Tim Winton’s The Turning has been nominated for best feature film in the 7th annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA).
In his first lead role in Ivan Sen’s Mystery Road, Aaron Pedersen scored a nomination for best performance by an actor.
Mandy Walker is in contention for the achievement in in cinematography gong for John Curran’s Tracks, the first Australian nomination in this category in APSA’s history.
New Zealand film Shopping, produced by Aussies Anna McLeish and Sarah Shaw of Warp Films, is in the running for best children’s feature.
Peter O’Brien plays the lead in Malaysian feature Almayer's Folly (Hanyut), whose writer/director U-Wei Bin Hajisaari is up for best screenplay.
Some 39 films from 21 Asia Pacific countries will compete in the awards which will be presented on December 12 in Brisbane’s City Hall.
Other nominees for best film are Asgha Farhadi’s The Past, Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Like Father, Like Son, Cannes Un Certain Regard Grand Jury Prize winner Omar (Palestine), Bangladesh’s submission for the 86th Academy Awards® Television, and Sri Lankan auteur Prasanna Vithanage’s With You, Without You.
Also competing for the achievement in cinematography award are Ehab Assal (Omar), Murat Aliyev (The Old Man, Kazakhstan), Lu Yue (Back to 1942, People’s Republic of China) and Rajeev Ravi (Monsoon Shootout, India, UK, Netherlands).
In the best performance by an actor category Pedersen is competing against Korea's Lee Byung-hun for Masquerade,Tatsuya Nakadai for Tragedy (Japan), Yerbolat Toguzakov (The Old Man) and Adam Bakri (Omar).
Nominees automatically become members of the APSA Academy led by Academy President Jack Thompson.
Winners in the feature film categories will be determined by the APSA International Jury headed by Indian screenwriter and director Shyam Benegal, including Korean screenwriter and director Kim Tae-yong, Sri Lankan actress Malani Fonseka, Turkish actor Tamer Levent, Swiss director Christoph Schaub and Hong Kong producer Albert Lee.
The International Jury can at its discretion award the Jury Grand Prize, for which nominated narrative feature films are eligible.
Two other major awards will be presented: 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 honours a practitioner from the region whose career and actions contribute strongly to the development of the film industry.
The APSA NETPAC Development Prize of US$10,000 will be awarded to a first or second time feature filmmaker. This emerging talent prize is supported by APSA and the Griffith Film School, Griffith University.
View the full list of 2013 APSA Nominees at: http://www.asiapacificscreenacademy.com/2013/11/2013-asia-pacific-screen-awards-nominees/