Asian Film Awards - 2007 Nominations
February 9th, 2007 by Andre Soares
The nominees for the 1st Asian Film Awards (AFA) were unveiled this past Jan. 29. The awards ceremony, to be held on March 20, will open the 31st Hong Kong Film Festival.
According to AFA’s mission statement, the awards were created to "to acknowledge the finest of Asian Cinema, and bestow honor in various categories to film artists from across Asia, in the company of distinguished celebrities from around the world as guests and presenters."
However, the vast majority of the nominated films hail from East Asia. India received only one nomination, while apart from Iran’s two nods, West Asia was completely ignored and so was Central Asia. (And northern Asia, though I’m not sure if a Siberian movie would officially qualify as "Asian.")
South Korean cinema was particularly well represented. The local blockbuster (and top Korean Film Awards winner) Gwoemul / The Host (top), a comedy-horror-thriller about a mutant monster, garnered five nods, including best film and best actor (Song Kang-ho), while the psychological drama Haebyonui yoin / Woman on the Beach received three, including best director and best screenplay nods for Hong Sang-soo.
Among the other best film nominees are Venice Film Festival winner Sanxia Haoren / Still Life, a social drama directed by Jia Zhang-Ke; Garin Nugroho’s Indonesian-Austrian drama with music Opera Jawa, the tale of a tragic love triangle; Yôji Yamada’s Bushi no ichibun / Love and Honor, the story of a blind Samurai and his devoted wife; Johnnie To’s crime thriller Fong juk / Exiled; and Zhang Yimou’s highly successful period drama Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia / Curse of the Golden Flower (left), which also received nominations for best actress (Gong Li) and best visual effects.
Other nominees include Ziyi Zhang, vying for the best actress prize for her performance in Ye yan / The Banquet, and Ken Watanabe, competing in the best actor category for his performance as a man diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in Ashita no kioku / Memories of Tomorrow. Chang Chen, at one point the favorite to win last year’s best actor Golden Horse for Wu Qingyuan / The Go Master — until Chinese authorities decided to withdraw the film from competition — is back in the running.
The nominees were chosen by the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society, with some input from AFA jury members, which consist of about two dozen professionals from the film world. The jury will decide on the winner for each of the AFA’s ten categories.
The Hong Kong Film Festival runs between March 20-April 11, 2007.
Full list of 2007 Asian Film Award nominees
Full list of 2006 Golden Horse Award winners and nominees
Full list of 2006 Asia-Pacific winners and nominees
Full list of 2006 Asian First Film winners and nominees
London Film Critics’ Circle Awards - 2007 Winners
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