9th Asia Pacific Screen Awards Winners

A few minutes ago the awards ceremony closed with the announcement of the big winner of the night and to my surprise the top award goes to Cementery of Splendour and NOT to what I was expecting, The Assassin. Sigh. Nevertheless I'm sure that Apichatpong Weerasethakul movie most be a dreamy trip into great cinematography and storytelling. Great.

Still considering the nominees, winners tend to be on the unexpected side as most not honored films have collected major awards in the festival circuit, which I believe only means that this year jury had bold or unconventional choices, sigh.

Hosted by Singaporean Cannes award-winning filmmaker and APSA Academy member Anthony Chen (Ilo Ilo) and Australia’s Channel 7 presenter Sofie Formica, the ceremony represents the Asia Pacific’s highest accolade in film.

These are the winners

Best Feature Film: รักที่ขอนแก่น Rak ti Khon Kaen (Cementery of Splendour), Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand, Malaysia, France, Germany and UK

Best Documentary Feature Film: Datong (The Chinese Mayor), Hao Zhou, China
Best Animated Feature Film: 百日紅 Sarusuberi: Miss Hokusai (Miss Hokusai), Keiichi Hara, Japan
Best Youth Feature Film: ང་པོ། Gtsngbo (River), Sonthar Gyal, China

Achievement in Directing: Alexey German Jr. for Под электрическими облаками Pod elektricheskimi oblakami (Under Electric Clouds), Russia, Ukraine and Poland

Jury Grand Prize
Emin Alper for writing and directing Abluka (Frenzy), Turkey, Qatar and France
Park Jung-bum for writing, directing and actin in Sanda (Alive), South Korea

Best Performance by an Actress: Kirin Kiki in An, Naomi Kawase, Japan, France and Germany
Best Performance by an Actor: Jung Jaeyoung in Jigeumeun Matgo Geuttaeneun Teullida (Right Now, Wrong Then), Sang-soo Hong, South Korea

Best Screenplay: Senem Tüzen for Ana Yurdu (Motherland), Turkey and Greece

Achievement in Cinematography: Mark Lee Ping-Bing for 刺客聂隐娘 Nie Yin niang (The Assassin), Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Taiwan
Special Mention: Lu Songye for Tharlo, Pema Tseden, China

APSA UNESCO Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Promotion and Preservation of Cultural Diveristy Through Film: Hany Abu-Assad for Ya Tayr El Tayer (The Idol), Palestine, Qatar, UAE, UK and Netherlands
Special Mention: Stephen Page for Spear, Australia

FIAPF Award for Outstanding Achievements in Film: Esaad Younis, Egypt
APSA Academy NETPAC Development Prize: Mirlan Abdykalykov for Sutak, (Heavenly Nomadic), Kyrgyzstan

More than 290 films from 70 countries vied for nomination across 10 categories. This year, 39 of the region’s finest films were selected to contend for the prestigious awards. If you missed our live coverage or simply want to revisit the event, watch the footage here or view the winners and browse the image gallery from the stunning Red Carpet and Ceremony.  To check winners info go to official site here and to read official press release go here.

2015 Luz Prize Winner

A few minutes ago at The European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg was announced the winner of the annual prize and the winner is none other than Mustang by Deniz Gamze Ergüven! Congratulations.

Believe movie has very good chances of being selected among AMPAS foreign-language shortlist of nine (9) and perhaps even get an Oscar nomination; this award just increase -a bit- those chances the movie already had.  Great.

Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Mustang, one of the year’s film sensations, now has another statuette to add to its trophy case. The French-Turkish-German co-production has been awarded the European Parliament's LUX Prize 2015, thus beating the other two finalists, Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea and Kristina Grozeva & Petar Valchanov’s Urok (The Lesson).

“The echo you give me through this prize brings further questioning to the topic of this film, so thank you very much,” explained Ergüven when picking up the award. “Mustang shows five strong women who want to get away from a sometimes patriarchal and hypocritical society,” stated European Parliament President Martin Schulz, who presented the film. “Sensitivity for the diversity that the prize aims to emphasize is of the greatest importance; we have to be ready to defend what makes us who we are, something we have to defend against destruction by young people who were prepared to destroy behind their stupid ideology,” he added in reference to the current terrorist crisis Europe is enduring at the moment.

