Films from Australia and New Zealand made in the Asia Pacific region feature strongly in competition for the 7th annual 2013 Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA). Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk announced the close of entries for the competition today alongside the International Nominations Council who have arrived in Brisbane to deliberate ahead of this year’s nominee announcement in November.
With an incredibly strong line-up of more than 230 films from 41 countries and areas, including Academy Award® Best Foreign Language Film submissions from an unprecedented 19 countries, the 2013 competition reinforces the Awards’ position as the region’s highest accolade in film, recognising and promoting the cinematic excellence and cultural diversity of the vast Asia Pacific.
Of the Australian and New Zealand films vying for nominations, four films have been made in the Asia Pacific region: Amiel Courtin Wilson’s Venice Special Orizzonti Jury Prize winner Ruin, set in Cambodia in both Khmer and English; Kim Mordaunt’s The Rocket, set in Laos and in Lao, already a major award winner both in Australia and at the Berlin and Tribeca Film Festivals and Australia’s official entry for the Academy Awards®; Aaron Wilson’s Australia/Singapore co-production Canopy, which recently had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and screened at the Busan International Film Festival in October. From New Zealand is Andrew Adamson’s Mr Pip, set in Papua New Guinea.
They join Australian films set firmly on Australian soil including John Curran’s Tracks, Catriona McKenzie’s Satellite Boy, Ivan Sen’s Mystery Road and Robert Connolly’s The Turning.
Films from New Zealand include Dana Rotberg’s White Lies, New Zealand’s Foreign Language Film submission for the 86th Academy Awards®, as well as Tearepa Kahi’s Mount Zion, and Shopping, from directing duo Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland and Australian based producers Anna McLeish and Sarah Shaw.
Features in competition include films from acclaimed first time feature filmmakers such as Singapore’s Anthony Chen (Ilo, Ilo) and Australia’s Kim Mordaunt (The Rocket) who will compete alongside many of the world’s leading auteurs, including Hong Kong’s Wong Kar Wai (The Grandmaster), India’s Anurag Kashyap (Ugly), Japan’s Hayao Miyazaki (The Wind Rises) and Hirokazu Kore Eda (Like Father, Like Son), as well as Kim Ki Duk (Moebius) from the Republic of Korea and Asghar Farhadi (The Past) from the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Features in competition for 2013 include films not only awarded within their own countries and areas, but also at the world’s leading film festivals beyond Asia Pacific, with the line-up including multiple award winners from Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, Sundance, Venice and Tribeca.
The Middle Eastern countries encompassed by the Asia Pacific region have a particularly strong number of entries this year, from countries and areas including Iraqi Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and the Palestinian Territories. The Islamic Republic of Iran alone sees four grand masters of cinema in the competition, APSA Academy members Asghar Farhadi (The Past), Jafar Panahi (Closed Curtain), Mohammad Rasoulof (Manuscripts Don’t Burn) and Mohsen Makhmalbaf (The Gardener).
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk wished filmmakers the best of luck in this year’s Awards.
“This is a very exciting part of the Awards process, and I looking forward to announcing the 2013 nominees. It will be our great pleasure to welcome the nominees to Brisbane in December for this extremely prestigious international event”.
APSA Executive Chairman Michael Hawkins is thrilled by the final competition.
“The films competing in 2013 are as strong and diverse as ever. It is an impressive representation of the strength of filmmaking in Asia Pacific. The films in competition this year reaffirm that these filmmakers are deserving of an award of their own.”
Director of the APSA Awards Competition Maxine Williamson agreed this year’s competition is outstanding.
“It’s extremely satisfying to see the competition line up get even stronger year after year, and what is particularly rewarding in 2013 is the healthy number of entries received from the thriving APSA Academy, testament to the ever-growing strength of the Awards.”
In addition to the many entries from APSA Academy members, the completed 2011 MPA APSA Academy Film Fund project, Maryam Ebrahimi’s documentary feature film No Burqas Behind Bars, has also entered in competition, and is the third completed film fund project to enter the competition.
The 2013 International Nominations Council has assembled in Brisbane this week to determine the nominees in the six feature film 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 2013 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;
• Jeanette Paulson Hereniko (Hawaii), the founder of the Hawaii International Film Festival, a founding board member of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC), and a former film festival juror at Berlin, Rotterdam, Busan, Singapore and Mumbai;
• Kathryn Weir (Australia), head curator of the Australian Cinémathèque and also Head Curator of International Contemporary Art at Queensland’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA);
• Meenakshi Shedde (India), an independent film curator, film festival consultant, film critic, film director and journalist who is the India Consultant to the Berlin and Dubai Film Festivals;
• Producer Peggy Chiao (Taiwan), the former chairperson of the prestigious Golden Horse Film Festival, and the pioneer who cultivated the co-production of films among China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan;
• Philip Cheah (Singapore), film critic, Vice-President of NETPAC and program consultant for the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival, Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival, South-east Asian Film Festival, Shanghai International Film Festival, Dubai International Film Festival and the Asia Pacific Films website; and
• Director of the APSA Awards Competition Maxine Williamson (Australia).
Winners in the feature film categories will be determined by the 2013 APSA International Jury, headed by esteemed Indian screenwriter and director Shyam Benegal, who will lead a group of accomplished Jury members including Korean screenwriter and director Kim Tae-yong, “Queen of Sri Lankan Cinema” actress of stage and screen Hon Dr Malani Fonseka, Turkish actor Tamer Levent, Swiss director Christoph Schaub and Hong Kong producer Albert Lee. The International Jury can also, at its discretion, present a further prize: the Jury Grand Prize, for which nominated feature films are eligible.
Winners of the Documentary Feature Film, Animated Feature Film and Children’s Feature Film categories will be peer-voted by the APSA Academy members.
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 which celebrates a film practitioner from the region whose career and actions contribute strongly to the development of the film industry. The APSA NETPAC Development Prize of US$5,000 will also be awarded.
The 2013 Asia Pacific Screen Awards ceremony will be held in Brisbane's historic City Hall on Thursday 12 December at a glittering event, with nominees and industry luminaries in attendance.
The Asia Pacific Screen Awards are managed by economic development board Brisbane Marketing in a unique collaboration with Paris-based UNESCO and FIAPF-International Federation of Film Producers Associations.
The Awards are the Asia Pacific region’s highest accolade in film, recognising and promoting cinematic excellence and cultural diversity of the world’s fastest growing film region: comprising 70 countries and areas, 4.5 billion people, and responsible for half of the world’s film output.
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