Festival des trois continents
Hou's fifth feature film was "A Summer at Grandpa's" (1984), which won a Best Director award for Hou at the 1984 Asia-Pacific Film Festival and the Golden Montgolfiere award (tied with "The Runner" (1984)) at the 1985 Nantes Three Continents Festival, and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention at the 1985 Locarno International Film Festival. The film was also nominated for a Best Child Star (Chi-Kuang Wang) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Chu T’ien-wen) at the 1984 Golden Horse Film Festival. The film also starred fellow New Taiwanese filmmaker Edward Yang in a brief role, with Yang returning the favor by casting Hou in his film "Taipei Story" (1985).