The true revelation of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight (with the Europa Cinemas Label into the bargain and sales all around the world), one of the nominees for the upcoming European Film Awards and the French submission in the Oscars race, Mustang follows five sisters in northern Turkey, as their family home is progressively transformed into a prison for them due to religious intransigence towards women.

The prize, decided on the basis of a vote by the Members of the European Parliament, is intended to celebrate the diversity and the social relevance of cinema in Europe. After the selection of the three finalists, Mustang has finally been picked out as the best example of this. The LUX Film Days, part of the LUX Prize, have assured the screenings of the three finalist films all around the continent, and later on, the LUX Prize Public Mention will be awarded, following the audience's vote.

The LUX Prize ceremony is followed by a press seminar, moderated by MEP and LUX Prize coordinator Doris Pack. The European Parliament will host a series of conferences and panels. “Cinema Education, or the need to lay the foundations of a common language via European cinema” will feature the presence of acclaimed filmmaker, and Cinémathèque Française president Costa Gavras, MEP Bogdan Wenta and director Petar Valchanov. The panel “LUX Prize: topical films as a tool for cultural diplomacy” will welcome MEPs Elmar Brok and Silvia Costa and the three directors of the nominated films. Lastly, a panel on gender equality in the audiovisual industry, “A not very (gender) balanced endeavor”, will see Vice-President of the European Parliament Ulrike Lunacek, MEP Julie Ward, EWA Network director Francine Ravenay, The Lesson’s lead actress Margita Gosheva and the LUX Prize winner, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, giving their insights on the topic.

52nd Golden Horse Awards Winners

Last Saturday night was the 2015 Golden Horse Awards ceremony and as expected the big winner of the night was Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Assassin that collected five awards, including Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography and more. Following closely was Chang Tso-Chi's Thanatos, Drunk with four awards.

Worth mentioning is Jia Zhang-ke's Mountains May Depart winning Best Original Screenplay and Tharlo by Pema Tseden winning Best Adapted Screenplay.

Winners for main categories are below in *BLUE. To check winners in all categories go official site here.

---///---
10/1/15
Today organizers announced the nominations for the annual cinema awards and this year there were 427 submissions (153 feature films, 4 animation feature, 200 short films and 70 documentary, which is a big leap from last year's 364 submissions. Seventy-one (71) films made the second-round shortlist and 39 films (including shorts) were finally nominated.

Worth mentioning is that Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year Award goes to Hou Hsiao-Hsien. The Jury would like to acknowledge Hou’s dedication to film art as well as to the film industry, and he is also the soul of remarkable The Assassin. His achievement and uncompromising perseverance brings Taiwanese cinema to the international stage and sets an example for all filmmakers. The Lifetime Achievement Award this year goes to Li Li Hua.

Believe that is no surprise when we learn that Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Assassin leads the pack with 11 nominations but perhaps more interesting are the films that follow closely, Chang Tso-chi's Thanatos, Drunk with 10 nods and Philip Yung's Port of Call with 9 nods. Mainland China nominations are led by Jia Zhangke's Mountains May Depart with 7 nominations.

Last November, Taiwan's Ministry of Culture announced that any Mainland China film that wins Best Director and/or Best Film award can bypass Taiwan's ten-film China film quota. Mountains May Depart, which did not win a local release quota, will need to win one of the two categories to receive a local release. Believe that this fact makes the race between Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Jia Zhangke absolutely unfair for cinema lovers in Taiwan, sigh.

The following are the nominees for some categories.

