The 14th edition of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) has nominated Iranian movies ‘A Hero’ and ‘Careless Crime’ in different categories.
The gala announced nominees on Wednesday, with ‘A Hero’ being nominated in four categories of best film, best director, best screenplay, and best actor (Amir Jadidi). And ‘Careless Crime’ written by Nasim Ahmadpur and Shahram Mokri is another nominee for the best screenplay award.
Written and directed by renowned filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, ‘A Hero’ is about Rahim (Jadidi), a working-class man separated from his first wife, with whom he has a stuttering young son, who has spent three years incarcerated for defaulting on a debt, but is given leave for two days, during which he tries to turn around his fortunes, but quickly finds himself caught in a web of white lies.
The Hollywood Reporter predicted ‘A Hero’ to be Iran’s submission for the next edition of the Academy Awards.
Set to compete at the Mostra-Sao Paulo International Film Festival in Brazil, Sydney Film Festival in Australia, the Montclair Film Festival in the US, and the Film Festival Cologne in Germany, the movie has so far toured a wide range of the most prominent global galas, including the Hamptons International Film Festival in the US, the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, the Adana Golden Boll International Film Festival in Turkey, the Zurich Film Festival in Switzerland, and the Cannes Film Festival in France, where it won the Grand Prix.
Directed by Shahram Mokri, the 135-minute ‘Careless Crime’ was internationally premiered at the Orizzonti section of the 77th Venice Film Festival in Italy.
Going back to forty years ago, the movie’s story starts during the uprising to overthrow the Shah’s regime in Iran.
Then, protestors set fire to movie theaters as a way of showing opposition to Western culture and burned down many cinemas.
In one tragic case, a theater was set on fire with four hundred people inside and most of them were burned alive.
Now in contemporary Iran, after forty years, four individuals also decide to burn down a movie theater.
Produced by Negar Eskanadarfar and Karnameh Institute of Arts and Culture, the flick is starring Babak Karimi, Razieh Mansouri, and Abolfazl Kahani.
Set to compete at the Doclisboa Film Festival in Portugal, ‘Careless Crime’ has already gone on screen at several global, including the Hong Kong International Film Festival, the Jeonju International Film Festival in South Korea, the Guanajuato International Film Festival in Mexico, the Olhar de Cinema in Brazil, the Venice International Film Festival in Italy, where it won the Best Original Screenplay award, and the Dhaka International Film Festival in Bangladesh, where it received the best screenplay award.
The APSA 2021 has also nominated ‘Drive My Car’ by Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi in the best feature film category.
Dea Kulumbegashvili for ‘Beginning’ from Georgia and France, Ryusuke Hamaguchi for ‘Drive My Car’ from Japan, P S Vinothraj for ‘Pebbles’ from India, and Kamila Andini for ‘Yuni’ from Indonesia, Singapore and France are the other nominees in the best director category.
Levan Tediashvili for ‘Brighton 4th’ from Georgia, Russia, Bulgaria, Monaco and the US, Hidetoshi Nishijima for ‘Drive My Car’ from Japan, Merab Ninidze for ‘House Arrest’ from Russia, and Caleb Landry Jones for ‘Nitram’ from Australia are also nominated in the best actor category.
‘Drive My Car’ written by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and OE Takamasa, ‘Here We Are’ written by Dana Idisis, and ‘Sughra’s Sons’ written by Asif Rustamov, Roelof Jan Minneboo and Ilgar Najaf are the other nominees for the best screenplay award.
The 14th APSA is playing host to 38 films from 25 Asia Pacific countries. The winners will be announced on November 11 on Gold Coast in Australia.
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