Snubs and a Vacant Slot: China's Golden Rooster Nominations Draw an Unusually Fast Backlash

The 39th Golden Rooster Awards, China's most prestigious industry-judged film prize, announced its nomination list on Monday through state broadcaster CCTV, setting the field for a November 10 ceremony in Xiamen. The Best Picture shortlist runs to seven films, among them the hit war drama "Nanjing Photo Studio" (南京照相馆), the drama about China's deaf community whose title translates as "Deafening" (震耳欲聋), the animated hit "Nobody" (浪浪山小妖怪), and the desert-set screen adaptation of the manhua "Biao Ren."

The Best Actress list is where the internet's attention concentrated: Li Sitong, Song Jia, Zhang Zifeng, Gao Ye, and Chen Lijun — a superstar of Yue opera, famous for playing male roles on stage, now nominated for her film debut as a warrior in "Biao Ren." State media flagged Chen Lijun's nomination prominently; the crossover from opera stage to action film lead is one of the more unusual paths to a Golden Rooster shortlist in recent memory.

The snubs came just as fast. Xin Zhilei, whose performance in "Ri Gua Zhongtian" had made her a fixture of prediction lists, was left out entirely. "Almost everyone's predicted list had Xin Zhilei on it," one film writer posted. "Some had her winning Best Actress — and she didn't even get the nomination." Another post distilled the genre grievance: two of China's most bankable stars, Shen Teng and Wu Jing, "the box office carried by them, the awards won't carry them" — a glib version of the old complaint that stars who reliably fill cinemas never appear on jury lists.

A roundup post by the account behind Drama & Variety Class Teacher turned the mood into a numbered "Golden Rooster summary" that spread widely: a film pulled from cinemas two days after release; reshoots patched with AI face-swapping; a lead actor whose lines were entirely dubbed by someone else; a supporting performance nominated as Best Actress; and one of the five Supporting Actress slots left vacant, as if no candidate had cleared the bar. The account attached the season's cruellest verdict — that this year's nominations had less credibility than Weibo Night, a fan-voted gala with no jury at all.

The category puzzle that drew the loudest complaint involved Song Jia, nominated for Best Actress for the war epic "The Volunteers," a role many viewers consider supporting. "How is Song Jia on this list again? If there aren't enough candidates, you don't have to pad it out — how does a supporting role in 'The Volunteers' become a Best Actress nomination?" one post asked. The frustration lands oddly on Song Jia herself, who days earlier made Feitian Awards history as the television season's biggest winner; the argument is less about her than about where the category boundary now sits.

For others the list is vindication. Zhang Zifeng picked up her third Golden Rooster Best Actress nomination, this time for her first action role, a part her fans say took two years of her career. The ceremony is a month away, on November 10. The jury has until then to answer the questions the internet is already asking — starting, perhaps, with the empty slot.