Best Feature film
*刺客聶隱娘 Nie yin niang (The Assassin), Hou Hsiao-Hsien
踏雪尋梅 Port of Call, Philip Yung
山河故人 Shan he gun ren (Mountains May Depart), Jia Zhangke
ཐར་ལོ | 塔洛 Tharlo, Pema Tseden
醉・生夢死 Zui sheng meng si (Thanatos, Drunk), Chang Tso-chi

Best Animation Feature
*我和我媽媽 McDull: Me & My Mum, Brian Tse and Junmin Li
西遊記之大聖歸來 Xi you ji zhi da sheng gui lai (Monkey King: Hero is Back), Tian Xiao Peng

Best Documentary
32 + 4, Hau Chun Chan
Ming tian hui geng hao (On the Rim of the Sky), Hongjie Xu
*The Chinese Mayor, Hao Zhou
The Verse of Us, MeDoc producer
灣生回家 Wansei Back Home, Tanaka Mika

Best Short Film
*Bao quanyuan zhi si (The Death of a Security Guard), Cheng Wei Hao
Filial Piety Award, Chen Jian-zhang
Ri guang zhi xia (Under the Sun), Qiu Yang
Time to Die, Tony Wang
Wu wu mian (No No Sleep), Tsai Ming-Liang

Best Director
Chang Tso-Chi for Thanatos, Drunk
*Hou Hsiao Hsien for The Assassin
Jia Zhang-ke for Mountains May Depart
Pema Tseden for Tharlo
Tsui Hark for The Taking of Tiger Mountain 3D

Best New Director
Alec Su for Zuo Er (The Left Ear)
*Bi Gan for Lu bian ye can (Kaili Blues)
Frankie Chen for Our Times
Lee Chung for Qingtian jie yi hao (The Laudryman)
Xiang Guoqiang for 少年巴比倫 Young Love Lost

Best Cinematography
Christopher Doyle for Port of Call
Hsu Chih-Chun and Chang Chih-Teng for Thanatos, Drunk
Lu Songye for Tharlo
*Mark Lee Ping-Bing for The Assassin
Yu Lik Wai for Mountains May Depart

To learn nominees in ALL categories go official site here. The awards ceremony will be on November 21st in Taipei, will be broadcast live on TTV.

The most interesting find comes from a documentary: The Verse of Us that has the most unexpected mix of poetry and literature with miners who happen to be migrant workers in China. "One typically does not associate poetry and literature to be written by manual workers – by miners spending their days 800m under the earth or workers assembling Apple iPhones. But there exists this rather prolific group of poets in China, who just also happen to be migrant workers." Most interested in watching this film.

88th Academy Awards Live Short Films Shortlist

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that ten (10) live short films will advance in the voting process for the 88th Academy Awards.

One hundred forty-four (144) pictures had originally qualified in the category. Members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting.

These are the 10 short films.

Alles Wird Gut (Everything Will Be Okay), Patrick Vollrath, Germany and Austria, 30'
Ave Maria, Basil Khalil, France, Germany and Palestine, 15'
Bad Hunter, Sahim Omar Kalifa, Belgium, UAE and Iraq, 14'
Bis Gleich ('Till Ten), Benjamin Wolff, Germany and USA, 20'
Contrapelo (Against the Grain), Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, USA, Mexico, UK and Taiwan, 19"
Day One, Henry Hughes, USA, 25'
Shok, Jamie Donoughue, UK, Kosovo and Serbia, 21'
Stutterer, Benjamin Cleary, UK, 12'
Winter Light, Julian Higgins, USA, 29'
自由人 Zi You Ren (The Free Man), Quah Boon-Lip, Taiwan, 30'

Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will now select five nominees from among the 10 titles on the shortlist. Branch screenings will be held in Los Angeles, London, New York and San Francisco in December.

The 88th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 14, 2016, at 5:30 a.m. PT at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

Alles Wird Gut (Everything Will Be Okay) by Patrick Vollrath
Synopsis: A divorced father picks up his eight-year-old daughter Lea. It seems pretty much like every second weekend, but after a while Lea can't help feeling that something isn't right. So begins a fateful journey.



Ave Maria by Basil Khalil
Synopsis: Nuns of the ‘Sisters of Mercy’ convent in the middle of the West Bank wilderness have their daily routine of silence and prayer disrupted when a family of religious Israeli settlers crash their car into the convent’s wall.  The Sabbath is approaching and they need to get home urgently, however, because of the Sabbath laws, the Israelis can’t operate a phone to call for assistance, and the Nuns have taken a vow of silence. Together they have to come up with an unorthodox plan to help them get home.



