Chinese action film Operation Red Sea, directed by Dante Lam, was the biggest winner at the 34th People's Hundred Flowers Awards in Foshan, South China's Guangdong province, on Nov 10, nabbing five awards.

The Hundred Flowers Awards, created by the China Film Association in 1962, are considered the most prestigious film awards in Chinese mainland, along with the Golden Rooster Awards.

Dante Lam, a native of Wuchuan and a major figure of Chinese action cinema, garnered the Best Director award. Du Jiang, Jiang Luxia, and Wang Yutian took the Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Newcomer awards, respectively, for their performances in Operation Red Sea.

Dante Lam garners the Best Director award at the 34th People's Hundred Flowers Awards in Foshan on Nov 10. [Photo by Deng Hua/Xinhua]

The film tells the story of a rescue mission by an eight-member task team from the Chinese Navy's elite special forces. They helped Chinese and foreign nationals evacuate from Yemen's southern port of Aden during the Yemeni civil war in 2015, while also foiling a terrorist plot to obtain nuclear materials to make bombs.

Many of the shooting locations were in Zhanjiang, as it is home to the South China Sea Fleet's command center.

The Spring Festival box office hit has grossed 3.6 billion yuan ($579 million), the second-highest-grossing movie ever in China. The film was also selected as the Hong Kong entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards.