Iconic Hong Kong actor Ekin Cheng will receive the Star Asia Award at NYAFF 2025. The honor celebrates his remarkable 37-year career across film, music, and television. Coinciding with the North American premiere of Cheng’s newest feature, Last Song For You, a stirring expression of grief, memory, and midlife reflection, the festival is also hosting a special retrospective 35mm screening of one of his earliest hits, Andrew Lau’s Young and Dangerous (1996), marking its 30th anniversary. Cheng made his acting debut in the film as a teenager, and it shot him to film stardom, as well as launching a franchise. He went on to star in more than 60 films, including fantasy epics The Storm Riders (1998) and A Man Called Hero (1999), romantic comedies like My Wife Is 18 (2002),_ _and dark thrillers like Rule Number One (2008), for which he won Best Actor at Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, and blockbuster Golden Job (2018, $22.7M China opening), which reunited the cast from the Young and Dangerous series. Cheng’s storied career spans genre-defining films even as he’s continued performing in sold-out concert tours around the world.

Hong Kong actress Natalie Hsu will receive the Screen International Rising Star Award at NYAFF 2025 for her brief but astonishing career, which immediately established her as a talent to watch. Natalie made her film debut in the musical comedy The Day We Lit Up the Sky in 2021, and went on to appear in such commercially and critically acclaimed titles as Sasha Chuk’s Fly Me to the Moon (NYAFF 2024), the Andy Lau-starring _Cesium Fallou_t, Nick Cheung’s Peg O’ My Heart, and Dante Lam’s Bursting Point. She will present two very special new films at NYAFF 2025: Chong Keat Aun’s Pavane for an Infant and Jill Leung’s Last Song for You, for which she received a Best Actress nomination at the Hong Kong Film Awards. She will reunite with Chong Keat Aun for the upcoming drama Mother Bhumi, which stars Fan Bingbing.

Jill Leung is a Hong Kong screenwriter and emerging filmmaker. He has worked as a screenwriter on renowned franchise sequels such as Soi Cheang’s _SPL II: A Time for Consequences (aka Kill Zone 2,_ 2015) and Ip Man 3 (2015), and has worked for several years alongside Wilson Yip. Last Song for You, which he is presenting at NYAFF 2025, is his first feature as a director.