Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s latest feature, Evil Does Not Exist, leads this year’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) with four nods, including the gong for Best Film.
Hamaguchi’s nominations haul includes Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Cinematography for Yoshio Kitagawa. The film is Hamaguchi’s first film since his Oscar-winning Drive My Car and debuted at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The pic follows Takumi and his daughter Hana, who live in Mizubiki Village, close to Tokyo. Like generations before them, they live a modest life according to the cycles and order of nature. A plan to construct a glamping site near Takumi’s house, offering city residents a comfortable “escape” to nature, threatens to endanger the ecological balance of the area and the local people’s way of life.
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Also nominated in the Best Film category are Wim Wenders’s Perfect Days, Snow Leopard by Pema Tseden, Citizen Saint by Tinatin Kajrishvili, and Aisultan Seit’s Qas. Tseden’s Snow Leopard trails Hamaguchi with three overall nominations, including Best Screenplay, and Best Performance for Jinpa.
Elsewhere, Celine Song is nominated in the Best Director category for her debut feature, Past Lives. Song is nominated alongside Darkhan Tulegenov for Brothers (Bratya, Kazakhstan), Liang Ming for Carefree Days (Xiao yao you, People’s Republic of China), and Rima Das for Tora’s Husband (India).
Now in its second year, the ungendered Best Performance Award has five nominees. The nominees are Koji Yakusho for his role in Perfect Days, Mihaya Shirata for her role in Last Shadow at First Light, Mouna Hawa for Inshallah a Boy, and Zhou Dongyu for The Breaking Ice (Ran dong, People’s Republic of China), alongside Jinpa for Snow Leopard.
In the first round of winners at this year’s APSA’s, Rapture (Rimdogittanga), directed by Dominic Megam, has picked up the Cultural Diversity Award. A rare co-production between India and China, the Garo-language pic explores the politics of fear in a north-east Indian village, where the community fears kidnapping and the church prophesizes a period of apocalyptic darkness.
The APSA Young Cinema Award was picked up by Phạm Thiên Ân for his feature debut Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Bên Trong Vỏ Kén Vàng), a Vietnamese-language film journeying from urban to rural Vietnam to reunite a grieving family.
32 films from 17 Asia Pacific countries and areas are nominated for at this year’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards, with films from Japan receiving 11 nominations and films from the People’s Republic of China receiving nine nominations. Check out the full list of nominees below.
16th ASIA PACIFIC SCREEN AWARDS – WINNERS
CULTURAL DIVERSITY AWARD
Rapture (Rimdogittanga)
India, People’s Republic of China, Qatar, Switzerland, Netherlands
Directed by Dominic Megam Sangma
Produced by Xu Jianshang, Eva Gunme R Marak, Anu Rangachar, Sun Li, Harsh Agarwal, Aditya Grover, Stephen Zacharias
YOUNG CINEMA AWARD
Phạm Thiên Ân for Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Bên Trong Vỏ Kén Vàng)
Vietnam, Singapore, France, Spain
16th ASIA PACIFIC SCREEN AWARDS – NOMINATIONS
BEST FILM
Citizen Saint (Mokalake Tsmindani)
Georgia, France, Bulgaria
Directed by Tinatin Kajrishvili
Produced by Lasha Khalvashi, Tinatin Kajrishvili
Evil Does Not Exist (Aku Wa Sonzai Shinai)
Japan
Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Produced by Satoshi Takata
Perfect Days
Japan
Directed by Wim Wenders
Produced by Wim Wenders, Takuma Takasaki, Koji Yanai
Qas
Kazakhstan
Directed by Aisultan Seit
Produced by Yerkebulan Kurishbayev, Yuliya Kim, Eugenia Moreva
Snow Leopard (Xue bao)
People’s Republic of China
Directed by Pema Tseden
Produced by Wang Lei
BEST YOUTH FILM
Bauryna Salu
Kazakhstan
Directed by Askhat Kuchinchirekov
Produced by Askhat Kuchinchirekov, Anna Katchko
Blueback
Australia
Directed by Robert Connolly
Produced by James Grandison, Robert Connolly, Liz Kearney
A House in Jerusalem
Palestine, United Kingdom, Qatar, Netherlands, Germany
Directed by Muayad Alayan
Produced by Muayad Alayan, Rami Alayan, Abeer Salman, Rachel Robey, Alastair Clark, Dorothe Beinemeier, Hanneke Neins, Giorgos Karnavas
Monster (Kaibutsu)
Japan
Directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu
Produced by Genki Kawamura, Kenji Yamada
Tiger Stripes
Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, France, Germany, Netherlands, Indonesia, Qatar
Directed by Amanda Nell Eu
