The nominees for the 12th Asia Pacific Screen Awards were announced in Brisbane, Australia over the weekend and India is well-represented with five nominations. Nandita Das's Manto (2018), Rima Das's Village Rockstars (2017), Ivan Ayr's Soni (2019), Ere Gowda's Balekempa (2018) and the 2017 documentary Up Down & Sideways (Kho Ki Pa Lü) have all been nominated alongside films produced from the Asia-Pacific region.
Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui has been nominated for best actor along with Zain Al Rafeea for Capharnaüm, Karim Mirkhadiyev for Fortitude (Sabot), Akylbek Abdykalykov for Night Accident (Tunku Kyrsyk) and Bahman Farmanara for Tale of the Sea (Hekayat-e Darya).
Village Rockstars is up for Best Youth Feature Film with Iranian film Ava, Filipino film Nervous Translation, Japanese film Passage of Life (Boku No Kaeru Basho), and Turkish film The Pigeon (Güvercin). Filmmaker Ivan Ayr is in a prestigious category going up against Nadine Labaki, Bruce Beresford, Emir Baigazin and Kore-eda Hirokazu for Achievement In Directing.
Meanwhile, Saumyananda Sahi is nominated for Achievement In Cinematography for his work on Ere Gowda's Balekempa. He competes against Hideho Urata for A Land Imagined, Nawarophaat Rungphiboonsophit for Manta Ray (Kraben Rahu), Chaiyapruek Chalermpornpanit for Malila: The Farewell Flower, and Zhang Miaoyan and Xu Zhiyong for Silent Mist.
Finally, Up Down & Sideways (Kho Ki Pa Lü) is competing for Best Documentary Feature Film against Australia's Gurrumul, Egypt's Amal, Japan's Of Love & Law, and Syria's Of Father And Sons.
In previous years, India has picked up awards for Best Screenplay and Actor. In the inaugral edition in 2007, Feroz Abbas Khan won for his screenplay for Gandhi, My Father, while Ritesh Batra won the same award in 2013 for The Lunchbox (2013).
For the last two years, Indian actors Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao have won the Best Actor award for their performances in Aligarh (2017) and Newton (2017). Amit Masurkar and Mayank Tewari also won the Best Screenplay award for Newton.
The awards will be announced in a grand ceremony on 29 November at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC).