Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster has scored the highest number of nominations for the upcoming Asia Pacific Film Festival (APFF) awards, which are being held in Macau for the second consecutive year (Dec 13-15).

The Grandmaster scooped nine nods, including best film, best director, best actor (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and best actress (Zhang Ziyi). It was followed by Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer with seven nominations, including best director, best supporting actor (Song Kang-ho) and best supporting actress (Tilda Swinton).

Also scoring multiple nominations are Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox with six nods, Tsai Ming-liang’s Stray Dogs and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Like Father, Like Son with five apiece, and Anthony Chen’s Ilo Ilo with four.

Best Short Film and Outstanding Achievement awards will also be announced at the ceremony to be held at the Venetian Macau.  

Hong Kong producer Nansun Shi, who was recently awarded France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, will head this year’s APFF jury.

“I am honoured and pleased to be invited to be the jury president of this year’s APFF and the list of nominations showcase some of the most outstanding films from the Asia-Pacific region,” Shi said.

The jury also includes Malaysian filmmaker Afdlin Shauki, London Film Festival’s Clare Stewart, Cannes’ Christian Jeune, Korean filmmaker Hur Jin-Ho, Taiwanese filmmaker Sylvia Chang and Zhang Zhao, CEO of China’s Le Vision Pictures.

Alan Yuen’s Firestorm, starring Andy Lau, will be the opening film of this year’s Asia Pacific Film Festival.  

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