TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — A Chinese film set during the COVID-19 pandemic has won top prizes at Taiwan’s prestigious Golden Horse Awards, which has welcomed the highest number of Chinese entries in recent years despite political tensions.

Beijing banned its artists from joining Golden Horse – nicknamed the Oscars in the Chinese language – in 2019 after a Taiwanese director expressed support for the island’s independence in a 2018 acceptance speech.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, which the Taipei government rejects, and since then Chinese stars and major commercial productions have largely avoided the event.

Despite the sensitivity of the awards, more than 200 Chinese films entered the competition this year, which Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said was the highest number in recent years.

Famous Chinese filmmaker Lou Ye was awarded the best director prize on Saturday evening for his docu-fiction. An unfinished filmwhich was also named Best Picture.

Lou was absent from the ceremony, but his wife Ma Yingli read his acceptance speech, describing filming during China’s Wuhan lockdown at the start of the pandemic as “the most special directing job I have ever do “.

Hong Kong’s Chung Suet-ying was named best actress for her role in Our way of speakingwhich concerns the deaf community.

After several years of absence, Chinese stars began returning to awards ceremonies in Taipei last year, with actress Hu Ling the first to walk the red carpet since the ban.

On Saturday, Geng Jun and some of his actors were among the few Chinese artists to join stars and filmmakers from across the region, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan, on the red carpet.

While Geng missed out on the Best Director and Best Picture awards, his film Bel Ami won the awards for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing.

Despite political tensions, Golden Horse has remained a stage for independent Chinese films that have no distribution space on the mainland, Taiwanese film critic Wonder Weng told AFP.

“This spirit remains unchanged. I think the Golden Horse Awards have always insisted on being an open benchmark for all topics, said Weng, a board member of the Taiwan Film Critics Society.

Lou’s latest offering concerns a film crew trying to resume filming a film during the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, as the city was placed in an unprecedented lockdown.

“Lou has inserted banned or blocked images into his work and reminds us that there is a filmmaker willing to preserve historic images for us to see…and let us know there is a different voice,” Weng said.