüyun
Including “Better Days,” 97 films were submitted for the 2021 Oscar Award for Best International Feature Film but only 93 films were accepted. Three countries submitted a film for the first time namely Lesotho, Sudan and Suriname, whose respective entries were “This is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection,” “You Will Die at Twenty” and “Wiren.”
After 21 years of not submitting, Bhutan sent “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” but it did not appear on the final list. “Héliopolis” of Algeria also did not make it to the final list while “Persian Lessons” of Belarus and “2000 Songs of Farida” of Uzbekistan were disqualified.
Majority of individuals involved in making “Persian Lessons” are not from Belarus while “2000 Songs of Farida” was not submitted by the deadline of December 1, 2020. Here is the complete list of the 15 shortlisted films:
|
COUNTRY |
FILM | DIRECTOR | WRITER/S |
LANGUAGE/S |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | “Quo Vadis, Aida?” | Jasmila Žbanić | Jasmila Žbanić | Bosnian, English, Croatian, Serbian, Dutch |
| Chile | “The Mole Agent” (El agente topo) | Maite Alberdi | Maite Alberdi | Spanish |
| Côte d’Ivoire | “Night of the Kings” (La Nuit des rois) | Philippe Lacôte | Philippe Lacôte | Dyula, French |
| Czech Republic | “Charlatan” (Šarlatán) | Agnieszka Holland | Marek Epstein | Czech |
| Denmark | “Another Round” (Druk) | Thomas Vinterberg | Thomas Vinterberg, Tobias Lindholm | Danish |
| France | “Two of Us” (Deux) | Filippo Meneghetti | Filippo Meneghetti, Malysone Bovorasmy | French, German |
| Guatemala | “La Llorona” | Jayro Bustamante | Jayro Bustamante, Lisandro Sanchez | Spanish, Mayan-Caqchickel, Mayan-Ixil |
| Hong Kong | “Better Days” (少年的你) | Derek Tsang | Lam Wing Sum, Li Yuan, Xu Yimeng | Mandarin Chinese |
| Iran | “Sun Children” (خورشید) | Majid Majidi | Majid Majidi, Nima Javidi | Persian |
| Mexico | “I’m No Longer Here” (Ya no estoy aquí) | Fernando Frias de la Parra | Fernando Frias de la Parra | Spanish |
| Norway | “Hope” (Håp) | Maria Sødahl | Maria Sødahl | Norwegian, Swedish |
| Romania | “Collective” (Colectiv) | Alexander Nanau | Alexander Nanau, Antoaneta Opriș | Romanian |
| Russia | “Dear Comrades!” (Дорогие товарищи!) | Andrey Konchalovskiy | Andrey Konchalovskiy, Elena Kiseleva | Russian |
| Taiwan | “A Sun” (陽光普照) | Chung Mong-hong | Chung Mong-hong, Chang Yao-sheng | Mandarin Chinese |
| Tunisia | “The Man Who Sold His Skin” (L’Homme qui a vendu sa peau) | Kaouther Ben Hania | Kaouther Ben Hania | Arabic, English, French |
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