The Asia Pacific Screen Academy today announced a curated program of special screenings will take place throughout the 3rd Asia Pacific Screen Forum from November 11-16 at HOTA, Home of the Arts, Gold Coast.
The program features Cannes Jury Prize winner Memoria (starring Tilda Swinton and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul), Cannes Un Certain Regard selected Rehana (starring Azmeri Haque Badhon – Best Performance by an Actress APSA 2021), Cannes Grand Prix winner Compartment No 6 (co-produced by 2021 FIAPF Award recipient Sergey Selyanov), Berlinale winner Taste (Vị) (Directed by Lê Bảo,APSA 2021 Young Cinema Award winner), Locarno winner A Land Imagined (Directed by Yeo Siew Hua, APSA 2018 Young Cinema Award winner), Giffoni Film Festival selected Cousins (starring Rachel House, and directed by Briar Grace-Smith and Ainsley Gardiner) and Busan and Rotterdam selected Children of the Sun, winner of the APSA Cultural Diversity Award under the patronage of UNESCO.
The screenings offer audiences some of the best recent films from Asia Pacific, and some are complemented by special Forum events.
Memoria is the 2021 multi-award winning drama written and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul which world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 2021. Recognised as one of the most original voices in contemporary cinema, Apichatpong will feature In Conversation with Soros Sukhum, Memoria producer and 2020 APSA FIAPF Award recipient.
Screening: 7pm Friday 12 November at HOTA
Forum event: In Conversation 7pm Monday 15 November HOTA + virtual
Produced by Jeremy Chua, Rehana is Bangladesh’s Oscar Official Submission, and the first film from Bangladesh selected for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard. Nominated for Best Performance by an Actress APSA 2021 for Azmeri Haque Badhon, playing the complex role of Rehana, a teacher, doctor, sister, daughter and mother.
Screening: Saturday November 13 at 4pm at HOTA. Tickets available here.
Forum event: Hear more about the film from producer Jeremy Chua at Any Film is a Sacrifice and a Devotion with Jeremey Chua Monday November 15 at 6pm. HOTA + virtual
Compartment No. 6 follows two strangers on a train ride across Russia who form an unexpected bond. The film is the joint winner of the Grand Prix at the 74th Festival de Cannes and was produced by 2021 FIAPF Award recipient Sergey Selyanov.
Screening: Sunday November 14 at 10:30am at HOTA. Tickets are available here.
Vietnamese director Lê Bảo’s visually stunning feature debut Taste (Vị) is the winner of the APSA 2021 Young Cinema Award. The story follows a Nigerian footballer who has left his 9yr old son to come to Saigon but when injured he is dropped from the team and lives his life as a barber with four Vietnamese women in a stilted slum. Taste (Vị) (Vietnam, Singapore, France, Thailand, Germany) also received a nomination for Achievement in Cinematography for Nguyễn Vinh Phúc. The winner in this Award category will be announced during the APSA Ceremony on November 11.
Screening: Sunday November 14 at 1:30pm HOTA. Tickets are available here.
A Land Imagined (directed by Yeo Siew Hua, APSA 2018 Young Cinema Award winner and Asia Pacific Screen Lab participant) tells the story of a lonely construction worker from China who disappears at a Singapore land reclamation site and a sleepless police investigator who must understand the mindset of the missing man to uncover the truth. Winner of more than 20 major international awards.
Screening: Sunday November 14 at HOTA at 4pm. Tickets are available here.
Forum event: Hear more about the project from writer/director Siew Hua Yeo withLê Bảo and Đong Thị Phương Thảo (Taste (Vị)) and network with other emerging filmmakers during Reel Connections at the 3rd Asia Pacific Screen Forum on Sunday 14 November at 6pm.
In competition at APSA and co-directed by Briar Grace Smith, Cousins is an adaptation of Patricia Grace’s best-selling novel about three cousins in a story of dispossession. Winner of the audience award at the New Zealand Maoriland Film Festival in 2021.
Screening: Monday November 15 at 10am at HOTA. Tickets are available here.
Forum event: Hear more about the film and how it was adapted for screen from writer/director Briar Grace-Smith during From Page to Screen: film adaptations with Eka Kurniawan (Vengeance is mine, All Others Pay Cash) and Leah Purchell (Writer/Director and APSA 2021 Best Actress Nominees for The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson) at the the 3rd Asia Pacific Screen Forum on Sunday November 14 at 10:30am.
The Cultural Diversity Award under the patronage of UNESCO has been awarded to Sri Lanka’s revered filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage for Children of the Sun (Gaadi). Stripped from nobility and forcibly married to an outcast by the monarchy, a noble woman fights to keep her dignity by refusing to succumb to her destiny. Despite many previous APSA nominations for Sri Lankan films, this award marks the first win.
Screening: Tuesday November 16 at 10am, HOTA. Tickets are available here.
Tickets available from HOTA, Home of the Arts.
Hear directly from the filmmakers about these works at the 2021 Asia Pacific Screen Forum.
