Dear You's Jury Award and Li Sitong's Best Actress Win

The Jury Award and Best Film had different recipients

The closing ceremony announced ten Golden Deer award categories. Dear You received the Jury Award; Best Film went to De Xian Jin Zhi (得闲谨制). This and the other Chinese film titles below are given in pinyin, not as official English release titles. China News Service listed the two results separately; Southcn and Yangcheng Evening News also reported Dear You's award. Jury Award is not another name for Best Film.

The same list offers a useful comparison: Guo Sida received Best Music for De Xian Jin Zhi (得闲谨制). A film's awards record can therefore include recognition of the work as a whole and of an individual contributor. Dear You's Jury Award and Li Sitong's Best Actress win should likewise be listed separately, preserving both achievements without turning the performance prize into a second award to the film itself.

Li Sitong on the role that marked her screen debut

Southcn identified Xie Nanzhi as Li's screen-debut role. That gives the Best Actress result a specific career context: her work in Dear You marked her arrival on screen and brought a performance award. Debut describes her experience, however, not the award category. The reported honor was Best Actress, not a newcomer prize.

China News Service recorded Li's remarks after she received the award. She said characters have imperfections, including Nanzhi, and argued that realism allows viewers to recognize people from their own lives. This was her understanding of the role and its connection to an audience, not a claim that Nanzhi was a flawless person.

Yangcheng Evening News offered a different perspective, describing restraint in Li's performance and endurance and gentleness in the character. The performer's explanation and the reporter's assessment can be read together, but neither should be presented as the jury's published citation. On a rewatch, they offer two ways to examine Nanzhi: the character's connection to everyday life and the restraint of the performance.

Ten award categories did not mean ten individual winners

Some categories had joint winners. Jiang Qiming for Fei Xing Jia (飞行家) and Tan Jianci for Zhen Er Yu Long (震耳欲聋) both received Best Actor; Yuan Heping received Best Director for Biao Ren: Feng Qi Da Mo (镖人：风起大漠). These results place Dear You's honors within the same awards ceremony. They also show why ten categories cannot simply be converted into ten people or ten films.

Best Screenplay went jointly to Yu Shui and Liu Jia for Lang Lang Shan Xiao Yao Guai (浪浪山小妖怪), and Hu Xiaoxi and Zhang Disha for Qun Xing Shan Yao Shi (群星闪耀时). An awards list needs to keep each creator, film, and category together. Counting names or film titles in isolation does not reconstruct the results accurately: this category alone connects four named writers with two works.

What the sixteen-film and ninety-three-film counts measure

China News Service reported sixteen films shortlisted for Golden Deer selection. Southcn and Yangcheng Evening News described ninety-three films participating in the festival's screenings and awards activities. The first number concerns the awards shortlist; the second covers the wider event. Neither means that all ninety-three films were shortlisted, or that only sixteen films participated in the festival.

The festival's official theme was ‘New Era, New Cradle, New Forces.’ China News Service also placed the event in its local film-history context: it described Changchun as the birthplace of cinema in New China and the festival as the first national-level film festival in New China named after a city. These details add background about the host city and the event beyond the awards results.