Produced Foo Fei Ling, Patrick Mao Huang, Fran Borgia, Juliette Lepoutre, Pierre Menahem, Jonas Weydemann, Ellen Havenith, Yulia Evina Bhara
BEST ANIMATED FILM
Deep Sea (Shen hai)
People’s Republic of China
Directed by Tian Xiaopeng
Produced by Qiao Yi
The First Slam Dunk
Japan
Directed by Takehiko Inoue
Produced by Toshiyuki Matsui
Scarygirl
Australia
Directed by Ricard Cussó
Co-Directed by Tania Vincent
Produced by Sophie Byrne, Kristen Souvlis, Nadine Bates, Ryan Greaves
The Siren (La Sirène)
France, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium
Directed by Sepideh Farsi
Produced by Sébastien Onomo
Suzume (Suzume no Tojimari)
Japan
Directed by Makoto Shinkai
Produced by Noritaka Kawaguchi, Genki Kawamura, Yoshihiro Furusawa, Tomohiro Tokunaga
BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
Against the Tide
India, France
Directed by Sarvnik Kaur
Produced by Koval Bhatia, Sarvnik Kaur
Beyond Utopia
United States
Directed by Madeleine Gavin
Produced by Jana Edelbaum, Rachel Cohen, Sue Mi Terry
Man in Black
France, United States, United Kingdom
Directed by Wang Bing
Produced by K Lihong, Sonia Buchman, Nicholas R de la Mothe
Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV
United States, Republic of Korea
Directed by Amanda Kim
Produced by Jennifer Stockman, David Koh, Amanda Kim, Amy Hobby, Jesse Wann, Mariko Munro
To Kill a Tiger
Canada
Directed by Nisha Pahuja
Produced by Cornelia Principe, Nisha Pahuja, David Oppenheim
BEST DIRECTOR
Celine Song for Past Lives
Republic of Korea, United States
Darkhan Tulegenov for Brothers (Bratya)
Kazakhstan
Liang Ming for Carefree Days (Xiao yao you)
People’s Republic of China
Rima Das for Tora’s Husband
India
Ryusuke Hamaguchi for Evil Does Not Exist (Aku Wa Sonzai Shinai)
Japan
BEST SCREENPLAY
Anthony Shim for Riceboy Sleeps
Canada, Republic of Korea
Liang Ming for Carefree Days (Xiao yao you)
People’s Republic of China
Nicole Midori Woodford for Last Shadow at First Light
Singapore, Japan, Slovenia, Philippines, Indonesia
Pema Tseden for Snow Leopard (Xue bao)
People’s Republic of China
Ryusuke Hamaguchi for Evil Does Not Exist (Aku Wa Sonzai Shinai)
Japan
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Azamat Dulatov for Qas
Kazakhstan
Hao Jiayue for A Song Sung Blue
People’s Republic of China
Kenneth Cyrus for Whispers of Fire & Water
India
Krum Rodriguez for Citizen Saint (Mokalake Tsmindani)
Georgia, France, Bulgaria
Yoshio Kitagawa for Evil Does Not Exist (Aku Wa Sonzai Shinai)
Japan
BEST PERFORMANCE
Koji Yakusho for Perfect Days
Japan
Jinpa for Snow Leopard (Xue bao)
People’s Republic of China
Mihaya Shirata for Last Shadow at First Light
Singapore, Japan, Slovenia, Philippines, Indonesia
Mouna Hawa for Inshallah a Boy (Inshallah Walad)
Jordan, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar
Zhou Dongyu for The Breaking Ice (Ran dong)
People’s Republic of China
2023 APSA INTERNATIONAL JURY
Determining the winners of Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Performance, Jury Grand Prize
Clara Law (Australia) – Jury President
Anna Katchko (Germany)
Yeo Yann Yann, (Malaysia)
Hideho Urata (Japan, Singapore)
Faisal Baltyuor (Saudi Arabia)
2023 APSA YOUTH, ANIMATION, DOCUMENTARY INTERNATIONAL JURY
Determining the winners of Best Youth Film, Best Animated Film, Best Documentary Film
Midi Z (Taiwan) – Jury Chair
Rima Das (India)
Hikaru Toda (Japan)
SPECIAL AWARDS & RECIPIENTS TO BE ANNOUNCED
FIAPF AWARD
Determined by FIAPF–International Federation of Film Producers Associations for outstanding achievement in film in the Asia Pacific region.
BEST NEW PERFORMANCE
For first or second time lead performance in a feature length role.
MPA APSA ACADEMY FILM FUND
Recipients of four US$25,000 grants for 2023 to be announced during the APSA ceremony.
A joint initiative of the Asia Pacific Screen Academy and the Motion Picture Association since 2010, the Fund supports both organisations’ goal to increase cultural diversity on screen in the world’s fastest growing region of film production. The Fund is open exclusively to Asia Pacific Screen Academy members.
2023 MPA APSA Academy Film Fund Jury
Andrew Pike (Australia) – Chair
Leena Khobragade (India)
Marissa Anita (Indonesia)
ASIA PACIFIC SCREEN LAB
Successful Projects and Mentors to be announced for 2023/24 year-long immersive development program.
An initiative of the Asia Pacific Screen Academy in association with Griffith University, Griffith Film School, NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asia Pacific Cinema) and the Sun Foundation.
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