Foreign Language Film Contenders Lead Asia Pacific Screen Awards

Some of the year’s most buzzed-about festival titles and Oscar contenders are among the nominees for this year’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards. APSA is similar to the EFAs except awarding films from across the Asia Pacific. Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters, Japan’s submission to the Oscars, leads with three nominations followed by Burning from South Korea and Nadine Labaki's Lebanese legal drama Capharnaum each with two

Other Oscar submissions this year that snagged nominations include the Cannes best actress winner Akya from Kazakhstan, the queer drama Malila: The Farewell Flower that is Thailand’s entry and India’s child musical Village Rockstars.

Other big festival hits from the nominations across 11 categories include Venice Film Festival award winners Manta Ray from Thailand and The River from Kazakhstan, which Nathaniel raved about. Locarno’s big prize winner, a Singaporean cop drama called A Land Imagined is also there, as is Jia Zhang-ke’s Ash is Purest White from Cannes.

Considering the wide scope of the region, the most surprising nominee is no doubt Rooney Mara for Mary Magdalene. The bible movie from Lion director Garth Davis hasn’t received an American release as a casualty of the fallout from the Weinstein Company’s collapse. Other recognisable names include Payman Maadi, the male star of Asghar Farhadi's A Separation and About Elly, nominated for writing Bomb, A Love Story (which he also directs and stars in), two-time Oscar nominee Bruce Beresford for directing Ladies in Black, and British composer Harry Gregson-Williams (Shrek, Chronicles of Narnia) for the score of Breath, Simon Baker's debut as director.

Winners will be announced on the 29^th of November. Here is the full list of nominees.

BEST FEATURE FILM

Shoplifters has miraculously natural child actors

Balangiga: Howling Wilderness
Philippines
Directed by Khavn DE LA CRUZ
Produced by Achinette VILLAMOR, Khavn DE LA CRUZ, Edong CANLAS

Burning
Republic of Korea
Directed by LEE Chang-dong
Produced by LEE Joon-dong, LEE Chang-dong

The Gentle Indifference of the World (Laskovoe Bezrazlichie Mira)
Kazakhstan, France
Directed by Adilkhan YERZHANOV
Produced by Serik ABISHEV, Olga KHLASHEVA

Manta Ray (Kraben Rahu)
Thailand, People’s Republic of China, France
Directed by Phuttiphong AROONPHENG
Produced by Mai MEKSAWAN, Philippe AVRIL, Jakrawal NILTHAMRONG, Chatchai CHAIYON

Shoplifters (Manbiki Kazoku)
Japan
Directed by KORE-EDA Hirokazu
Produced by MATSUZAKI Kaoru, YOSE Akihiko, TAGUCHI Hijiri

BEST YOUTH FEATURE FILM

Ava
Islamic Republic of Iran, Qatar, Canada
Directed by by Sadaf FOROUGHI
Produced by Kiarash ANVARI, Sadaf FOROUGHI

Nervous Translation
Philippines
Directed by Shireen SENO
Produced by John TORRES

Passage of Life (Boku no kaeru basho)
Japan, Myanmar
Directed by Akio FUJIMOTO
Produced by Kazutaka WATANABE, Fumito YOSHIDA

The Pigeon (Güvercin)
Turkey
Directed by Banu SIVACI
Produced by Banu SIVACI, Mesut ULUTAŞ

Village Rockstars
India
Directed by Rima DAS
Produced by Rima DAS

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Will we see Hoffmanaida or these others show up in the Oscar eligibility list for Animated Feature?

Hoffmaniada
Russian Federation
Directed by Stanislav SOKOLOV
Produced by Yuliana SLASHCHEVA, Boris MASHKOVTSEV, Nikolai MAKOVSKY, Sergei STRUSOVSKY

Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms (Sayonara no asa ni yakusoku no hana o kazarô)
Japan
Directed by Mari OKADA
Produced by Naoko ENDO, Tomomi KYOTANI, Nobuhiro TAKENAKA, Nobuhiro KIKUCHI 

Mirai (Mirai no Mirai)
Japan
Directed by Mamoru HOSODA
Produced by Yuichiro SAITO, Takuya ITO, Yuichi Adachi, Genki KAWAMURA

On Happiness Road (Hsing Fu Lu Shang)
Taiwan
Directed by SUNG Hsin-Yin
Produced by Sylvia FENG

Rezo (Znaesh’, mama, gde ya byl)
Russian Federation
Directed by Leo GABRIADZE
Produced by Timur BEKMAMBETOV

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM

Amal
Egypt, Lebanon, Qatar, France, Germany, Norway, Denmark
Directed by Mohamed SIAM
Produced by Myriam SASSINE, Mohamed SIAM

Gurrumul
Australia
Directed by Paul Damien WILLIAMS
Produced by Shannon SWAN

Of Fathers and Sons
Syrian Arab Republic, Lebanon, Qatar, Germany
Directed by Talal DERKI
Produced by Ansgar FRERICH, Eva KEMME, Tobias N. SIEBERT, Hans Robert EISENHAUER

Of Love & Law
Japan, United Kingdom, France
Directed by Hikaru TODA
Produced by Elhum SHAKERIFAR, Hikaru TODA

Up Down & Sideways (kho ki pa lü)
India
Directed by Anushka MEENAKSHI, Iswar SRIKUMAR
Produced by Manas MALHOTRA

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING

Nadine LABAKI for Capharnaüm
Lebanon

Bruce BERESFORD for Ladies in Black
Australia

Emir BAIGAZIN for The River (Ozen)
Kazakhstan, Norway, Poland

KORE-EDA Hirokazu for Shoplifters (Manbiki Kazoku)
Japan

Ivan AYR for Soni
India

BEST SCREENPLAY

Payman MAADI for Bomb, A Love Story (Bomb, Yek Asheghaneh)
Islamic Republic of Iran

OH Jung-mi, LEE Chang-dong for Burning
Republic of Korea

Adilkhan YERZHANOV, Roelof Jan MINNEBOO for The Gentle Indifference of the World (Laskovoe Bezrazlichie Mira)
Kazakhstan, France

KORE-EDA Hirokazu for Shoplifters (Manbiki Kazoku)
Japan

Dan KLEINMAN, Sameh ZOABI for Tel Aviv on Fire
Israel, Belgium, France, Luxembourg

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY

Malila is a gay drama and Thailand's Oscar submission

Saumyananda SAHI for Balekempa
India

Hideho URATA for A Land Imagined
Singapore, France, Netherlands

Nawarophaat RUNGPHIBOONSOPHIT for Manta Ray (Kraben Rahu)
Thailand, People’s Republic of China, France

Chaiyapruek CHALERMPORNPANIT for Malila: The Farewell Flower
Thailand

ZHANG Miaoyan, XU Zhiyong for Silent Mist
People’s Republic of China, France

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS

Ayka's lead actress won at Cannes, now nominated here

ZHAO Tao for Ash is Purest White (Jiang hu er nv)
People’s Republic of China, France

Samal YESLYAMOVA for Ayka
Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, People’s Republic of China, Germany, Poland

Rooney MARA for Mary Magdalene
Australia, United Kingdom

Damla SÖNMEZ for Sibel
Turkey, France, Germany, Luxembourg

Laura KOROLEVA for Sveta
Kazakhstan

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR

Zain AL RAFEEA for Capharnaüm
Lebanon

Karim MIRKHADIYEV for Fortitude (Sabot)
Uzbekistan

Nawazuddin SIDDIQUI for Manto
India

Akylbek ABDYKALYKOV for Night Accident (Tunku Kyrsyk)
Kyrgyzstan

Bahman FARMANARA for Tale of the Sea (Hekayat-e Darya)
Islamic Republic of Iran

CULTURAL DIVERSITY AWARD UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF UNESCO

Ala Changso
People’s Republic of China
Directed by Sonthar GYAL
Produced by Yungdrung GYAL

Balangiga: Howling Wilderness
Philippines
Directed by Khavn DE LA CRUZ
Produced by Achinette VILLAMOR, Khavn DE LA CRUZ, Edong CANLAS

The Lord Eagle (Toyon Kyyl)
Russian Federation
Directed by Eduard NOVIKOV
Produced by Dmitrii SHADRIN

Memories of My Body (Kucumbu Tubuh Indahku)
Indonesia
Directed by Garin NUGROHO
Produced by Ifa ISFANSYAH

The Taste of Rice Flower (Mi Hua Zhi Wei)
People’s Republic of China
Directed by Pengfei
Produced by Pengfei, LIU Jing, Rebecca HO

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Eléni KARAÏNDROU for Bomb, A Love Story (Bomb, Yek Asheghaneh)
Islamic Republic of Iran

Harry GREGSON-WILLIAMS for Breath
Australia

Hildur GUÐNADÓTTIR, Jóhann JÓHANNSSON for Mary Magdalene
Australia, United Kingdom

Ryan CAYABYAB for The Portrait (Ang Larawan)
Philippines

Omar FADEL for Yomeddine
Egypt

Comments

[Steve G]

It's refreshing but also very unusual that these awards always spread the wealth so that the top scorer only gets 3 nominations.

Imagine how many extra films would be nominated if the Oscars did this!

[Mirko]

I imagine SHOPLIFTERS is the one to beat...but I hope it will score (I'm also rooting regarding the Oscar, but with ROMA is something pratically impossible)