THE LIST: NINE GREAT FIRST-NATION FILMS

Indigenous history and culture has too often been poorly misrepresented on film or filtered through well-meaning but simplified stereotypes. As more and more Indigenous filmmakers emerge, all audiences enjoy the benefits of losing themselves in an abundance of stories drawn from lived experience. Here are nine standouts...

U.S.A.: SMOKE SIGNALS (Dir: Chris Eyre, 1998; pictured, above) A road-trip drama that connects the histories and destinies of Victor (Adam Beach) and Thomas (Evan Adams), who grew up together along the Spokane River on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation. Victor must retrieve his father, but Thomas is the only one who can help him get there. Of Cheyenne/Arapaho heritage, Eyre crafted a film now considered a contemporary classic, beloved by Native American audiences for its non-stereotypical characterisations and understanding of modern reservation living. In 2018, the film was placed on the National Film Registry by the National Film Preservation Board.

BRAZIL: THE LEGEND OF UBIRAJARA (Dir: André Luiz Oliveira, 1975) Son of an Araguaia chief, Ubirajara (Tatau) spies Araci (Taíse Costa) on the shore. He pursues her, leading to a battle with Pojuca (Roberto Bonfim), the mightiest Tocantim warrior. But Ubirajara and Araci have fallen in love; when the truth is revealed, a war breaks out between the two villages. Spoken entirely in Karaja, this pre-Columbian adventure is considered to be one of the most naturalistic film portrayals of tribal life.

CANADA: ATANARJUAT THE FAST RUNNER (Dir: Zacharias Kunuk, 2001) Centuries ago, in the Canadian Arctic, Atuat (Sylvia Ivalu) is promised to the tribal leader’s son Oki (Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq), but instead falls in love with the good-natured Atanarjuat (Natar Ungalaaq). Oki learns of their love and sets about enacting a terrible revenge on Atanarjuat. The first Inuktitut-language feature film, it is the only Canadian film to win the Camera d'Or for best first feature film at the Cannes Film Festival. The now iconic ‘nude run’ over the sea of ice left Ungalaaq with deep cuts all over his bare feet.

ARGENTINA: LA NACIÓN OCULTA (Dir: Juan Carlos Martínez, 2011) Ñaalec (Fabián Valdez), a disenchanted Moqoit college student, seeks to deepen his connection to culture. He travels to the Nanaicalo Nqote ("Eye of the Dragon"), a sacred lake whose water gave people the power of the gods. This docudrama is part of a series of community-created films supported by Cinematography Education and Production Center (CEFREC) led by Iván Sanjinés, son of legendary Bolivian filmmaker Jorge Sanjinés.

NEW ZEALAND: MAURI (Dir: Merata Mita, 1988; pictured, right) Pioneering filmmaker Merata Mita became the first Māori woman to write and direct a dramatic feature with Mauri (translated as ‘life force’). Set around a love triangle in a small East Coast village, it explores cultural tensions, identity, and changing societal ways. Along with Ngāti (1987), Mauri was at the forefront of the emerging Māori screen industry. The crew numbered 33 Māori craftspeople (indigenous artist Ralph Hotere was production designer); the cast included the great Anzac Wallace (Utu, 1983; The Quiet Earth, 1985) and Māori activist Eva Rickard. A NZFC-financed restoration screened at the 2019 Venice Biennale.

COLOMBIA: EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT (Dir: Ciro Guerra, 2015) The story of the relationship between Karamakate (Nilbio Torres), an Amazonian shaman and lone survivor, and two scientists, who work together over the course of 40 years to search the Amazon for a sacred healing plant. The first Colombian film to earn a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination and utilising four indigenous tongues (Cubeo, Wanano, Tikuna and Uitoto), the film derives its title from the great Amazon River, which carries the lead characters deep into the jungle. The regional government decorated the non-indigenous Guerra with the Order of the Inírida Flower for "exalting the respect and value of the indigenous populations”.