Bad Hunter by Sahim Omar Kalifa
Synopsis: “Bad Hunter” is a social drama about a failed young hunter named Bahoz. Bahoz is 19 years old and lives surrounded by nature composed of beautiful landscapes. Those landscapes are places where many hunters go to hunt. Bahoz goes every day to the mountains to hunt, but catches very little. But today is the day that will change his life forever. Bahoz sees a young girl being raped by an older man. For Bahoz it's a good opportunity to finally save a life instead of killing one and redeem himself.



Bis Gleich ('Till Ten) by Benjamin Wolff
Synopsis: An unspoken connection between two elderly neighbors, who share a daily ritual but who have never actually met, deepens when they face the inevitable...together.



Contrapelo (Against the Grain) by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer
Synopsis: The story of a proud Mexican barber who is forced to shave the leader of a drug cartel. As he faces the man who is destroying his country, he is confronted by a difficult decision: to become a killer, or to let this man continue to kill. By the end of the shave, the Barber will find out that he and the Capo are not so different.



Day One by Henry Hughes
Synopsis: On her first day in Afghanistan, an interpreter for the US Army is forced to deliver the child of an enemy bomb-maker.



Shok by Jamie Donoughue
Synopsis: The friendship of two boys is tested to its limits as they battle for survival during the Kosovo war...



Stutterer by Benjamin Cleary
Synopsis: Greenwood speaks eloquently in his head, but his interactions with the world are hampered by his stutter.



Winter Light by Julian Higgins
Synopsis: When an aging college professor confronts two hunters trespassing on his property, he begins an escalating battle of wills that will test his faith in everything he holds dear. Adapted from a short story by acclaimed author James Lee Burke, WINTER LIGHT is a modern-day revisionist Western set in the frozen wilderness of Montana.



自由人 Zi You Ren (The Free Man) by Quah Boon-Lip (aka Sam Quah)
Synopsis: He is an ex-con who tries to turn over a new leaf by working at a laundry store. She is a young woman with physical disability and is taken in to help out in the store since her parents pass away. There has been so little freedom that they can enjoy and they keep yearning. But is the world willing to give them more?

88th Academy Awards Animated Short Films Shortlist

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that ten (10) animated short films will advance in the voting process for the 88th Academy Awards.

Sixty (60) pictures had originally qualified in the category. Members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting.

These are the 10 short films.

Autos-Portraits (Carface), Claude Cloutier, Canada, 4'
Chez Moi (My Home), Phuong Mai Nguyen, France, 12'
Historia de Un Oso (Bear Story), Gabriel Osorio Vargas, Chile, 11'
If I Was God..., Cordell Barker, Canada, 8'
Love in the Time of March Madness, Melissa Johnson and Robertino Zambrano, USA, 9'
Мы не можем жить без космоса Mi ne mozhem zhit bez kosmosa (We Can't Live Without Cosmos), Konstantin Bronzit, Russia, 16'
An Object at Rest, Seth Boyden, USA, 6'
Prologue, Richard Williams, UK, 6'
Sanjay's Super Team, Sanjay Patel, USA, 7'
World of Tomorrow, Don Hertzfeldt, USA, 17'

Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will now select five nominees from among the 10 titles on the shortlist. Branch screenings will be held in Los Angeles, London, New York and San Francisco in December.

The 88th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 14, 2016, at 5:30 a.m. PT at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

Autos-Portraits (Carface) by Claude Cloutier
Synopsis: In this whirling, twirling automotive waltz, carefree cars cavort in all directions to the tune of “Que Sera, Sera,” while the black ooze that fuels them is unremittingly pumped from Mother Earth. If Busby Berkeley and Mel Brooks were asked to co-direct the apocalypse, it might look like this uproarious festival of destruction—the ultimate spectacle for our Big Oil-based civilization. Let the games begin!



Chez Moi (My Home) by Phuong Mai Nguyen
Synopsis: Hugo's mother is back home. The day after, when Hugo wakes up, he finds black feathers all over his house.



Historia de Un Oso (Bear Story), Gabriel Osorio Vargas
Synopsis: An old, lonesome bear tells the story of his life through a mechanical diorama.



