Chinese actresses Li Bingbing, right and Zhou Xun pose during a news conference for The Message in Hong Kong on Sept. 29. Both have been nominated for best actress Golden Horse Awards. (Kin Cheung/Associated Press)Chinese actresses Li Bingbing, right and Zhou Xun pose during a news conference for The Message in Hong Kong on Sept. 29. Both have been nominated for best actress Golden Horse Awards. (Kin Cheung/Associated Press)

Hong Kong filmmaker Clara Law, who currently calls Australia home, is vying for nine Golden Horse Awards for her romance Like a Dream.

The Golden Horse Awards, the Asian equivalent of the Oscars, are scheduled for Saturday in Taiwan.

Law shot in China for the first time since 1994 with Like a Dream, a romance that jumps from Shanghai to Taipei to New York. The film is up for best film, Law has a nomination for best director and stars Daniel Wu and Daniel Wu and Yolanda Yuan have nods for best performance.

The other nominees for best picture:

  • No Pudeo Vivir Sin Ti (I can't leave without you) by Taiwanese actor-turned-director Leon Dai.
  • Cow by China's Guan Hu.
  • Crazy Racer by China's Ning Hao.
  • Face by Malaysian-Chinese director Tsai Ming-liang.

Cow, shown at the Venice film festival this year, is about a Chinese peasant and a Dutch cow who are the only survivors from the massacre of an entire village during the Sino-Japanese War. The film earned seven nominations, including best director of Hu, and best actor for little-known Huang Bo.

Dai's No Pudeo Vivir Sin Ti, a father-daughter story set in Taiwan, has eight nominations. Like Face, a film about the Salome myth filmed at the Louvre in Paris, it is an arthouse film. Only fast-paced action flick Crazy Racer had wide commercial appeal.

The jury overlooked many of the year's blockbusters, including Jackie Chan's Shinjuku Incident, John Woo's historical epic Red Cliff II and the biopic of Bruce Lee's kung fu teacher, Ip Man.

However, the best actress competition features two of China's most popular actresses — Zhou Xun and Li Bingbing — both nominated for their performances in spy drama The Message (Feng Sheng). Also nominated for best actress is Sandrine Pinna, in Yang Yang.

The Message, set in 1942 Nanjing, has nominations for best screen adaptation, best visual effects and best art direction.

Best actor nominees include Chen Wen-pin in No Pudeo Vivir Sin Ti and Nick Cheung in The Beast Stalker.

Oscar-winning director Ang Lee will be a presenter at the Golden Horse gala, as will Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung.