"Drive My Car" and "A Hero" lead Asia Pacific Screen Awards nominations

by Nathaniel R

This season's Japanese and Iranian Oscar submissions, Drive My Car and A Hero respectively, now lead the nominations for the 14th annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA). These awards consider 70 countries and areas that together represent billions of people and half of the world's film production. Their nominations are heavy with titles that debut at Cannes this year and many of the titles are also Oscar submissions this season from their respective countries.  

The complete list of nominees is after the jump...

BEST FEATURE FILM

• A Hero (Iran)
• A Night of Knowing Nothing (India)
• Drive My Car (Japan)
• The Pencil (Russia)
• There is No Evil (Iran)

A Hero and Drive My Car are two of the buzziest titles for Oscar's International Feature. 

BEST YOUTH FEATURE FILM

• Brother’s Keeper (Turkey)
• Moving On (South Korea)
• Scales (Saudi Arabia) an Oscar submission last season
• Voices in the Wind (Japan)
• When Pomegranates Howl (Australia) Australia's Oscar submission

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Fortune Favors Lady Kikuko

• Beauty Water (South Korea)
• Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko (Japan) 
• The Knight and The Princess (Saudi Arabia / Egypt)
• The Nose or The Conspiracy of Mavericks (Russia)
• Where is Anne Frank (Belgium)

The Nose or The Conspiracy of Mavericks was Oscar eligible last season in Best Animated Feature (though it wasn't nominated). The others weren't on thae 2020 list so perhaps they will be this season. 

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM

• Gorbachev. Heaven (Latvia)
• Miguel’s War (Lebanon)
• Sabaya (Sweden)
• The Devil’s Drivers (Lebanon/Qatar)
• Writing With Fire (India)

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING

• Asghar Farhadi, A Hero 
• Dea Kulumbegashvili, Beginning
• Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car
• P.S. Vinothraj, Pebbles
• Kamila Andini, Yuni

All five of the nominees for direction are for films submitted to the Oscars for Best International Feature Film, though one of them (Georgia's Beginning) was part of last season's record-breaking submission list.

BEST SCREENPLAY

DRIVE MY CAR won Screenplay at Cannes

• A Hero (Iran)
• Careless Crime (Iran)
• Drive My Car (Japan)
• Here We Are (Israel)
• Sughra’s Sons (Azerbaijan)

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY

• A New Old Play (Hong Kong)
• Anatomy of Time (Thailand)
• Pebbles (India) --India's Oscar submission
• Taste (Vietnam)
• Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash (Indonesia) 

You might remember that Vengeance is Mine was the Golden Leopard winner at Locarno this year.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS

• Alena Yiv, Asia (last year's Israeli Oscar submission)
• Azmeri Haque Badhon, Rehana (this year's Bangladeshi Oscar submission)
• Valentina Romanova-Chyskyyray, Scarecrow
• Leah Purcell, The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson
• Essie Davis, The Justice of Bunny King

 We're always here for Essie Davis nominations!

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR

• Amir Jadid, A Hero (Iran's Oscar submission)
• Levan Tediashvili, Brighton 4th (Georgia's Oscar submission)
• Hidetoshi Nishijima, Drive My Car (Japan's Oscar submission)
• Merab Ninidze, House Arrest 
• Caleb Landry Jones, Nitram

Caleb Landry Jones won Best Actor at Cannes though Nitram still has no US release date that we know of. 

Comments

[Abe Friedtanzer]

Glad to see that Sabaya, a very worthwhile documentary, is on this list. Also very happy for Essie Davis, who was terrific in her film, and Alena Yiv.

Beginning was brutal and difficult to get into.