The nominations for this years Golden Horse Academy Awards have finally been announced.

The awards show is very much Taiwans version of the Oscars, and is regarded by many as one of the most prestigious Asian movie awards around.

China have won the last two ‘Best Film‘ awards (2008 – The WarLords, 2007 – Lust, Caution).

This year China has two entries in the Best Film category – “Cow” and “Crazy Racer”,  but its Taiwans very own ‘No puedo vivir sin ti‘ which is favourite for this award after the films successes at the recent Taipei Film Festival and Japans D-Cinema Festival.

Ang Lee (Lust,Caution) Winning the 2007 Best Film Award

Other notable nominees include Li Bingbing and Zhou Xun both going up against each other for the Best Actress Award from the movie ‘The Message‘,

Daniel Wu (Like a Dream) and Nick Cheung (Beast Stalker) are up for Best Actor, and the fantastic ‘City of Life and Death’ is up for Best Cinematography

Nick Cheung (Best Actor Nominee) - Beast Stalker

Daniel Wu (Best Actor Nominee) - Like a Dream

Nominees for the Major Awards

Best feature film
“No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti”
“Cow”
“Crazy Racer”
“Face”
“Like a Dream”
Best director
Leon Dai, “No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti”
Guan Hu “Cow”
Tsai Ming-liang, “Face”
Clara Law, “Like a Dream”

Best actress
Sandrine Pinna, “Yang Yang”
Yolanda Yuan, “Like a Dream”
Zhou Xun, “The Message”
Li Bingbing, “The Message”

Best actor
Chen Wen-pin, “No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti”
Nick Cheung, “The Beast Stalker”
Huang Bo, “Cow”
Daniel Wu, “Like a Dream”

Best supporting actress
Liou Yiin-shang, “Sleeping with Her”
Lu Yi-ching, “A Place of One’s Own”
Wai Ying-hung “At the End of Daybreak”
Zhang Ziyi, “Forever Enthralled”

Best supporting actress
Cai Zhen-nan, “Ending Cut”
Huang Chien-wei, “Yang Yang”
Zhang Han-yu, “The Equation of Love and Death”
Wang Xueqi, “Forever Enthralled”

The Awards show takes place on 28th November 2009.

Who are your picks to scoop the major prizes this year?

Click here for a full list of nominees