Japan has dominated this yr’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), with German filmmaker Wim Wenders’ newest Tokyo-set pic and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car follow-up taking the highest prizes.
Wenders’ Cannes competitors title Perfect Days received APSA’s Best Film award, whereas Hamaguchi’s enigmatic Venice title Evil Does Not Exist nabbed the Jury Grand Prize this night on the Australian ceremony.
“It is with great pleasure and pride that my Japanese producers Takuma Takasaki and Koji Yanai and myself received the news that our film Perfect Days was awarded Best Picture at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards,” Wenders mentioned, accepting the award through video message.
He added: “Wow, what an honor. Especially for a German director. The film was, in many ways, a dream come true for all of us, especially the fact that nobody less than the great Koji Yakusho played the leading role, the humble public servant, Hirayama.”
Perfect Days tells the story of Hirayama, a bathroom cleaner who appears totally content material along with his easy life as a cleaner of bathrooms in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured on a regular basis routine, he enjoys his ardour for music and books. He loves timber and takes photographs of them. A collection of surprising encounters regularly reveals extra of his previous. The movie is Japan’s submission to this yr’s Best International Feature race on the Oscars.
Evil Does Not Exist marks the second main latest APSA win for Hamaguchi, who received greatest movie in 2021 with Drive My Car. The pic tells the story of Takumi and his daughter Hana, who reside in Mizubiki Village, near Tokyo. Like generations earlier than them, they reside a modest life in keeping with the cycles and order of nature.
A plan to assemble a glamping web site close to Takumi’s home, providing metropolis residents a snug “escape” to nature threatens to hazard each the ecological stability of the realm and the native individuals’s lifestyle.
Hamaguchi wrote the screenplay for the movie, which additionally reunites him with Drive My Car composer Eiko Ishibashi. The prize was accepted this night by producer and APSA Academy member Satoshi Takata.
Elsewhere, Celine Song received the APSA for Best Director for her acclaimed debut Past Lives.
“I’m so happy and honored to receive the Best Director Award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards,” Song mentioned accepting the gong. “It is very special to receive this for my very first film, and my very personal film, and it is also so meaningful to receive it from my own community. Thank you so much. It really means the world.”
The APSA for Best Performance was received by Palestinian performer Mouna Hawa for her position within the Jordanian movie Inshallah a Boy. In the debut characteristic from Amjad Al Rasheed, Hawa performs the mom of a younger daughter whose life is upturned by harsh native inheritance legal guidelines when her husband abruptly dies.
Accepting the gong, Hawa touched on modern points. She mentioned: “In these times, a film like Inshallah a Boy that dares to question our entire reality is essential not only for educating people and making them think but also gives us a voice in times where we simply can’t speak. Thank you.”
This yr’s worldwide APSA jury, which picks the winners for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Performance, and the Jury Grand Prize, included Clara Law (Australia) – Jury President, Anna Katchko (Germany), Yeo Yann Yann, (Malaysia), Hideho Urata (Japan, Singapore), and Faisal Baltyuor (Saudi Arabia).
Check out the total record of winners under:
BEST FILM
Perfect Days
Japan
Directed by Wim Wenders
Produced by Wim Wenders, Takuma Takasaki, Koji Yanai
JURY GRAND PRIZE
Evil Does Not Exist (Aku Wa Sonzai Shinai)
Japan
Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Produced by Satoshi Takata
BEST YOUTH FILM
Bauryna Salu
Kazakhstan
Directed by Askhat Kuchinchirekov
Produced by Askhat Kuchinchirekov, Anna Katchko
BEST ANIMATED FILM
The Siren (La Sirène)
France, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium
Directed by Sepideh Farsi
Produced by Sébastien Onomo
BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
Against the Tide
India, France
Directed by Sarvnik Kaur
Produced by Koval Bhatia, Sarvnik Kaur
BEST DIRECTOR
Celine Song for Past Lives
Republic of Korea, United States
BEST SCREENPLAY
Anthony Shim for Riceboy Sleeps
Canada, Republic of Korea
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Azamat Dulatov for Qas
Kazakhstan
Special Mention for CINEMATOGRAPHY
Krum Rodriguez for Citizen Saint (Mokalake
Tsmindani)
Georgia, France, Bulgaria
BEST PERFORMANCE
Mouna Hawa for Inshallah a Boy (Inshallah Walad)
Jordan, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar
BEST NEW PERFORMER
Aibar Saly and Alisher Ismailov for Brothers (Bratya)
Kazakhstan
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
FIAPF AWARD for Outstanding Contribution to Asia Pacific Cinema
Jeremy Chua
Singapore