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.