China/Hong Kong win at Asia Pacific Screen Awards
China/Hong Kong film Aftershock has won the Best Feature Film category at the 4th Asia Pacific Screen Awards on the Gold Coast.
Australia received two high commendation awards, for Best Performance (Tony Barry in New Zealand’s Home for Christmas) and Outstanding Technology and Special Effects (Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole).
“Ultimately Aftershock won best film because, in my own view, it has everything. It is as good a ‘big’ movie as any I’ve seen from Hollywood in years. It doesn’t disappoint at any level. It has already attracted a huge audience and it has every chance of going on to capture a bigger international audience. It is incredibly moving and, at the same time, it is really an extraordinarily restrained film…and it ends beautifully,” said Jury president, Lord David Puttnam.
The ceremony also included the announcement of the first grants offered by the MPA APSA Academy Film Fund, for writer/directors Lee Chang-dong, Sergey Dvortsevoy, Ashar Farhadi and Peng Tao. They will receive U$25,000 each, to be allocated to the script development of new feature film projects.
