Poster for Better Days Photo: IC

The film Better Days earned 12 nominations at the 39th Hong Kong Film Awards, becoming potentially the biggest winner at the upcoming festival, according to the newly released nomination list from the Hong Kong Film Awards on Wednesday. 

Lead actress Zhou Dongyu was nominated for the Best Actress award, and actor Yi Yangqianxi, better known as Jackson Yee, was nominated for both Best Actor and Best New Performer. 

Many Chinese netizens sent their congratulations to the film's crew on China's twitter-like Sina Weibo.

"Better Days is one of my favorite films. It might create history at the Hong Kong Film Awards, just like Parasite at this year's Oscars ceremony," one Chinese netizen posted on Weibo. 

The film is based on school bullying and achieved box office takings of 1.53 billion yuan ($227.3 million), ranking 9th in the mainland box office in 2019. It also earned a high score of 8.3/10 on leading review website Douban. 

The chairman of the Hong Kong Film Awards also announced Wednesday that the physical awards ceremony will be canceled due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, and the awards ceremony will be changed into the form of recording and broadcasting. 

The ceremony is scheduled to be held at the Kowloonbay International Trade & Exhibition Centre on April 19, accoridng to reports.