MACEDONIA: HONEYLAND (Dirs: Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov, 2019) The last female bee-hunter in Europe must save her bees and return the natural balance to her hives when a family of nomadic beekeepers threaten her livelihood. Nominated for two Academy Awards, the heartbreaking plight of traditional beekeeper Hatidze Muratova became a cause celebre on the 2019 arthouse circuit. The production shot for nearly three years and accumulated over 400 hours of footage. After the first wave of festival wins, the producers bought Hatidze a house with water and electricity close to the capital of Skopje; she still tends to her bees several days a week.

SAMOA: THE ORATOR (Dir: Tusi Tamasese, 2011). Samoan-born, NZ-trained director Tamasese made his debut with the island nation’s first feature film in the Samoan language with an indigenous cast. Set amidst lush tropical jungles and hand-toiled farmlands, it relates the outsider’s journey of Saili (Fa'afiaula Sanote), a little person and taro farmer, whose destiny is derailed when he is denied his father's chiefly status, threatening his family plantation. Tamasese takes care to respectfully depict Samoan family bonds (fa'aSamoa) and traditions such as evening prayer time (sa) and ritual atonement (ifoga) in a film that unfolds at a gentle pace but remains dramatically compelling.

AUSTRALIA: RADIANCE (Dir: Rachel Perkins, 1998) To mourn their mother’s passing, Aboriginal sisters Nona (Deborah Mailman) and Cressy (Rachael Maza) return to their childhood home where their third sister, Mae (Trisha Morton-Thomas), cared for the matriarch in her final years. With time to talk, drink and fight, the sister’s drag family secrets out that have festered for generations. A turning point in Australian storytelling, Perkin’s directorial debut tackled heritage, legacy and family in a contemporary setting. Fellow debutant Mailman earned the AFI Best Actress award.

ARMENIA

At the turn of the century, filmmaking in Armenia was all but impossible due to the war torn countryside. In a short space of time, two horrific events impacted the population – the indiscriminate massacre of christian Armenians by Ottoman forces from 1894-96, and the horrific 1914-15 genocide of Armenian nationals by the Turkish rulers, a slaughter that resulted in over 1million Armenian deaths.

Through this period, as silent cinema was taking the world by storm, the besieged people of Armenia were in no state to make or screen films. The one truly landmark film that addressed the Armenian experience was Ravished Armenia (a.k.a. Auction of Soles), a 1919 American film directed by Oscar Apfel, based upon the autobiography of its leading lady, Arshaluys Mardiganian. The film became an international sensation for its shocking depiction of the horrors of the genocide, included the flogging of Armenian women and their nude crucifixion.

On April 16, 1923, the establishment of the Armenian State Committee on Cinema (or ‘Goskino’) represented a bold statement by the ruling Soviet government. Young Russian filmmakers such as Hamo Bek-Nazaryan, Patvakan Barkhudaryan, Levon Kalantar and Amasi Martirosyan forged a distinctive Armenian cinema with films such as the melodrama Namus (1925; pictured, right); the epics Zare (1927) and Khaspush (1928); and, the comedies Shor And Shor-Shor (1926), Mexican Diplomats (1932) and Kikos (1931). The first feature-length Armenian documentary was produced in this period, I. Kraslavsky’s pro-Soviet 1924 work Soviet Armenia, focussing on the nation’s reconstruction in the wake of World War I.

By the late 1920’s, the full-scale studio Armenkino is in operation and the first ‘talkie’, Hamo Bek-Nazaryan’s drama Pepo (1935; pictured, below right) is a hit both domestically and abroad. But for much of the 1930s and 1940s, Armenian filmmaking stagnates. The totalitarian regime strictly controls the content of all art during this period; film output is reduced, with the rare local releases primarily examining the history of conflict of the region (Zangezur, 1938; David-Bek, 1944; and, Aleksandr Dovzhenko’s documentary Native Country, 1945).

It would not be until the mid 1950’s that Armenian cinema began producing independent, ambitious films. The ‘bigscreen epic’ returned, usually centred on such figures as Simon Arshaki Ter-Petrosian, a.k.a. ‘Kamo’; his heroics were depicted in such films as Erazm Karamyan and Stepan Kevorkov’s Personally Known (1958), the first of a trilogy of films about the Bolshevik revolutionary. Artashes Hay-Artyan’s Northern Rainbow (1960) was an early example of a braver political voice in Armenian cinema with its depiction of the 1828 Russian-Persian war and the activities of Russian writer Alexander Griboedov.

