APSA Nominees & Winners

Eleven-year-old Karin is abandoned by her father at the house of her grandfather, the monk of a small town in the Japanese countryside. Her grandfather…

Grace Pudel, a lonely misfit with an affinity for collecting ornamental snails and an intense love for books, retells her life story to a humble…

Having survived foot-and-mouth disease only on willpower, Pig H swears that he must become human in order not to die as trash. He is ready…

Synesthete Totsuko can see others as colours. Honours student Kimi has dropped out of school but still pretends to attend for her grandmother’s sake. They…

Arseni Khachaturan is a cinematographer based in New York. He was born in Minsk, Belarus, and was invested in arts from a young age, experimenting…

Hideho Urata is a cinematographer based in Singapore, originally from Japan, He embarked on his career in the United States, where he honed his skills…

Ranabir Das is a cinematographer based in Mumbai. He graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India. His first feature film as a cinematographer,…

Born in 1984, Son Doan began working on film sets in 2012 after studying cinematography at INSAS in Brussels. In 2017, he shot Meryem Ben m’Barek’s…

Dea Kulumbegashvili is Georgian writer-director based in Tbilisi. Her debut short film Invisible Spaces was nominated for a Palme d’Or du Court Métrage at the…

Payal Kapadia is a Mumbai-based filmmaker. She studied film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India. Her short films Afternoon Clouds and And What Is The Summer Saying…

Rithy Panh was born in 1964 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. At the age of 11, like all Cambodians, he was interned in Khmer rouge camps…

Xiaoxuan Jiang is a writer-director born in Inner Mongolia, China. She received her BFA in Film & TV from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.…

Breaking the Cycle captures the political awakening among Thais after the rise and fall of Thanatorn, a young politician who calls to end the cycle…

In the remote mountains of central Afghanistan, a Hazara family seeks justice after the death of their daughter Zahra at Kabul University. Told through the…

XiXi is a captivating and free-spirited performer living in Europe. Drawn to the artist’s unique style and Chinese roots, Taiwanese director Fan Wu sparks dialogue…

As the New Year break is coming, textile workshops in Zhili are almost deserted. The few remaining employees are desperate to be paid for their…

In Mumbai, nurse Prabha’s routine is troubled when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger roommate Anu meanwhile tries in vain…

For 21-year-old Kana, thinking about the future is too boring, and she doesn’t know what she wants in life. She lacks passion for anything, and…

In a near-future Tokyo where the threat of a catastrophic earthquake pervades daily life, two rabble-rousing best friends are about to graduate from high school.…

Amid the wintry steppes, Saina, a Mongolian horseman turned cultural performer, tends his ranch during the day and performs horseback tricks for audiences at night.…

Kani Kusruti is an Indian actress based in Kochi. She was awarded Best Actress in the Kerala State Film Awards 2020 and the BRICS Best…

Madina Akylbek was born on September 27, 1987, in Almaty. She excelled academically, graduating from a special maths program with a Golden Medal, but her…

Soheila Golestani, born in 1980, is an actress and director who has been working professionally since the mid-noughties. She has appeared in films such as…

Yuumi Kawai was born in 2000 and raised in Tokyo. In 2021, her performances in the films It’s a Summer Film! and A Balance were…

Dea Kulumbegashvili is Georgian writer-director based in Tbilisi. Her debut short film Invisible Spaces was nominated for a Palme d’Or du Court Métrage at the…

Raised in New York and Tokyo, Neo Sora is a filmmaker, artist, and translator living between the two cities. He directed the feature-length concert film Ryuichi…

Payal Kapadia is a Mumbai-based filmmaker. She studied film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India. Her short films Afternoon Clouds and And What Is The Summer Saying…

P S Vinothraj is a filmmaker hailing from Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. Owing to poverty, he dropped out of school when he was in fourth…

After reading the iconic book by Alison Lester, nine children (and one dog) find themselves on the titular Magic Beach. They explore caves, build giant…

On their first encounter, late bloomer Zhuang takes the blame for the theft of a starting gun by schoolmate and distance runner Meng. Just before…

A young gymnast finds out she is pregnant in the week of the Philippine national team tryouts. On her way to a seller of illegal…

Three children set off on a mission to find healing under the watchful eye of the mountain Taranaki Mounga. Together they discover friendship in the…