Robert Connolly’s Blueback and Richard Cussó and Tania Vincent’s animated fantasy feature Scarygirl are among the nominees for this year’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards, included in Best Animated Film and Best Youth Film categories, respectively.
Based on Australian artist Nathan Jurevicius’ popular graphic novels, Scarygirl follows Arkie, a young girl with one tentacle arm, who must leave the safety of her home to travel to a mysterious city of light to save her Octopus father from a powerful scientist and prevent the destruction of her planet.
The voice cast includes Jillian Nguyen, Sam Neill, Tim Minchin, Dylan Alcott, and Deborah Mailman, while the film, which will be released in cinemas via Madman October 26, is produced by Sophie Byrne, Kristen Souvlis, Nadine Bates, and Ryan Greaves.
Scarygirl will compete for the award alongside Tian Xiaopeng’s Deep Sea (People’s Republic of China), Takehiko Inoue’s The First Slam Dunk (Japan), Sepideh Farsi’s The Siren (France, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium) and Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume (Suzume no Tojimari, Japan).
Speaking about the nomination, Byrne said it was an honour to have the film selected from a large pool of world-class animated features.
“Scarygirl is the product of years of dedication from a small team of like-minded creatives and individuals,” she said.
“From my co-producers at Like A Photon Creative, our directors, our talented diverse voice cast, all crew, distributors, financiers, and ultimately Scarygirl‘s creator and production designer, Nathan Jurevicius, whose distinct and unique vision has resulted in the creation of a truly ‘one of a kind’ Australian animated feature film.”
Based on Tim Winton’s novel of the same name, Blueback stars Mia Wasikowska as Abby, a young ocean lover who befriends wild blue groper while diving, eventually leading her to team up with her activist mum to take on poachers when quiet reef in her coastal hometown is threatened by commercial fishing operators. The cast also includes Radha Mitchell and Eric Bana.
The Arenamedia production, which was released at the start of the year, will compete in the Best Youth Film category with Askhat Kuchinchirekov’s Bauryna Salu (Kazakhstan), Muayad Alayan’s A House in Jerusalem (Palestine, United Kingdom, Qatar, Netherlands, Germany), Hirokazu Koreeda’s Monster (Kaibutsu, Japan) and Amanda Nell Eu’s Tiger Stripes (Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, France, Germany, Netherlands, Indonesia, Qatar).
Connolly, who produced the film with James Grandison and Liz Kearney, said he was pleased to once again have his work recognised by the awards, having previously been nominated for The Turning in 2013.
“We are delighted to be nominated by the APSA Awards for Blueback, excited to be part of the community of films and filmmakers that the awards continue to champion throughout the Asia Pacific, and looking forward to joining this important celebration of diverse storytelling and cinema,” he said.
Blueback and Scarygirl are among 32 films from 17 Asia Pacific countries and areas to be nominated.
Vying for this year’s APSA Best Film Award are two Japanese films, Evil Does Not Exist from Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, as well as Pema Tseden’s Snow Leopard from the People’s Republic of China, Tinatin Kajrishvili’s Georgian story Citizen Saint and Qash from Kazakh director Aisultan Seitov.
It is one of four nods for Evil Does Not Exist, which is also up for Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Cinematography for Yoshio Kitagawa.
Early winners include Dominic Megam’s India and China co-production Rapture, which was awarded 16th APSA Cultural Diversity Award, while Phạm Thiên won the APSA Young Cinema Award for his Vietnamese-language film Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell.
The remaining awards will be announced on November 3 at Gold Coast’s HOTA (Home of the Arts).
Speaking about this year’s field, Asia Pacific Screen Academy chair Tracey Vieira acknowledged the posthumous nominations for Tseden and Ryuichi Sakamoto, both of whom passed away earlier this year.
“APSA would like to congratulate the first winners and all nominees for the 16th edition of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. As the region’s film industry flourishes, it is significant that almost half of the nominations this year go to first or second-time filmmakers, who are vying for the awards alongside some of the most celebrated filmmakers of our time,” she said.
“APSA would also like to take a moment to acknowledge the sad loss of two highly accoladed filmmakers, Pema Tseden and Ryuichi Sakamoto, APSA winners whose last works are nominated this year, and whose stories live on in their films, cherished around the world.”