A decisive, strong Armenian cinema emerges more fully in the 1960’s, when short filmmakers undertook often incendiary statements about the ruling government. Avdo’s Car, a short that boldly interprets Soviet policies and actions while in power, is censored and forbidden from public screenings; Broken Promise, Tzhvzhik, Fired Lever and The Master And The Servant rile authorities but inspire artists and intellectuals.

Soon, features are embracing the notion that Armenia has suffered ‘between the hammer and the anvil’ in local conflicts - Khoren Abrahamyan’s Brother Saroyans (1969), Grigori Melik-Avakyan’s Seven Songs About Armenia (1967), Henrik Malyan’s We and Our Mountains (1969) and Laert Vagharshyan’s documentary Martiros Saryan (1965) all depict a strong, brave nation defying the impact on its borders of its warring neighbours.

The most important filmmaker in Armenian cinema history came from this period – Sergey Parajanov (pictured, right). Having broken free of the systemic control of Armenian cinema with his 1965 film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, he exploded onto the world stage with his groundbreaking film The Color Of Pomegranate (1969), a re-edit of his previously banned feature Sayat Nova. However, following its breakout success, Parajanov was persecuted by Soviet officials for his pronounced bisexuality and subversive art and would ultimately serve four years in jail, despite global efforts to free him led by such notables as Yves Saint Laurent, Françoise Sagan, Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Luis Buñuel, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and Andrei Tarkovsky. Parajanov would not direct another feature until The Legend of Suram Fortress, in 1985.

Infrastructure serving Armenia’s film industry receives funding through the 1970s, with both Armenfilm and the Studio of Documentary Films opening state-of-the-art studio space in Yerevan. Armenian cinema of the period expands its narratives, offering social realism (Arman Manaryan’s Our Daily Water, 1976) and the growth of homegrown comedy (Edmond Keosayan’s The Men, 1973; Nerses Hovhannisyan’s Bride of the North, 1975; Dmitri Kesayants’ The Soldier and the Elephant, 1978, and A Man From Olympus, 1976).

As societal pressures stabilize and the economy grows, so to does Armenian cinema. The 1980s launched with Sergey Israyelyan's drama Gikor (1982; pictured, right), based upon Hovhannes Tumanyan's oft-told tale of a boy’s coming-of-age hardships (it was previously filmed in 1934). The decade solidified the reputation of such talents as Albert Mkrtchyan (The Good Half of Life, 1979; The Song of the Old Days, 1982; The Tango of Our Childhood, 1985), leading to the confident emergence of new talents in the 1990s. The reputation of the sector was at an all-time high thanks to such works as Harutyun Khachatryan’s Wind of Forgetfulness (1989) and Mikael Dovlatian’s Labyrinth (1996).

Armenia is not a sector that is booming but it is an industry with strong advocacy and support from the global sector. Modern filmmakers such as Harutyun Khachatryan (Return Of The Poet, 2005), Ruben Kochar (Metamorphoses, 2008), Vardan Hovhannisyan (A Story Of People In War And Peace, 2007), Arshakyan Yelena (An Uninterrupted Flight (2015), Sarik Andreasyan (The Earthquake, 2016), Mger Mkrtchyan (The Line, 2016), Darya Shumakova (Coming Home, 2018) and Alexey Zlobin (Lorik, 2018) are duly respected in their homeland and abroad; comedy is popular with domestic audiences, with Gor Kirakosian’s US co-production Lost and Found in Armenia (2012) and Arman Marutyan’s Super Mother films (2015, 2017) both doing big business.

Sadly, the heart of the Armenfilm production sector has been neglected. The Armenfilm Studios have fallen into disrepair, the 100 year-old facility moribund after private ownership and planned revitalisation projects have failed. A film has not been shot there in over ten years. In March 2019, ownership of the Yerevan site was transferred to a trust company called ‘Kinoket Productions’; the Minister of Economic Development and Investments, Tigran Khachatryan said that over the next 3.5 years, Kinoket will invest 2.5 million euros in the national film company.

