Brisbane Honours Best Of Regional Cinema At 2015 Asia Pacific Screen Awards

Brisbane embraced its aspirations of positioning itself as Australia's newest 'world' city with last night's ninth Asia Pacific Screen Awards ceremony, held at City Hall, celebrating the finest in film from across the world's fastest-growing cinema-making region.

Thirty-nine films from 22 countries were nominated for the awards — which are held as part of the concurrent Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival — with Thai/Malay/French/German/UK production Cemetery Of Splendour (Rak ti Khon Kaen), directed by Apchatpong Weerasethakul, earning the night's highest honour by taking out the prize for Best Feature Film.

Hany Abu-Assad, the director of BAPFF opening-night feature The Idol (Ya Tayr El Tayer, Palestine/Qatar/UAE/UK/Netherlands), was bestowed the prestigious APSA UNESCO Award, which the auteur accepted via video message, explaining the innate hopefulness at the core of his acclaimed film.

"Thank you, dear jury, for this great honor; giving us the UNESCO Award is a courageous decision at this time," Abu-Assad said in his acceptance. "The world seems to lose hope in the future. The Idol is a film about hope and our job as an artist is to keep believing in a better future. Our main job is to let people believe in making the world better, and to believe yourself that you can make a difference."

Australian director Stephen Page was awarded an APSA UNESCO Award Special Mention — one of a handful of nods for outstanding nominees in addition to the prizewinners — for his work on his lauded film Spear.

Korean actor Jung Jaeyoung took home the gong for Best Performance By An Actor, for Right Now, Wrong Then (Jigeumeun Matgo Geuttaeneun Teullida), while venerated veteran actress Kirin Kiki won Best Performance By An Actress — the first Japanese actress to do so — for her role in An (Japan/France/Germany).

The night featured appearances from Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, APSA chairman Michael Hawkins, APSA Academy president and celebrated actor Jack Thompson, with stalwart Melburnians The Bombay Royale providing the post-show entertainment.

See below for a full rundown of winners from the night's event. The Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival runs until this Sunday, 29 November. See BAPFF's website for more information.

2015 asia pacific screen awards: winners

BEST FEATURE FILM

Cemetery of Splendour (Rak ti Khon Kaen)

Thailand, Malaysia, France, Germany, United Kingdom

BEST YOUTH FEATURE FILM

River (Gtsngbo)

People's Republic of China 

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Miss Hokusai (Sarusuberi: Miss Hokusai)

Japan 

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM

The Chinese Mayor (Datong)

People's Republic of China 

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING

Alexey German Jr for Under Electric Clouds (Pod elektricheskimi oblakami)

Russian Federation, Ukraine, Poland

BEST SCREENPLAY

Senem Tüzen for Motherland (Ana Yurdu)

Turkey, Greece

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY

Mark Lee Ping-bing for The Assassin (Nie Yinniang)

Taiwan

Special Mention: Achievement in Cinematography

Lu Songye for Tharlo

People's Republic of China

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS

Kirin Kiki in An

Japan, France, Germany

Special Mention: Best Performance by an Actress

Fatemeh Motamed Arya in Avalanche (Bahman)

Islamic Republic of Iran

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR

Jung Jaeyoung in Right Now, Wrong Then (Jigeumeun Matgo Geuttaeneun Teullida)

Republic of Korea

APSA UNESCO AWARD

Hany Abu-Assad for The Idol (Ya Tayr El Tayer)

Palestine, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Netherlands

Special Mention: APSA UNESCO Award

Stephen Page for Spear

Australia

FIAPF AWARD for Outstanding Achievement in Film in the Asia Pacific region 

Esaad Younis

Egypt

APSA ACADEMY NETPAC DEVELOPMENT PRIZE

Mirlan Abdykalykov for Heavenly Nomadic (Sutak) 

Kyrgyzstan

JURY GRAND PRIZE

Park Jungbum for writing/directing/acting in Alive (Sanda) 

Republic of Korea

JURY GRAND PRIZE

Emin Alper for writing and directing Frenzy (Abluka)

Turkey, Qatar, France