Tepenin Ardi (Beyond the Hill, Turkey/Greece) has taken out the Best Feature Film award at the sixth Asia Pacific Screen Awards, held on Friday night in Brisbane.
Over 700 Australian and international guests attended the event, which took place at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre.
Australia, which was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film for Happy Feet 2, lost out to the Japanese film Momo E No Tegami (A Letter to Momo).
Awards and High Commendations were awarded to multiple countries and areas of Asia Pacific including India, Indonesia, Iraqi-Kurdistan, Israel, Japan, People's Republic of China, Philippines, Republic of Korea and Taiwan, and for the first time, Iraq, which took out the Best Documentary Feature Film Award for In My Mother’s Arms.
Japanese composer, actor and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto received the 2012 APSA FIAPF award for Outstanding Achievement in Film in the Asia Pacific region. An Oscar®, Grammy® and two-time Golden Globe® winner for his film compositions, Ryuichi Sakamoto personally accepted the award at the ceremony.
The UNESCO Award for outstanding contribution to the promotion and preservation of cultural diversity through film went to director Wei Te-sheng and producers John Woo, Terence Chang and Jimmy Huang for their Taiwanese film Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale.
The APSAs are an initiative of the Queensland Government, Australia through Events Queensland, are endorsed by UNESCO and are in collaboration with FIAPF-International Federation of Film Producers Associations. The association acclaims films from 70 countries and areas in Asia Pacific, an area that produces half the world's film. Films are judged on cinematic excellence and the way in which they attest to their cultural origins.