Hopefully, a new wave in Armenian film production is not far away…

KEY EVENT:
Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival – Yerevan, Armenia; July. Presented each year under the theme, ‘Crossroads of Cultures and Civilizations.
From the website: “Years of passion and love for cinema resulted in the establishment of Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival in 2004. Before then, it was just a dream in three people’s minds - Harutyun Khachatryan, Film Director and Festival General Director; Mikayel Stamboltsyan, Film Critic and Program Director; and Susanna Harutyunyan, Film Critic and Artistic Director. The festival's name refers to the fruit native to Armenia, whose Latin name is ‘prunus аrmeniaсa,’ or ‘the Armenian plum.’ A popular symbol of the country, the warm colour of apricot is even found on the tricolored national flag.”
CONTACT: 3 Moskovyan Str., 0001, Yerevan.
Tel/Fax: 10 52 10 42 (62)
Em: info@gaiff.am ; Web: http://www.gaiff.am

INDUSTRY:
Armenian National Cinematheque
25A Tbilisyan Highway,
375052 Yerevan
Tel: +374-10-28 54 06
Em: filmadaran@yahoo.com

Armenain National Cinema Centre
38, Pushkin Str.,
Yerevan, Armenia
Tel./Fax: 10 51 82 30 (31)
E-mail: kinokentron@yahoo.com, abovyans@yahoo.com

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EUROPEAN SECTOR CONDEMNS IRAN FOR PERSECUTION OF FILMMAKER

Heads of the European film sector have spoken in unison condemning the imminent incarceration of Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof. The director of the 2020 Berlinale Golden Bear winner There is No Evil, a film that casts a critical eye on the consequences of life under authoritarian rule, has been summoned by the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Offenses Relating to Media and Culture to serve one year in prison.

This comes after the Iranian Revolutionary Court sentenced the filmmaker (pictured, above) to one year in prison, with a two-year prohibition against working as a director, for alleged propaganda against the government, in July 2019. The internationally acclaimed Rasoulof, an Un Certain Regard winner for his films Lerd (2017) and Au Revoir (2011), is also under a two-year ban on leaving the country and becoming involved in any social or political activity.

"Summoning me to serve my prison sentence only reveals a small fraction of the intolerance and anger that is characteristic of the Iranian regime’s response to criticism,” Rasoulof says. “Many cultural activists are in prison for criticizing the government." He also points out that Iranian prisons are a hotbed for the Covid-19 virus, with conditions unlikely to change under the current regime. “These conditions call for an immediate response from the international community," he says. (Pictured, right; Baran Rasoulof, daughter of the director, and Ehsan Mirhosseini in There is No Evil). 

Institutions that have declared their support for Rasoulof are The European Film Academy, The Cannes Film Festival, the Deutsche Filmakademie, the Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, the Filmfest Hamburg, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), the Netherlands Film Fund and the Accademia del cinema italiano-Premi David di Donatello. The bodies have collectively called for the charges against him to be retracted and the travel ban against him to be lifted immediately and unconditionally.

Via a press statement, President of the European Film Academy, Wim Wenders, declared, "Our colleague Mohammad Rasoulof is an artist who keeps telling us about a reality we would otherwise know little about. There is No Evil is a deeply humane portrait of people in extreme situations, situations no human should be forced to experience. We need voices like that of Mohammad Rasoulof, voices defending human rights, freedom and dignity." (Pictured, left; actress Baran Rasoulof at the Berlin Film Festival, with her father and director on the phone, following his Golden Bear win).

Ulrich Matthes, President of the Deutsche Filmakademie, adds “His deeply humane films about freedom and oppression have reached so many people worldwide. He is a representative master of Iranian cinema: a rich film culture that has provided us with some of the most compelling stories about the human condition. Mohammad Rasoulof’s films not only tell us about life in Iran but also speak to us in the universal language of cinema to promote empathy and peace."

The European voices are also demanding Rasoulof’s health and safety be ensured and that film festivals, cinema chains and all artists globally make their protestations known to Iranian officials and embassy staff in their region.

