Nick Cheuk

Graduate, School of Creative Media
Best New Director:
42nd Hong Kong Film Awards
17th Asian Film Awards
60th Golden Horse Awards

“Learning is not for passing exams, but for creating my dreams and goals. I will write a new chapter for local films.”

Nick Cheuk won the Best New Director award at the 60th Golden Horse Awards.

Nick shares his creative insights and experience at a director-sharing session on his movie Time Still Turns The Pages, held at CityUHK.

Nick will continue to explore a variety of themes in his movies and write a new chapter for Hong Kong films.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Media, majoring in Cinematic Arts in CityUHK’s School of Creative Media (SCM) in 2012, Nick Cheuk embarked on a career as a film screenwriter, relentlessly pursuing his filmmaking dream.

His directorial and screenwriting debut Time Still Turns the Pages resulted in Nick’s winning the Higher Education Institution Group at the 5th First Feature Film Initiative (FFFI) in 2019 and receiving funding from the Film Development Fund to implement his winning film proposal. In 2023, he won the Best New Director award and the Audience Choice Award at the 60th Golden Horse Awards for this feature film. In 2024, he has been honoured with the Best New Director award at the 17th Asian Film Awards and the 42nd Hong Kong Film Awards.

The award-winning film, Time Still Turns the Pages, is a family drama about a teacher who finds an unsigned suicide note in the classroom. To prevent a tragedy, he tries to identify the student, which triggers recollections of his own childhood memories. Nick was invited to share his creative insights and experience at a director-sharing session held at CityUHK in November 2023. He hoped to raise awareness about the suicide issue through the film, but said the filming approach had to avoid causing panic.

Nick has made a name for himself and has been active in the Hong Kong film industry since his early years. He won the Silver Award in the Open Category at the 18th Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards (ifva) with his final-year work Waiting to Drown in 2013. This success propelled him into the film industry, earning him a chance to be a co-scriptwriter of the movies Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight and Paradox.

Reflecting on his time at CityUHK, Nick recognised the crucial role it played in building a strong foundation for his career. "The School allowed us to subtly explore and develop our own creative process and equipped us to become successful filmmakers in the future," he said.

He expressed his heartfelt gratitude for the guidance of the SCM professors. “With the aim of nurturing all-round talent for the film industry, the School goes beyond teaching theoretical knowledge and helps students hone their thinking skills and the ability to engage in film appreciation and criticism,” he said.

Nick will continue to explore a variety of themes in his movies and will write a new chapter for Hong Kong films.

For more stories about our Heroes, please click here.