Honoring Asian cinema
Five Asian films are competing to be the Best Film in this year’s Asian Film Awards, according to the Asian Film Awards Academy (AFAA). The lineup of nominees is led by Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave from South Korea, with 10 nominations including the one for Best Film. Other films in the running are Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s Drive My Car (Japan); Darezhan Omirbaev’s
Poet (Kazakhstan), which won the Best Director award in the 34th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF); Manni Ratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan: I (India); and Lav Diaz’s Kapag Wala nang mga Alon (When the Waves are Gone).
Lav Diaz’s film, which I reviewed in this paper (Businessmirror, November 22, 2022, “Forcing Destinies in Lav Diaz’s ‘When the Waves are Gone’”), was shown in the 35th TIFF under its World Focus section. It will also compete for Best Screenplay in the Asian Film Awards.
While the South Korean auteur’s film had the most number of nominations, Japanese cinema is well represented. Outside of Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car, the other Japanese films are: Matsunaga Daishi’s
Egoist, which was part of the 35th TIFF Official Selection; Hayakawa Chie’s Plan 75, Japan’s entry to the international feature film category for the Oscars; Ishikawa Kei’s A Man; and Higuchi Shinji’s Shin Ultraman.
Based on Haruki Murakami’s short story, Drive My Car competed for the Palme d’or and won the Best Screenplay award. The film was nominated for four awards at the 94th Academy Awards and won the Best International Feature Film honor. Plan 75 is Japan’s present entry to the Best International Feature Film (formerly known as the Best Foreign Language Film) category of the 95th Academy Awards.
Drive My Car has eight nominations in the AFA, which include Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor for Nishijima Hidetoshi and Best Supporting Actor for Okada Masaki. Plan 75 garnered four nominations: Best New Director for Hayakawa, Best Actress for Baisho Chieko, Best Supporting Actress for Kawai Yumi, and Best Cinematography for Urata Hideho.
It must be noted that Kore-eda Hirokazu is nominated this time for Best Director for the South Korean film Broker. The filmmaker won the AFA in 2009 for Still Walking, the same year Brillante Mendoza’s Serbis was also nominated for Best Picture. Mendoza would be nominated again the next year for directing Lola, a film that saw the late Anita Linda and Rustica Carpio in a tie for Best Actress during the Gawad Urian. Lola was the first Filipino film nominated for Best Film in the AFAA, making Diaz’s
When the Waves are Gone the second film nominated in the said category.
No Filipino actor is nominated in any acting category in this year’s edition of the Asian Film Awards. In 2013, however, Eddie Garcia and Nora Aunor won Best Actor and Best Actress for Jun Robles Lana’s Bwakaw and Brillante Mendoza’s Thy Womb, respectively. Garcia won the People’s Choice award that year. Earlier, in 2012, Eugene Domingo won the People’s Choice for actress in Marlon Rivera’s
Ang Babae sa Septic Tank. That same year, Shamaine Centenera-buencamino won Best Supporting Actress for Loy Arcenas’s Niño. Much earlier, in 2009, Gina Pareño won Best Supporting Actress for Mendoza’s
Serbis.
According to the AFAA, a total of 30 films from 22 regions and countries are the recipients of 81 nominations. They will be vying for 16 awards.
The AFAA shared the news of Zhang Yimou having been appointed as president of this year’s jury. The director, who burst into the international scene with his multiawarded Raise the Red Lantern, won the Asian Film Awards’ Best Director prize in 2021. He has won the top three film festival awards: twice the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, the Golden Bear at Berlin, and the Grand Prix du Jury from Cannes. Zhang Yimou will chair the panel to be composed of seven judges selected from around the world.
The Asian Film Awards was initiated in 2007 by the Asian Film Awards Academy whose members were drawn from past nominees and winners.
The Asian Film Academy is a non-profit organization founded by the Busan, Hong Kong and Tokyo International Film Festivals, all leading film festivals in Asia. Other than celebrating excellence in Asian cinema, the AFAA has the goal to promote Asian films and the creative human resources that produce them. The awards given each year are one of the instruments aimed at developing the Asian film industry. Members not only vote for the awards but also engage themselves in various AFAA activities with professionals and audiences worldwide.
For the past two years, the AFA was in Busan, South Korea. This year, it returns to Hong Kong. With the support of Createhk and the Film Development Fund, the ceremony will be held for the first time at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Auditorium in the Hong Kong Palace Museum.
In a separate development, the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino is requesting screeners for Filipino films shown or released in 2022 for consideration in the 46th Gawad Urian. Film categories include full-length feature, documentary, experimental, animation and short film. The film should have been aired publicly within January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022, whether in a commercial theater or via online video platform (e.g., Netflix, Amazon Prime).
For submission, send the video link (e.g., Vimeo) to Gary Devilles, chair of the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino, at manunuripelikula@gmail.com, copyfurnished to gdevilles@ateneo.edu.
Indicate in the submission where or which web platform the film has been streamed and relevant information about cast and crew. For films currently streaming via popular platforms such as Youtube or Netflix, provide information of the streaming site.
For inquiries, e-mail