Turkey's Oscar Submission Wins the APSA

The Asian Pacific Awards, now in their 10th year (and our own Glenn Dunks works for them behind the scenes), and unconcerned with our American Holiday held their ceremony in Brisbane today. (Their awards cover the whole continent so all the countries you might think of as Asian, plus ones you don't like Australia, Russia, etcetera). The hosts were actor David Wenham (Lion, Australia, Lord of the Rings) and international journalist Anjali Rao. The winners (with their trailers) are after the jump...

Best Feature Film
Cold of Kalandar (Turkey) *WINNER*
Daughter (Iran)
Ember (Turkey / Germany)
Muhammad: The Messenger of God (Iran)
The Student (Russia)

Cold of Kalandar is Turkey's Oscar submission this year. It's reportedly a strong handsomely made slow burner about a struggling Turkish family. It also took the cinematography prize. Turkey has never been nominated in the foreign film category. Could that finally change this year? 

Achievement in Direction
Zeki Demirkubuz, Ember (Turkey / Germany)
Joon-ik Lee, The Throne (Korea)
Bi Gan, Kaili Blues (China)
Feng Xiaogang, I Am Not Madame Bovary (China) *WINNER* 
Anurag Kashyag, Psycho Raman (India)

Best Screenplay
Yang Chao, Crosscurrent (China)
Mehran Kashini, Daughter (Iran)
Gurvinder Singh and Waryam Singh Sandhu, The Fourth Direction (India / France)
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Tadashi Nohara and Tomoyuki Takahashi, Happy Hour (Japan) WINNER
Leena Yadav and Supratik Sen, Parched (India / USA / UK)

Achievement in Cinematography
Cevahir Şahin and Kürşat Üresin, Cold of Kalandar (Turkey) WINNER
Gorka Gómez Andreu, House of Others (Georgia / Russia / Spain / Croatia)
Wang Tianxing, Kaili Blues (China)
Vittorio Storaro, Muhammad: The Messenger of God (Iran)
Jay Oza, Psycho Raman (India)

Best Performance by an Actor
Manoj Bajpayee, Aligahr (India) WINNER
Farhad Aslani, Daughter (Iran)
Dev Patel, Lion (Australia)
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Psycho Raman (India) SPECIAL MENTION
Song Kang-ho, The Throne (Korea) 

Aligarh is about a man suspended from his job due to his sexual orientation so we assume this one will eventually travel since LGBT films tend to show up internationally eventually, at least on streaming or DVD. (I unfortunately we do not know what their "special mention" indicates but we'll look into it -- perhaps it was a near tie?)

Best Performance by an Actress
Youn Yuh-jung, The Bacchus Lady (Korea)
Aslihan Gürbüz, Ember (Turkey / Germany)
Agrippina Steklova, Insight (Russia)
Hasmine Killip, Ordinary People (Philippines) WINNER
Natalia Pavlenkova, Zoology (Russia)

Cultural Diversity Award
The Bonfire (Russia)
Cold of Kalandar (Turkey)
The Dark Wind (Iraq / Qatar / Germany) WINNER
In the Last Days of the City (Egypt /  UAE / UK /Germany)
Knife in the Clear Water (China) 

Best Documentary
City of Jade (Myanmar /Taiwan)
Exile (Cambodia / France)
Snow Monkey (Australia)
Starless Dreams (Iran) WINNER
Under the Sun (Russia / Korea / Germany / Czech Republic / Latvia)

Best Youth Feature
Breath (Iran)
The Quest (India)
The Trap (India)
Wolf and Sheep (Afghanistan / Denmark / France /Sweden)
The World of Us (Korea) WINNER

The World of Us is produced by Lee Chang-dong who is a favorite of APSA having won three of their prizes in the past

Best Animated Feature
Bilal (UAE / USA)
Manang Biring (Philippines)
Savva (Russia)
Seoul Station (Korea) WINNER
Sheep and Wolves (Russia)

Seoul Station is an animated prequel to the South Korean hit Train to Busan which is currently playing in the US

Additional Awards

Little Sunny got a prize!

APSA FIAPF AWARD for Outstanding Achievement in Film in the Asia Pacific region
Iranian producer Mannochehr Mohammadi

JURY GRAND PRIZE
Youn Yuh-Jung in The Bacchus Lady (South Korea)

JURY GRAND PRIZE
Mark Lee Ping-bing for Crosscurrent (China)

JURY GRAND PRIZE SPECIAL MENTION  
Sunny Pawar in Lion (Australia) 

SPECIAL MENTION: YOUNG CINEMA AWARD
Bi Gan for Kaili Blues (China) 

Comments

[Carlos]

This is the only bit of good news a turkey's received today! lol

[Glenn Dunks]

I am so tired today, but yes what a great night!

FWIW, the best actor special mention is just that. They really really really liked the PSYCHO RAMAN actor, but was ever so slightly edged out by ALIGARH and the jury of voters are allowed a special mention or two. The ALIGARH actor's win was one of the best of the night with all the other Indian nominees and guests rushing to the front of the room to watch him accept.

Carlos, there is a wonderful photo that will hopefully be online today, of the producer of EMBER - another Turkish film nominated for Best Feature Film - excitedly jumping for joy for his Turkish colleagues as they won the award. A great moment that signifies a lot of what APSA is all about.

[Mirko]

I winder if these movies (except LION) will be considered also by Asian Film Awards which will take place on spring