PARASITE, BEANPOLE LEAD HONOUREES AT 2019 ASIA PACIFIC SCREEN AWARDS

Adding further momentum towards anticipated Oscar glory, Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite has claimed Best Feature Film at the 13^th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) last night in Brisbane, Australia. The breakout international success story of 2019 turned its single nomination into the night’s biggest prize, the first win for Korea in the Best Feature Film category since Lee Chang-dong’s Secret Sunshine took out the inaugural prize in 2007.

Producer Jang Young-hwan accepted the award (pictured, below), a unique handcrafted glass vessel by Brisbane artist Joanna Bone, on the night. The honour also comes as the Asia Pacific Screen Forum, running concurrently with the awards festivities, focuses on 100 years of Korean cinema.

Stories encompassing thirteen countries and areas within the vast Asia Pacific region were awarded, with the majority of the winners also being their country’s Official Submission for the Academy Awards® in the Best International Feature Film Category. Thirty-seven films from 22 countries and areas of the Asia Pacific region achieved nominations for the prestigious awards, drawn from the 289 films in APSA competition.

The Australian sector was honoured with the Best Youth Feature Film, the prize taken out by Rodd Rathjen’s Buoyancy, produced by Causeway Films’ Sam Jennings and Kristina Ceyton. The Khmer and Thai language film, shot in Cambodia, is the story of 14 year-old Cambodian Chakra who leaves home in search of a better life only to be enslaved on a fishing trawler. Co-directors Rachel Leah Jones and Phillipe Bellaiche’s Advocate, an Israeli production that recounts the story of Jewish Israeli human rights lawyer Lea Tsemel, beat the only other local nominee, Daniel Gordon’s The Australian Dream, for the Best Documentary trophy.

Director Kantemir Balagov’s Russian wartime drama Beanpole was the only film to take home two APSA awards - Best Cinematography honouree Ksenia Sereda (pictured, right), the first woman to win the APSA in this category, and Balagov and Alexander Terekhov for Best Screenplay. Best Director winner Adilkhan Yerzhanov, helmer of the Kazakh noir feature A Dark, Dark Man, was the focus of the Director’s Chair session at the inaugural Asia Pacific Screen Forum and accepted the award on the night. It is his second award following the APSA NETPAC Development Prize win in 2013 (now the Young Cinema Award) for Constructors.

Acting trophies will be travelling to new homes in The Philippines and India. Max Eigenmann won Best Actress for her role as a woman fighting to free her life of domestic violence in Raymund Ribay Gutierrez’s Verdict, for acclaimed producer Brilliante Mendoza. Celebrated Indian actor Manoj Baypayee earned Best Actor honours for his role in Devashish Makhija’s Bhonsle; Bajpayee’s win, his second APSA gong, marks a staggering four years in a row that an Indian performer has won in this category.

Beating out highly favoured fellow nominees The Unseen and Mosley, Weathering With You (Japan) was named Best Animated Feature. The film is directed by Makoto Shinkai, who also took home the inaugural APSA in this category in 2007 for 5 Centimetres Per Second.

The APSA International Jury awarded a Jury Grand Prize to Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman, who wrote, directed, produced and starred in APSA-nominated film It Must Be Heaven. Suleiman was also awarded the APSA Jury Grand Prize in 2009 for The Time That Remains. The prestigious Cultural Diversity Award under the patronage of UNESCO was awarded to Rona, Azim’s Mother (Islamic Republic of Iran; Afghanistan) by brothers Jamshid and Navid Mahmoudi. This award represents APSA’s founding partnership with UNESCO, and the shared goals of the two organisations in the protection and preservation of cultural identity.

The winner of the FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers Associations) Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film goes to Katriel Schory, one of the most respected figures of Israeli cinema. Schory produced more than 150 titles through is production company BelFilms Ltd and served for twenty years as Executive Director of Israel’s main film funding body, where he produced and promoted 300 films. He is credited with revitalising Israel’s film industry through an emphasis on diversity and international co-production treaties, opening the country’s cinema up to the global audiences.

The APSA Young Cinema Award has been won by emerging Indian filmmaker Ridham Janve whose feature The Gold-Laden Sheep and The Sacred Mountain (pictured, above) was also nominated for Best Feature Film and Achievement in Cinematography.

Also announced during the APSA Ceremony were the four recipients of the 10^th MPA APSA Academy Film Fund. Created to support the development of new feature film projects by APSA Academy members, the fund awards four development grants of US$25,000 annually. In 2019, the four recipients are Delphine Garde-Mroueh & Nadia Eliewat (UAE/France) for The Station; Rachel Leah Jones (Israel/United States of America) for Reality Check; Catherine Fitzgerald (New Zealand) for Sweet Lips; and, Dechen Roder (Bhutan) for I, The Song.