If I Was God... by Cordell Barker
Synopsis: What would you do if you were 12 and suddenly found yourself charged with God-like powers? Would you use them for good? For bad? Perhaps a little of both? For one Grade 7 boy whose mind starts to wander while dissecting a frog in Biology class, the possibilities seem endless: having the power to toy with life and death, to create monsters who can punish those who torment him daily (in particular, Augie, who sits in the back row), and, more importantly, to create that one perfect day with Lily, the love of his 12-year-old life.



Мы не можем жить без космоса Mi ne mozhem zhit bez kosmosa (We Can't Live Without Cosmos) by Konstantin Bronzit
Synopsis: Two cosmonauts, two friends, try to do their best in their everyday training life to make their common dream a reality. But this story is not only about the dream.



Love in the Time of March Madness by Melissa Johnson and Robertino Zambrano
Synopsis: An animated documentary. Melissa Johnson hit 6'4'' tall in 8th grade. Although this made her an instant basketball star, film explores her hilarious and awkward true-life misadventures in romance as she dates shorter men and gets cheered or jeered wherever she goes. Blazing with honesty and dark humor, this animated 'tall short' about embracing difference is certain to disarm and delight.



An Object at Rest by Seth Boyden
Synopsis: The story of a rock facing its greatest adversary: human civilization.



Prologue by Richard Williams
Synopsis: Describes an incident in the Spartan-Athenian wars of 2,400 years ago. In it, a small girl bears witness as warriors battle to death. The dialog-free project utilizes natural sounds to complement the intense animation.



Sanjay's Super Team by Sanjay Patel
Synopsis: Bored with his father's meditation, a young Indian boy daydreams of Hindu gods as superheroes.



World of Tomorrow by Don Hertzfeldt
Synopsis: A little girl is taken on a mind-bending tour of her distant future.

88th Academy Awards Animated Feature Submissions

A few days ago AMPAS announced that sixteen (16) animated films have qualified for Academy Awards consideration, triggering the possibility that when the Oscar nominations are announced, there will be as many as five (5) nominees in the category.

Under Academy rules, if there are 16 or more animated features in a given year, then the animated feature film awards screening committee may nominate up to five of the films.

These are the 16 films that have been submitted for consideration

Anomalisa, Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman, USA
Bakemono no ko (The Boy and the Beast), Mamoru Hosoda, Japan
The Good Dinosaur, Peter Sohn, USA
Home, Tim Johnson, USA
Hotel Transylvania 2, Genndy Tartakovsky, USA
Inside Out, Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen, USA
Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, Roger Allers, Gaëtan Brizzi, Paul Brizzi, Mohammed Saeed Harib, Tomm Moore, Nina Paley, Bill Plympton, Joann Sfar, and Michal Socha, USA, France, Canada, Lebanon, Qatar
Minions, Kyle Balda and Pierre Coffin, USA
Muumit Rivieralla (Moomins on the Riviera), Xavier Picard and Hanna Hemilä, Finland and France
O Menino e o Mundo (Boy and the World), Alê Abreu, Brazil
Omoide no Mânî (When Marnie Was There), Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Japan
The Peanuts Movie, Steve Martino, USA
Regular Show: The Movie, J. G. Quintel, USA
Shaun the Sheep Movie, Mark Burton and Richard Starzak, UK and France
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water, Paul Tibbitt and Mike Mitchell, USA
UFO gakuen no himitsu (The Laws of the Universe - Part 0), Isamu Imakake, Japan

To check the official announcement go here. There are a couple of what could be interesting movies and one in particular, The Prophet is a movie that I have to see for story and hope animation will be complex and interesting to watch.

Several of the films have not yet had their required Los Angeles qualifying run. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and comply with all of the category’s other qualifying rules before they can advance in the voting process. At least eight eligible animated features must be theatrically released in Los Angeles County within the calendar year for this category to be activated. In any year in which 16 or more animated feature films are eligible, a maximum of five motion pictures may be nominated.

Films submitted in the Animated Feature Film category also may qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture, provided they meet the requirements for those categories.

The 88th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 14, 2016, at 5:30 a.m. PT at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.