Organized by the Asian Film Awards Academy, the Asian Film Awards will celebrate its 10th anniversary this year. For this edition, 77 nominations have been made for 15 awards. The nominations represent 36 films from 9 countries.World-renowned Hong Kong director Mr. Johnnie TO Kei-fung will serve as this year’s Jury President and lead a jury comprising by two popular celebrity jurors, Hong Kong actor Mr. Sean LAU Ching-wan and mainland Chinese actress Ms. GAO Yuanyuan, as well as 12 respected film industry professionals, festival programmers and critics from all over the world.
This year, the AFA received almost 1,600 submissions from 32 countries. The entries were wide-ranging and include genres like wuxia, period epics, romantic comedies, crime, festival acclaimed works and many others.
Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Assassin leads the pack with nine (9) nominations followed by Port of Call by Philp Yung and the unexpected contender, Bajirao Mastani by Sanjay Leela Bhansali with five (5) each.
To read nominations full press release go official site here and to read nominations in all categories go here both files available in pdf format.
The following are the nominees for some of the 15 categories.
Best Film
Mountains May Depart, France, Japan and China
The Assassin, Hong Kong, China and Taiwan
Bajirao Mastani, India
Three Stories of Love, Japan
Mr. Six, China
Veteran, South Korea
Best Director
Jia Zhang-ke for Mountains May Depart
Hou Hsiao-Hsien for The Assassin
Kore-eda Hirokazu for Our Little Sister
Guan Hu for Mr. Six
Ryoo Seung-wan for Veteran
Best Actress
Zhao Tao in Mountains May Depart
Shu Qi in The Assassin
Ayase Haruka in Our Little Sister
Kim Hye-soo in Coin Locker Girl
Karena Lam in Zinnia Flower
Best Actor
Donnie Yen in Ip Man 3
Nagase Masatoshi in An
Feng Xiaogang in Mr. Six
Lee Byung-Hun in Inside Men
John Arcilla in Heneral Luna
Best Screenplay
Jia Zhang-ke for Mountains May Depart
Philp Yung for Port Of Call
Vishal Bhardwaj for Talvar
Ujita Takashi and Kurosawa Kiyoshi for Journey to the Shore
Ryoo Seung-wan for Veteran
Best Cinematography
Chirstopher Doyle for Port of Call
Mark Lee Ping-Bing for The Assassin
Sasakibara Yasushi and Yamamoto Yoshiaki for Gonin Saga
Luo Pan for Mr. Six
Kim Woo-hyung for Assassination
No surprise when almost all the films listed in the above categories are known to me, especially two films by my most-favorite directors Jia Zhang-ke and Hou Hsiao-Hsien. The Awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, March 17 at The Venetian Theater in The Venetian Macau.