Andy Lau, Li Bingbing and Carina Lau in the running for Venice Film awards
Director Tsui Hark will carry the expectations of all Chinese film-makers for the upcoming 67th Venice Film Festival.
Out of the 23 films, Tsui Hark's Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame was the only Chinese film nominated for awards.
Other films in the running includes Tran Anh Hun's Norwegian Wood, Sofia Coppola's Somewhere and also Black Swan, directed by Darren Aronofsky who won the coveted Golden Lion award two years ago.
The cast of Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame: Andy Lau, Li Bingbing and Carina Lau, were exhilarated at the news as they will now be in the running for Best Actor and Best Actress awards.
Andy felt that the movie was representative of Tsui Hark's style and the nomination bears testament to everyone's efforts in the film.
Since this is the first time Andy has received a nomination at the festival, the star revealed that he will be attending the event to walk the red carpet.
Li Bingbing was also excited to be able to return to the Venice Film Awards again after 10 years.
"Ten years ago, Zhang Yuan won Best Director for his movie Seventeen Years which I acted in; now I'm presented with a chance to step on the red carpet again. I guess you can say this is my 10-year-pact with Venice."
Carina is reportedly going to give the event a miss due to 'matters at home'. Speculations are rife that she is trying to avoid the spotlight due to recent reports that she has been seeing a Chinese businessman behind her hubby's back.
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