Official competition for the eighth Asia Pacific Screen Awards has now closed with over 250 feature films from 42 Asia Pacific countries and areas in contention for the region’s highest accolade in film.
“Nominees will be revealed on 28 October with the winners then announced at the glittering APSA Ceremony on 11 December at Brisbane’s City Hall,” Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said today.
“The APSA competition includes the work of first-time feature directors alongside established masters and auteurs, films which have smashed box office records or won national awards in their domestic markets, and films which are already major festival award winners.”
“We also see two nations make their debut in APSA competition in 2014 with the first-ever feature films from their countries, Brunei Darussalam’s Yasmine and Timor-Leste’s A Guerra Da Beatriz (Beatriz’s War).
Quirk said 20 of the films in competition would represent their countries in the Best Foreign Language category of the 87th Academy Awards.
“The APSA competition once again reflects the excellence in cinema produced in this region,” he said.
New work from acclaimed filmmakers in this year’s competition includes
• Rolf de Heer (Charlie’s Country, Australia)
• George Ovashvili (Simindis kundzuli/Corn Island, Georgia),
• Hong Kong (PRC)’s Ann Hui (Huangjin Shidai/The Golden Era),
• Islamic Republic of Iran’s Rakhshan Banietemad (Ghesseha /Tales)
• Israel’s Ronit & Shlomi Elkabetz (Gett, The Trial of Viviane Amsalem),
• People’s Republic of China’s Diao Yinan (Bai Ri Yan Huo/Black Coal Thin Ice) and
• Zhang Yimou (Gui lai/Coming Home),
• Philippines’ Lav Diaz with two films (Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon/From What is Before & Norte, The End of History),
• Republic of Korea’s Im Kwon-taek (Hwajang/Revivre) and
• Hong Sangsoo (Jayueui onduk/Hill of Freedom),
• Russian Federation’s Alexey Fedorchenko (Angely Revolucii / Angels of Revolution) and Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviafan / Leviathan),
• Turkey’s Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Kis uykusu / Winter Sleep)
The APSA Competition also welcomes first time filmmakers with a strong cinematic voice already recognised through awards around the world include Egypt’s Ayten Amin (Villa 69), India’s Kanu Behl (Titli), Nagraj Manjule (Fandry) and Chaitanya Tamhane (Court), Islamic Republic of Iran’s Hooman Seyedi (Sizdah / 13), Israel’s Tayla Lavie (Zero Motivation), People’s Republic of China’s Vivian Qu (Trap Street), Republic of Korea’s July Jung (Dohee-Ya / A Girl at My Door), Turkey’s Kaan Mujdeci (Sivas) and Naji Abu Nowar with the Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, UK co-production Theeb.
Film Director – APSA, Maxine Williamson said “2014 has been a stellar year for Asia Pacific cinema with films from this region winning the top awards at the world’s A-list festivals including Cannes, Berlin, Karlovy Vary, Locarno, Venice, Sundance and Busan. I am thrilled to confirm the 2014 line-up features the highest number of documentaries and youth feature films APSA has ever had in competition – two categories which have a particularly strong and vital voice in telling the stories of this region.”
Asia Pacific Screen Awards Chairman Michael Hawkins welcomed the APSA International Nominations Council to Brisbane this week.
“It is with deep gratitude for the hard work ahead that I welcome the eminent Professor Hong-Joon Kim, now in his eighth year as Chair of the International Nominations Council, to Brisbane,” Mr Hawkins said.
“We are honoured to have Professor Kim here once again to steer the Nominations Council in determining the APSA nominees. Knowing the strength of films in competition this year I wish them well.”
The International Nominations Council will determine the nominees in the six feature film award categories of Best Feature Film, Achievement in Directing, Best Screenplay, Achievement in Cinematography, Best Performance by an Actress and Best Performance by an Actor.
The members of the 2014 International Nominations Council are:
• Professor Hong-Joon Kim (Republic of Korea), chairman of the International Nominations Council. A published author, award-winning director and screenwriter, Professor Kim is also a former Commissioner of the Korean Film Council and is a Film Professor at the Korean National University of Arts.
• Anne Demy-Geroe (Australia), Co-Director of the Iranian Film Festival in Australia and current NETPAC board member and teacher of Asia Pacific cinema at Griffith Film School. Former (inaugural) director of the Brisbane International Film Festival, a position she held for 19 years;
• Meenakshi Shedde (India), an independent film curator, film critic, film director and journalist who is the India Consultant to the Berlin Film Festival and has consulted to festivals including Venice, Toronto, Dubai and Locarno;
• Mohammad Atebbai (Islamic Republic of Iran), a film producer, director, author, journalist, European Documentary Network and NETPAC representative, and Managing Director of Iranian Independents, which markets and promotes Iranian films internationally;
• Philip Cheah (Singapore), film critic and editor of Singapore’s only independent pop culture publication BigO, Vice-President of NETPAC and program consultant for the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival, South-east Asian Film Festival, Shanghai International Film Festival and the Asia Pacific Films website;
• Wang Qun (People’s Republic of China), Researcher, China Film Art Research Centre, China Film Archive. A researcher of film theory, widely published author, and award-winning screenwriter. Member of the China Film Association and the Council of Beijing Film Association; and
• Maxine Williamson (Australia), Film Director, APSA & BAPFF with two decades of exhibition, distribution and festival experience. Currently a NETPAC member, and Asia Pacific Consultant to Antalya Film Forum in Turkey.
Winners in the feature film categories will be determined by the 2014 APSA International Jury, headed by esteemed Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, which can, at its discretion, present a further prize: the Jury Grand Prize, for which nominated feature films are eligible.
Documentary Feature Film, Animated Feature Film and Youth Feature Film category winners will be chosen by the Youth Animation Documentary Jury.
Two additional major awards for outstanding achievement will be presented at the ceremony – the UNESCO Award for outstanding contribution to the promotion and preservation of cultural diversity through film, and the FIAPF Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film.
Three streams of development funding are supported through the Asia Pacific Screen Academy.
• An award for emerging talent, the APSA NETPAC Development Prize of USD$10,000, proudly supported by the Griffith Film School, Griffith University, is awarded to a first or second time feature filmmaker in the narrative feature competition. The prize is awarded by the NETPAC Jury which in 2014 is Hong-Joon Kim, Mohammad Atebbai and Wang Qun.
• MPA APSA Academy Film Fund which awards USD$100,000 in development funds through four grants exclusive to APSA Academy members, supported wholly by the Motion Picture Association (MPA).
• APSA Academy Children’s Film Fund by 4 Boys Films is a development fund specifically for films for and about children of Asia Pacific, and exclusive to APSA Academy members.
APSA, proudly presented by Treasury Casino and Hotel, is an initiative of Brisbane City Council through Brisbane Marketing in collaboration with international partners UNESCO and FIAPF-International Federation of Film Producers Associations.
For more information, visit http://www.asiapacificscreenacademy.com/