"Protégé" and "The Warlords" dominated the nominations, announced Saturday, for the annual Hong Kong Film Awards.

With Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution" ruled out as not having enough Hong Kong elements, the Derek Yee- helmed "Protégé" collected 15 nominations against Peter Chan's "Warlords" with 13. Both pics, plus Ann Hui's "The Postmodern Life of my Aunt," which was recently named the Hong Kong critics fave (Variety, Jan 24,) "Johnnie To's "Mad Detective" and Yau Na Hoi's "Eye in the sky" all compete for best film kudos.

Helmers of all five best film contenders also compete for the best director award.

Awards, which receive a HK$3.08 million ($400,000) grant from the new Film Development Fund, will be held on April 17.