Derek Tsang

Derek Tsang KwokCheung 曾國祥 born 8 November 1979 is a Hong Kong film director and actor The son of actor Eric Tsang Tsang got his start in the Hong Kong film industry working for director Peter Chan HoSun after graduating from the University of Toronto Scarborough in 2001 He made his acting debut in Men Suddenly in Black 2003 and directorial debut with Lovers Discourse 2010 sharing the directing credit with Jimmy Wan Chiman The duo was nominated for a Golden Horse Award for Best New Director in 2010 His solo directorial debut Soul Mate 2016 was critically praised receiving a Hong Kong Film Award for Best Film nomination at the 36th Hong Kong Film Awards His next film Better Days 2019 was the Hong Kong submission for the Academy Awards and received a Best International Feature Film nomination becoming the first Hong Kong submission directed by a Hong Kong native to do so After graduation he moved back to Hong Kong where his father arranged for him to work under director Peter Chan HoSun There he met producer Jojo Hui and director Jimmy Wan Chiman both of whom would go on to be Tsangs frequent collaborators Despite not pursuing an acting career Tsang has had a variety of acting roles since the start of his career which he attributed to other actors not wanting to be typecast into roles with unflattering characteristics He made his screen debut in Men Suddenly in Black 2003 cameoing as the younger version of his fathers character There he met director Pang Hocheung whom Tsang would later collaborate with on various projects Tsang made his solo directorial debut with Soul Mate 2016 He was subsequently nominated for Best Director awards at various film award ceremonies including at the 36th Hong Kong Film Awards and the 53rd Golden Horse Awards His next film Better Days 2019 won eight out of 12 categories at the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards including Best Film and Best Director The film was subsequently chosen as the official entry for Hong Kong for Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards It was shortlisted but lost to Denmarks Another Round He was the first native Hong Kong director in the category Tsang said his influences are primarily derived from arthouse cinema with early influences from director Wong Karwai and the French New Wave as opposed to his father Eric Tsangs works which consisted of mostly of mainstream comedies He credits his halfsister Bowie Tsang for teaching him about film and literature Tsang married actress Venus Wong in 2019 He has expressed a reluctance to cast Wong due to the negative perception of nepotism