Brisbane, October 24: Indian film Psycho Raman is among six Indian films that have secured eight major nominations in the 10th Asia Pacific Screen Awards based in Australia.
Psycho Raman received a total of three nominations for Best Performance by an Actor for Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Achievement in Cinematography for Jay Oza and Achievement in Directing for Anurag Kashyap.
Kashyap, an APSA Academy member, was awarded the APSA Special Jury Prize in 2012 for Gangs of Wasseypur. Kashyap also produced APSA Jury Grand Prize winner The Lunchbox (2013) and APSA Best Youth Feature Film nominee Udaan (2010).
In the Best Performance by an Actor category, Nawazuddin Siddiqui is up against Manoj Bajpayee for Aligarh in his second APSA nomination.
Bajpai was previously nominated in 2012 for Anurag Kashyap’s APSA Jury Grand Prize winner Gangs of Wasseypur.
Other nominees for Best Performance by an Actor include Dev Patel for his performance in Lion (Australia), Farhad Aslani for Daughter (Islamic Republic of Iran) and Korean superstar Song Kang-ho in The Throne (Republic of Korea).
Recently screened at the Indian Film Festival in Melbourne, Leena Yadav’s Parched is running against and Gurvinder Singh’s The Fourth Direction in the Best Screenplay category.
Supratik Sen is the co-running with Yadav for Parched; while Waryam Singh Sandhu is co-running with Singh for The Fourth Direction.
They join previously announced Best Youth Feature Film nominees, Winner of Best Marathi Film at 63rd National Film Awards in India The Quest (Ringan, India) and Berlinale Crystal Bear Generation Kplus winner, Malayalam film The Trap (Ottaal, India).
The winners in the 10th anniversary edition of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards will be announced on Thursday 24 November from the 10th APSA Ceremony in Brisbane, including a live webcast.
The APSA glamorous black tie event is expected to be attended by a record number of 1000 guests, including the 2016 APSA nominees and jurors.
APSA Film Director and member of the APSA International Nominations Council Maxine Williamson said “It has been a privilege and an honour to establish this Awards competition and see it grown in strength from year to year.
“How fitting that we have, in our 10th year, the strongest competition to date”, she said.
Vir Rajendra