BERLIN SCI-FI FILMFEST FETES M.A.J.I.C., THE TANGLE IN 2019 HONOURS ROLL

Highlighting the event’s growing international standing amongst speculative fiction filmmakers, works from Canada, Italy, Japan and The U.S. were among the honorees at this year’s Berlin Sci-fi Filmfest, which wrapped its third edition under festival directors Alexander Pfander and Anthony Straeger in the German capital this past weekend.

Erin Berry’s Roswell-inspired M.A.J.I.C., a post-X-Files riff that incorporates 'men in black' conspiracy theorising and alien tech-driven alternate realities, took out Best Feature in a hotly-contested field; the independent Canadian production was up against Milena Lurie’s Entangled, Navin Dev’s Zoo-head and Christopher Soren Kelly’s The Tangle for the top trophy. So close was the final tally that The Tangle was singled out for special mention with the Grand Jury Award. (Pictured, top; Paula Brancati, as Pippa Bernwood, in M.A.J.I.C.)

The other major stand-out from the festival line-up was Yuichi Kondo’s Ryoko’s Qubit Summer, a futuristic riff on teen romance that poses the question, ‘Can love exist between an A.I. and a human?’ The short film, featuring touching performances from Miku Komatsu and Ami Yamada, earned the Outstanding Film Award from official jurors Rick McLeod of Celtic Storm Films; Crawford Talents agency head Caprice Crawford; and, sound engineer Iwan Romanow. (Pictured, right; from left, Christopher Soren Kelly, Jessica Graham and Nicole da Silva in The Tangle)  

Berry was denied a double win when Aleem Hossain earned Best Director for After We Leave, a drama about a husband’s search for his wife before the opportunity to live off-world expires. The Best Script award was won by Spain’s Andres Malo Segura and Alfonso Segura Ballesteros for their short Luz Azul (Blue Light), the story of one man’s struggle to cope with a dark memory that has emerged from his archived brain patterns.

The U.K. sector offered up its finest thespians in genre roles, with Brits taking out both the acting categories. Best Actress honouree Krista De Mille (pictured, right) plays ‘Kate’, a warrior-mother fighting for the survival of her daughter, in Martin Gooch’s post-apocalyptic U.K. thriller Black Flowers, while Best Actor kudos went to Sam Gittins for Ciro Sorrentino’s time-travel/alternate reality romp, Time Perspectives.

The vibrant German science-fiction scene was acknowledged with Thorsten Franzen winning the Best Cinematography award for Daniel Raboldt’s man-vs-machine survival thriller A Living Dog, while Marcel Barion’s The Final Land won Outstanding German Contribution.

The highly prized Best Visual Effects category went to the Amsterdam-based post-production house PostPanic for their mesmerising debut science-fiction effort, Sundays. Shot entirely in Mexico City, it envisions a world under the control of a single mega-corporation after a solar flare renders the planet powerless, and the young man whose independent thought may reveal the truth.

The Australian/Croation co-production Slice of Life, co-directors Luka Hrgovic and Dino Julius’ stunning return to the urban decay of Ridley Scott’s masterpiece Blade Runner, won Best Fan Film, against the Star Wars-inspired works Bucket Head and The Lightsaber Maker and the ectoplasmic comedy Ghostbusters Italia. Jason Axinn’s blood-splattered cartoon nightmare To Your Last Death, featuring the voices of William Shatner, Ray Wise, Bill Moseley and Deadpool star Morena Baccarin, won for Best Animation.

Others who walked away triumphant from the 2019 Berlin Sci-fi Filmfest included Andréanne Germain’s augmented reality coming-of-age tale Nova, which earned the Best Experimental/Music award; Brett Ryan Bonowicz’s Best Documentary winner Artist Depiction, a profile of the three illustrators who imagined the realities of NASA’s conjecturing (pictured, right); brothers Nick and Adam Hayes’ robo-militaristic Fight Machine, which won both Best Action Short and Best Web/TV Series categories; Patrick Hagarty’s hilarious twist on holiday homecoming Home in Time, for Best Comedy Short; and, Stephen Eigemann’s emotion-filled Rewind, which took Best Drama Short honours for its exploration of how VR technology can help the parent of a deployed soldier deal with anxiety and grief.

REWIND (short film) TEASER from Stephan Eigenmann on Vimeo.

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.