Asian Film Awards: ‘Burning’ leads with eight nominations
SEOUL: The 13th Asian Film Awards (AFA) to be held in March is a battle of legends with South Korean auteur Lee Changdong’s mystery drama ‘Burning’ leading the awards with eight nominations.
Japanese modern master Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Cannescrowned ‘Shoplifters’, Hindi film industry hitmaker Rajkumar Hirani’s blockbuster ‘Sanju’, and Chinese cinema great Zhang Yimou’s action epic ‘Shadow’ are in hot pursuit with six nominations each.
Lee, Kore-eda, and Hirani face each other in both the best film and best director categories, whereas all nominations bagged by Zhang’s ‘Shadow’ are for technical awards.
Chinese megahit ‘Dying to Survive’, which grossed US$453 million in the country, and Chinese Tibetan-language road movie ‘Jinpa’, produced by Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar Wai, round out the best film competition.
Jinpa’s Tibetan helmer ‘Pema Tseden’ and Hong Kong maverick Fruit Chan, nominated for satire ‘Three Husbands’, join the best director race.
‘Burning’, the first film Lee directed in eight years, is also in the running for best actor, best newcomer, best screenplay, best cinematography, best production design, and best sound.
In the best actor and best supporting actor categories, ‘Sanju’ and ‘Dying to Survive’ will battle it out with two nominations each, with Xu Zheng and Ranbir Kapoor in contention for best actor, and Zhang Yu and Vicky Kaushal for best supporting actor. ‘Shoplifters’ also nabbed two acting nominations, for Sakura Ando and Mayu Matsuoka in the best actress and best supporting actress races, respectively.
As in previous years, Chinese films and co-productions continued to dominate the nominations, earning a total of 34 nods, with films from Japan and South Korea following with 14 nominations each.
Chinese American actressdirector Joan Chen of ‘The Last Emperor’ and ‘Twin Peaks’ will preside over the jury, which counts Academy Awardnominated Japanese actor Ken Watanabe as the celebrity juror.
To be held on Mar 17 by the Asian Film Awards Academy, the AFA awards ceremony will return to Hong Kong again this year, after taking place in Macau in 2018. Here are the nominations in major categories: Best Film ‘Burning’ (South Korea) ‘Dying to Survive’ (China) ‘Jinpa’ (China) ‘Sanju’ (India) ‘Shoplifters’ (Japan) Best Director Lee Chang-dong, ‘Burning’ Pema Tseden, ‘Jinpa’ Rajkumar Hirani, ‘Sanju’ Hirokazu Kore-eda, ‘Shoplifters’ Fruit Chan, ‘Three Husbands’ Best Actor Yoo Ah-in, ‘Burning’ Xu Zheng, ‘Dying to Survive’ Aaron Kwok, ‘Project Gutenberg’ Ranbir Kapoor, ‘Sanju’ Koji Yakusho, ‘The Blood of Wolves Best Supporting Actress Jin Seo-yeon, ‘Believer’ Ding Ning, ‘Cities of Last Things’ Xu Qing, ‘Hidden Man’ Mayu Matsuoka, ‘Shoplifters’ Kara Wai, ‘Tracey’