Beyond the Hill leads the pack at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards

A total of 34 films from 18 countries are named in the nominations, which has been narrowed down from a field of 264 from 38 countries.

After five years on Queensland’s Gold Coast, the ceremony has been moved north to Brisbane and will be held on Nov 23 during the Brisbane International Film Festival.

Debut drama Beyond The Hill has earned director Emin Alper a nomination for best screenplay and Tamer Levent is in the running for best actor. The film has already earned considerable acclaim, winning the award for best Turkish film at the Istanbul International Film Festival, the jury prize at Sarajevo and the Caligari Film Prize at Berlin.

Nameless Gangster: Rules Of The Time also has a nomination in one of the two acting categories for Choi Min-sik.

Two of the best feature nominees have also been nominated for cinematography: Yury Raysky for the epic historical drama The Horde, the biggest Russian production of the year, and Jake Pollock and Lai Yiu-fai for the martial arts themed Wu Xia, which screened out of competition at Cannes.

The fifth best feature nominee, Bear, is the only one to also receive a nomination for direction. Bear’s director, Khosro Masumi, is up against Anurag Kashyap for Gangs of Wasseypur (India), Brillante Ma. Mendoza for Thy Womb (Philippines), Cheng Er for Lethal Hostage (China) and Reis Çelik for Night of Silence (Turkey).

The Pakistan film Bol also has two APSA nominations: Shoaib Mansoor has a chance of winning best screenplay and Humaima Malick is nominated for best performance by an actress.

Several of the nominees have been submitted for the best foreign language film category in the Academy Awards.

UNESCO and FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers Associations), two of APSAs’ key collaborators, will present additional awards on the night. The jury grand prize will be presented in Screen International’s name.

BEST FEATURE FILM

• Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time (Republic of Korea), producers Park Shin-kyu, Han Jae-duk
• Bear (Islamic Republic of Iran), Javad Norouzbeigi
• The Horde (Russian Federation), Natalya Gostyushina, Sergei Kravets
• Beyond the Hill (Turkey, Greece), Enis Köstepen, Seyfi Teoman, Emin Alper and co-producer Nikos Moutselos
• Wu Xia(Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China), Peter Ho-sun Chan, Jojo Hui Yuet-chun and co-producers Lu York, Dong Keyan, Hong Tao, Jiang Wenbo

BEST CHILDREN’S FEATURE FILM

• My Australia (Poland, Israel), producers Marek Rozenbaum, Itai Tamir, Dariusz Jablonski, Violetta Kaminska, Izabela Wojcikl
• Gattu (India), Dr. Shravan Kumar, Children’s Film Society of India.
• I Wish (Japan), Kentaro Koike, Hijiri Taguchi and co-producer Satomi Odake
• The Mirror Never Lies (Indonesia), Garin Nugroho, Nadine Chandrawinata
• Off White Lies (Israel), Aurit Zamir, Yoav Roeh and co-producer Janja Kralj

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM

• Five Broken Cameras (Israel, Palestine, France), producers Christine Camdessus, Serge Gordey, Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi
• In My Mother’s Arms (Iraq, UK, Netherlands), Isabelle Stead, Atia Jabarah Al-Daradji, Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji
• The Land Beneath the Fog (Indonesia, Germany), Shalahuddin Siregar
• Planet of Snail (Republic of Korea, Japan, Finland), Kim Min-chul, Gary Kam and co-producers Janne Niskala, Imamura Ken-ichi
• The Law in These Parts (Israel, US, Germany) Liran Atzmor and co-producers BZ Goldberg, Laura Poitras, Martin Hagemann

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

• Happy Feet Two (Australia, US), Doug Mitchell, George Miller, Bill Miller and co-producer Martin Wood
• From Up on Poppy Hill (Japan), Toshio Suzuki
• A Letter to Momo(Japan), Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, Hiroyuki Ikeda, Shigeru Watanabe, Kazuya Hamana
• Rainbow Fireflies (Japan), Atsutoshi Umezawa
• Wolf Children (Japan), Yuichiro Saito, Takuya Ito, Takashi Watanabe

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING

• Anurag Kashyap for Gangs of Wasseypur (India)
• Brillante Ma. Mendoza for Thy Womb (Philippines)
• Cheng Er for Lethal Hostage (People’s Republic of China)
• Khosro Masoumi for Bear (Islamic Republic of Iran)
• Reis Çelik for Night of Silence (Turkey)

BEST SCREENPLAY

• Cheng Er for Lethal Hostage (People’s Republic of China)
• Chris Martinez for The Woman in the Septic Tank (Philippines)
• Emin Alper for Beyond the Hill (Turkey, Greece)
• Reis Çelik for Night of Silence (Turkey)
• Shoaib Mansoor for Bol (Pakistan)

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY

• Charin Pengpanich for Bunohan: Return to Murder (Malaysia)
• Chin Ting-Chang for Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (Taiwan)
• Jake Pollock and Lai Yiu-fai for Wu Xia (Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China)
• Touraj Aslani for Rhino Season (Iraqi-Kurdistan,Turkey)
• Yury Raysky for The Horde (Russian Federation)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR

• Choi Min-sik for Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time (Republic of Korea)
• Lior Ashkenazi for Footnote (Israel)
• Manoj Bajpayee for Gangs of Wasseypur (India)
• Tamer Levent for Beyond the Hill (Turkey, Greece)
• Wu Tianming for Full Circle (People’s Republic of China)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS

• Cho Min-soo for Pieta (Republic of Korea)
• Darya Ekamasova for Once Upon a Time There Lived a Simple Woman (Russian Federation)
• Humaima Malick for Bol (Pakistan)
• Nora Aunor for Thy Womb (Philippines)
• Vidya Balan for The Dirty Picture (India)