November 14: Georgian director Levan Koguashvili’s Guria won Best Film at the 19th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), held on Australia’s Gold Coast on October 30. Thailand’s Sompot Chidgasornpongse was named Best Director for 9 Temples to Heaven, and Nepal’s Pushpa Thing Lama won Best Performance for Elephants in the Fog. Thirty-six films from 32 countries and regions were nominated. Here is how each country’s cinema fared, from the official APSA lists.
Key highlights
- Best Film: Guria, a co-production of Georgia, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Türkiye, Norway and Saudi Arabia.
- Jury Grand Prize: No Good Men by Shahrbanoo Sadat, set in Kabul in 2021.
- Best Director: Sompot Chidgasornpongse for the Thai film 9 Temples to Heaven.
- Best Performance: Pushpa Thing Lama for the Nepali film Elephants in the Fog.
- India: the Young Cinema Award for R Gowtham and the FIAPF Award for producer Bobby Bedi.
- Scale: 36 nominated films from 32 countries and regions.
The winners
| Award | Winner | Film | Countries of production |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best Film | Levan Koguashvili (director) | Guria | Georgia, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Türkiye, Norway, Saudi Arabia |
| Jury Grand Prize | Shahrbanoo Sadat | No Good Men | Germany, France, Norway, Denmark, Afghanistan |
| Best Director | Sompot Chidgasornpongse | 9 Temples to Heaven | Thailand, Singapore, France, Norway, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Qatar |
| Best Director, special mention | Aung Phyoe | Fruit Gathering | Myanmar, Czech Republic, France |
| Best Performance | Pushpa Thing Lama | Elephants in the Fog | Nepal, Germany, Brazil, France, Norway |
| Best New Performer | Sim Su-bin | The World Before | South Korea |
| Best Screenplay | Rakan Mayasi, Wahid Ajmi, Pôl Seif | Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep | Belgium, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia |
| Best Cinematography | Nguyễn Vinh Phúc | Hearing | Vietnam, Singapore, Norway, France, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia, Thailand, Taiwan |
| Best Animated Film | Ervin Han, Raúl García (directors) | The Violinist | Singapore, Spain, Italy |
| Best Documentary Film | Itab Azzam, Jack MacInness (directors) | One in a Million | United Kingdom, United States |
| Best Youth Film | Paloma Schneideman (director) | Big Girls Don’t Cry | New Zealand |
| Cultural Diversity Award | Isabelle Kalandar | Another Birth | Tajikistan, United States, Qatar |
| Young Cinema Award (with NETPAC) | R Gowtham | Members of the Problematic Family | India |
| FIAPF Award | Bobby Bedi | For outstanding contribution | India |
South Asia: Nepal’s big night
Elephants in the Fog, directed by Abinash Bikram Shah, received three nominations, for Best Film, Best Director and Best Performance, and won the last. Set in a Nepali village in a forest full of wild elephants, it follows Pirati, the matriarch of a Kinnar community. Pushpa Thing Lama, who won for her performance in the film, is a trans woman and has worked for more than two decades in Nepal’s LGBTIQA+ rights movement, according to her APSA profile. Shah, the academy says, became the first Nepali director in an official selection at Cannes in 2022 with Lori.
India’s wins came in the emerging-talent categories. R Gowtham took the Young Cinema Award, given with NETPAC to a first- or second-time director, for Members of the Problematic Family, and producer Bobby Bedi received the FIAPF Award. The Ink Stained Hand and the Missing Thumb, by Yashasvi Juyal and Ankit Thapa from Uttarakhand, was nominated for Best Screenplay, and Don’t Tell Mother, Anoop Lokkur’s India–Australia film set in 1990s Bangalore, was nominated for Best Youth Film. Payal Kapadia’s project A Memory of Being Here received one of five US$10,000 grants from the MPA APSA Academy Film Fund.
Southeast Asia: Thailand and Vietnam win
9 Temples to Heaven, produced by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, follows a 63-year-old man who takes his ailing mother on a one-day pilgrimage to nine temples after a fortune teller warns that she may die soon. It won Best Director and was nominated for Best Film. A second Thai co-production, The Burning Giants, was nominated for cinematography.
