Hong Kong’s most famous film awards ceremony, known as the Oscars of the city, recently took place. The 42nd edition saw a star-studded night of celebration for the best in acting, screenwriting and technical aspects of Hong Kong films. The Goldfinger, A Broad Daylight and Mad Fate were all nominated for the top prize of Best Picture. The winner of this category was A Guilty Conscience. Tony Leung, who was nominated for three categories and won two, was named the best actor of the night.
The BOCHK Science and Technology Innovation Prize 2024 has been awarded to five scholars at Hong Kong universities for their outstanding achievements in research fields such as artificial intelligence and robotics, life and health, new materials and energy, and advanced manufacturing and fintech. Each of them will pocket a prize of about HK$2 million. The prizes are a crucial part of the city’s future tech-innovation and offer significant support to Hong Kong’s economic transition.
BOCHK chief executive John Lee Ka-chiu delivered a virtual speech at the awarding ceremony to honour the scientists, saying that their work reshapes the world through education and opens the doors of scientific possibility. He added that the city is committed to supporting students in building a better future through education.
In addition to the HK$100 million prize money for the first division, the Hong Kong Lottery has a second and third prize, and also a jackpot (Duo Bao Jiang). If nobody wins the top prize, the accumulated prize funds go into a pool that will be shared by winners of the 2nd and 3rd prizes. This can make winnings much bigger than in a normal 1st prize draw.
The HK$100 million prize is the largest in lottery history and is a record amount of money that has ever been awarded in the HK Lottery. The top prize has previously only been HK$80 million, whereas the second and third prizes were HK$25 million and HK$10 million respectively.
Interested Fellows are advised to read the detailed guidelines and rules of this prize, including eligibility criteria and submission procedures, before making their nomination. A copy of the published full article and a blinded abstract of not more than 500 words should be submitted for evaluation along with the nomination form. The deadline for nomination is 29 March 2025. All nominated articles will be evaluated by a panel of experts from various disciplines and the winning paper will receive an engraved gold medal. Nominations can be made by HKU Faculty members and non-faculty staff, who must sign the nomination form with their name and title. The nomination forms and other necessary documents can be downloaded from the HKLRC website (www.hklrc.hk). Nominations are free of charge and can be made by email or post. In order to be eligible for the prize, a journal article must have been published during the preceding calendar year, i.e. between January and December 2019. Journal articles with multiple publication dates should be counted according to the date of first publishing or making the article available publicly online.