Payal Kapadia's A Night Of Knowing Nothing and acclaimed documentary Writing With Fire nominated for Asia Pacific Screen Awards

Payal Kapadia's Cannes winner A Night Of Knowing Nothing and Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh's Sundance-winning documentary Writing With Fire are the two Indian films heading to the 14th Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

The festival announced the list of nominees — 38 films from 25 Asia Pacific countries and regions. The winners will be declared on 11 November.

Japan and Iran lead the race with seven nominations each.

A Night Of Knowing Nothing has been nominated for the Best Feature Film alongside Natalya Nazarova's The Pencil and Iranian filmmaker Mahmoud Rasoulof's There Is No Evil.

Kapadia was awarded the Œil d'or at the Cannes Film Festival for the film and also recently won the Amplify Voices Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. 

Writing With Fire, which won the Audience Award and Special Jury Award: Impact For Change at the Sundance Film Festival, has been nominated in the category of Best Documentary. 

PS Vinothraj's feature film Koozhangal (Pebbles) has earned him a nomination in the Achievement in Directing category alongside Asghar Farhadi (A Hero). The film has also earned an Achievement in Cinematography nomination for Vignesh Kumulai and Che Parthiban. 

In a press note, the chair of Asia Pacific Screen Academy Tracey Viera said, "The Asia Pacific Screen Academy is incredibly proud to present the 14th Awards Ceremony in 2021 with the full complement of Award categories, our special awards in collaboration with founding partners UNESCO and FIAPF [International Federation of Film Producers Associations], and the Academy-specific initiatives with the MPA [Motion Picture Association] and APSL [Asia Pacific Screen Lab]. In 2021, the APSA International Nominations Council considered films in APSA competition from 43 Asia Pacific countries and areas, and we are thrilled to see the first nomination for a film from Vietnam with cinematographer Nguyễn Vinh Phúc nominated for his work in LÊ Bảo’s Taste (Vị)."

The winners of APSA’s three special categories — the Cultural Diversity Award under the patronage of UNESCO, the Young Cinema Award in partnership with Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema and GFS (Griffith Film School), and the FIAPF Award for Contribution to Asia Pacific Cinema  —  will also be announced on 11 November.

The APSA Ceremony will include the annual announcement of recipients of the four MPA APSA Academy Film Fund grants for 2021.