Vietnamese cinematographer Nguyễn Vinh Phúc won for Hearing; his APSA profile notes he previously won the same award for Taste. The Vietnamese documentary Baby Jackfruit Baby Guava by Nông Nhật Quang was nominated for Best Documentary Film. Indonesia’s Batara Goempar was nominated for cinematography on Kamila Andini’s Four Seasons in Java, and the Philippine–French animation Zsazsa Zaturnnah, directed by Avid Liongoren, was nominated for Best Animated Film. Myanmar’s Aung Phyoe, who studied editing at Whistling Woods International in Mumbai, received a special mention for Best Director. Singapore’s The Violinist won Best Animated Film, and Yeo Yann Yann was nominated for Best Performance for We Are All Strangers.
West Asia: Palestine, Lebanon, Iran and Türkiye
Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep, the first feature by Palestinian filmmaker Rakan Mayasi, won Best Screenplay. It was shot entirely in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley with non-professional actors and premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section in 2026. Lebanon’s Ghassan Saad, a retired water-authority employee who won the Best Actor award at the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for Pipes, was nominated for Best Performance. Egypt’s Mohammed Hammad (Safe Exit) and the Yemeni-Jordanian team of Sara Ishaq and Nadia Eliewat (The Station) were nominated for Best Screenplay.
Iran featured in three nominations: Ghasideh Golmakani’s screenplay for the Iran–Germany film Head to Head, Pegah Ahangarani’s Czech–Spanish documentary Rehearsals for a Revolution, which retraces more than 40 years of Iran’s history, and Morteza Atabaki’s 32 Meters, an Iran–Türkiye–Qatar documentary about women who organise a women-only shooting competition in a village. Türkiye was also among the seven co-producing countries of Best Film winner Guria.
Central Asia and the Caucasus
Guria, set in western Georgia after the Soviet collapse, follows a widowed hazelnut farmer through hardship and romance. Tajikistan’s Another Birth, directed and produced by Isabelle Kalandar, won the Cultural Diversity Award. Among the Film Fund grants, The Story of My Shirt by Zhanana Kurmasheva is a co-production of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China and Chile.
Australia and the Pacific
Australian cinematographer Mandy Walker chaired the international jury. Warwick Thornton was nominated for cinematography on the Australian film Wolfram, and Jennifer Peedom for Best Director for Tenzing, a US–Australia production. New Zealand’s Big Girls Don’t Cry won Best Youth Film.
Our calculation
| Question | Answer | How we got it |
|---|---|---|
| Countries credited on the Best Film winner | 7 | Guria’s production countries |
| Nominated films with Qatar as a producing country | At least 6 | From the official nominee pages |
| Nominated films with Saudi Arabia as a producing country | At least 5 | From the official nominee pages |
| Total Film Fund grants | US$50,000 | 5 grants of US$10,000 |
| Most-nominated film without a win | All of a Sudden, 3 nominations | Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s film: Best Film, Director, Performance |
What it means for India and Asia
Two trends stand out. First, Asian art-house cinema is now built on co-production: the Best Film winner lists seven countries, and the cinematography winner nine. Second, Gulf money has become a major backer: Qatar or Saudi Arabia is a producing country on at least nine of the nominated films. For India, the results show a strong pipeline of new directors, but no Indian title reached the Best Film shortlist this year.
What to watch
- The Golden Horse Awards in Taipei on November 22, where We Are All Strangers is a contender.
- We Are All Strangers as the closing film of IFFI in Goa on November 28.
- Theatrical and festival releases for Elephants in the Fog and 9 Temples to Heaven.
The casino and hotel complex in Broadbeach, Queensland, that hosted the 2026 Asia Pacific Screen Awards, photographed when it was known as Jupiters Casino (file photo). Image: Shiftchange, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Photo source
Sources
- Asia Pacific Screen Awards: APSA announces 2026 winners
- Asia Pacific Screen Awards: 2026 juries and first winners announced
- Asia Pacific Screen Awards: Nominees and winners
The Entertainment Desk covers cinema from India, Asia and Hollywood: releases, box office, awards and festivals, reported from official announcements. Stories are checked against at least two credible sources before publication.
