Multi-award winning actor Koji Yakusho dominated film awards ceremonies in Japan in 1996 as lead actor in the films Shall We Dance?, Sleeping Man, and Shabu Gokudo. He appeared as the lead in Shohei Imamura’s Palme d’Or winner The Eel (1997) and received the Best Actor Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival for Cure (1997). He later won acting prizes for the Cannes-premiered Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (2001) and The World of Kanako (2014). For his outstanding achievements in the creative field, Yakusho received the Medal with Purple Ribbon from the Emperor of Japan in 2012.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and emerging. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
