APSA Nominees & Winners

Known for his ‘obsession with light’, Lyu Songye was born and raised in Hulun Buir, China. He graduated from St Petersburg State University of Film…

Mindia Esadze is a highly-regarded cinematographer whose body of work also includes 2017 APSA nominee, Dedé. Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, he shot Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s The…

In 2005, Shehnad Jalal graduated from the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata, India, with a three-year Post Graduate Diploma in Cinematography. He…

Warwick Thornton gained international recognition when his feature film debut Samson and Delilah (2009), which he wrote, directed and shot, won the Cannes Film Festival’s…

Winner, Jury Grand Prize, 2017 Ana Urushadze hails from Georgia and was born in Tblisi in 1990 and graduated from the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and…

Hirokazu Kore-eda is one of Japan’s most highly-regarded auteurs. His directorial debut Maborosi (1995) won the 52nd Venice International Film Festival’s Golden Osella Prize. Subsequently,…

Mouly Surya is a Jakarta-based filmmaker who is considered one of the most promising female filmmakers in Indonesia. After earning her BA in Media and…

Based in Kerala, India, Sanal Kumar Sasidharan is a Zoology and Law graduate who moved into the world of independent cinema in 2001. He co-formed…

Based on the popular best-selling manga series written and illustrated by Yoshitoki Ōima, Naoko Yamada’s A Silent Voice begins at a Japanese elementary school where Shoya Ishida…

APSA-winning director Liu Jian directs this madcap black comedy set in the lower class underworld of a southern Chinese city. Xiao Zhang is a desperate…

Made by five animators over a period of twelve years, Saving Sally is a story of unrequited love and monsters both real and metaphorical. Told through a…

Mitsuha and Taki are total strangers living completely different lives in different parts of Japan. But when Mitsuha makes a wish to leave her quiet…

Usingthe Yangtze river as a contemplative metaphor for contemporary China, this black and white journey sets off from the Port of Shanghai on a filmed…

The Lebanese Civil War may be over but the Syrian one still rages on. In Beirut, Syrian refugees take jobs as construction workers, building skyscrapers…

Hollie Fifer’s debut film is a David-and-Goliath battle over a slice of Papua New Guinea paradise. Joe Moses, leader of the Paga Hill Settlement, struggles…

A woman lives alone on the outskirts of her Russian village. One day she receives a returned care package that she had sent to her…

Reza and his family lead a simple life working on his goldfish farm in a northern Iranian village. Nearby, a private company with close links…

In a small seaside town in southern China, a scandal breaks out when two schoolgirls are assaulted by a middle-aged man in a motel. Mia,…

Is life the result of meaningless, chaotic chance, or is chance itself a sophisticated, well-calculated plan? Told through three acts, Foxtrot is the story of…

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…

Mohamed Bakri is a Palestinian actor and filmmaker. He studied acting and Arabic literature at the Tel Aviv University and went on to star in…

Paolo Ballesteros is a high-profile and much-loved actor, television host and comedian known for his impeccable impersonations and character portrayals. Since his breakthrough in the…

Saleh Bakri is a Palestinian actor. He is the son of Mohammed Bakri (also nominated in this category for the same film) and brother to…

Cut Mini is a highly-regarded actress from Jakarta, Indonesia, who began her career as a model in the late 1980s. Over the last two decades…

Young Turkish actress Ecem Uzun was born in Istanbul and has been acting since 2010. She has starred in teen drama television series Little Secrets,…

Korean actress Na Moon-hee is beloved, respected and acclaimed over her 56 year-long career. Her long list of accomplishments include feature films and television series,…

Internationally acclaimed Chinese actress and singer, Zhou Xun, made her screen debut in Strange Tales Amongst Old and Desolute Tombs (1991), and had her breakout role in Lou…

Writer and director Boris Khlebnikov made his feature screenwriting and directorial debut with the internationally successful Roads to Koktebel (2003), which won the Philip Morris…

Dastan Zhapar Uulu graduated from Kyrgyz State University of Culture and Arts in the Theatre and Cinema Faculty in 2010 and that same year became a…

David Tranter is Australia’s leading Aboriginal sound recordist, with a career spanning more than 20 years. For his work on Warwick Thornton’s Samson and Delilah…

Hirokazu Kore-eda is one of Japan’s most highly regarded auteurs, a writer/director who also wrote for most his directorial works. His directorial debut Maborosi (1995)…

Teenagers Ali and Zuhal grew up together in an orphanage with a bond as strong as siblings. When Ali moves out on account of his…

Adapted from Craig Silvey’s bestselling Australian novel of the same name, Jasper Jones is the story of Charlie Bucktin, a bookish 14-year-old boy living in a small…

A mountain goat that has taken shelter in a small village is to be sacrificed for the occasion of a traditional ceremony. However, a small…

It is the early 1990s in China and a western city boy named Xiao Lei has just graduated from primary school. Finally it is time…

Aktan Arym Kubat’s sixth features follows Centaur, a quiet, small and modest man who lives a simple life in a small Kyrgyzstan village. He is…

Detective Kinley is sent to a remote region of Bhutan to investigate the disappearance of a Buddhist nun. He goes undercover and enters a risky…

Prolific Filipino director Jun Robles Lana’s Die Beautiful is the story of Trisha, a transgender woman who dies suddenly while on stage being crowned in…