The Indian films Gully Boy (2019, Hindi), Jallikkattu (2019, Malayalam) and Thappad (2020, Hindi) have bagged a few nominations each for the 14th Asian Film Awards hosted in Busan, South Korea.
The Asian Film Awards Academy (AFAA), made up of the Hong Kong, Tokyo and Busan international film festivals, announced the nominations yesterday.
The organizers will hold an online video announcement of the winners on 14 October, instead of a live event, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thappad, Anubhav Sinha's hard-hitting drama about the deeply rooted patriarchal mindset of Indians, starring Taapsee Pannu, is the only Indian film to be nominated in the Best Film category. Apart from this, Yasha Ramchandani has been nominated for Best Editing for her work on the film.
Zoya Akhtar's underdog drama Gully Boy, about Mumbai's underground rap culture, has been nominated in three categories, Best Original Music for Karsh Kale and The Salvage Audio Collective, Best Costume Design for Arjun Bhasin and Poornamrita Singh, and Best Production Design for Suzanne Caplan Merwanji.
Lijo Jose Pellissery's bold Malayalam thriller Jallikkattu (2019), which Toronto International Film Festival director Cameron Baily feels "examines our latent capacity for lawlessness and chaos", has also bagged two nominations in the technical departments, Best Cinematography for Girish Gangadharan and Best Original Music for Prashant Pillai.
This is the first time in 14 years that the festival will be hosted outside Hong Kong. Wilfred Wong, chairman of the AFAA and the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society, told the Screen Daily: “This year, AFAA has taken a ground-breaking step to relocate the AFA14 award presentation to Busan. Though we are facing unprecedented challenges brought by the global coronavirus outbreak, we continue to do our best to connect everyone and express our commitment to the Asian film industry.”