China’s Huading Awards in Los Angeles Draws Johnny Depp, Bryce Dallas Howard

Johnny Depp, Mel Gibson, Wiz Khalifa, Bryce Dallas Howard, Hilary Swank and Sylvester Stallone are among the Hollywood stars set to take part in Los Angeles’ latest addition to awards season.

The actors are set to attend China’s Huading Awards, to be held at L.A.’s Ace Hotel on Thursday. But before awards analysts start wondering whether they have to factor an odd-ball variable into their Oscars prediction formulas, it’s worth noting the Chinese award show’s unique history and content.

Mel Gibson

The Huading Awards dishes out honors to talent from all fields of entertainment, from stage theater to film, pop music to TV, and even traditional Chinese opera. The film categories, crucially, hand out honors to movies from the year prior, so titles like The Martian, Fast & Furious 7 and Avengers: Age of Ultron are among the nominees in the show’s best global picture category this year (nominations tend to have a populist bent). No word if Robert Downey Jr or any of the other Avengers are slated to attend at press time.

The Huading Awards were founded in 2007 by Chinese entertainment company Tianxia Yingcai Cultural Media. Nominees are selected by committee and the winners are chosen by popular vote over the award show’s website and other Chinese internet portals.

Unlike other awards ceremonies, the location of the Huading Awards is not fixed; previous editions have been held in Macau, Hong Kong and Mainland China. The awards honor stars from around the world and previous winners include Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Irons, Quentin Tarantino, Halle Berry and Chris Hemsworth.