DFI Grant Recipient Films Nominated For 16Th Asian Film Awar…

Starting the New Year on a strong note, two widely acclaimed films funded by the Doha Film Institute (DFI) are vying for this year’s 16th Asian Film Awards, which will be held on March 12 in Hong Kong.

These films are Plan 75 by Chie Hayakawa and Autobiography by Makbul Mubarak, which won awards during Cannes Film Festival.

Both filmmakers’ movies have been nominated under the Best New Director category.

The Plan 75 is competing under four categories: Best New Director, Best Cin ematography, Best Supporting Actress (Yumi Kawai), and Best Actress (Chieko Baisho).

Mubarak’s film will also be competing under the Best Screenplay category.

The Autobiography director said that it is an honour to be nominated in the Best New Director category together with Saim Sadiq of Joyland; Chie Hayakawa of Plan 75, Kim Se-in of Apartment with two women, and Jigme Trinley of One and Four.

He also said that its“utterly a huge honour to be nominated in the Best Screenplay category with the masters.”

Other nominated films are: Liu Jiangjian and Yu Min of Lighting up the stars; Seo-kyung Chung and Chan-wook Park of Decision to leave; Lav Diaz of When the waves are gone; Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe of Drive my car.

Plan 75 and Autobiography have been winning local and international awards for the past year.

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Plan 75 to date has won seven awards, the latest of which is the Golden Camera – Special Mention at Cannes Film Festival, the film’s director Hayakawa was also nominated under Golden Camera and Un Certain Regard Awards at Cannes.

The full feature film also won the Best International Actress award (Chieko Baisho) at Golden Rooster Awards; Best Lead Performance (Chieko Baisho), QCinema International Film Festival and three awards at Thessaloniki Film Festival – Bronze Alexander, FIPRESCI Prize, Human Values Award.

Plan 75 (Japan, France, Philippines, Qatar) is set in a Japan of the near future. The government programme Plan 75 encourages senior citizens to be voluntarily euthanised in order to remedy a super-aged society. An elderly woman whose means of survival are vanishing, a pragmatic Plan 75 salesman, and a young Filipino labourer face choices of life and death.

Autobiography has won 12 awards to date: Best Screenplay, Asia Pacific Screen Awards; Technical Achievement for Cinematography and Editing, Bangkok World Film Festival; Best Original Screenplay, Festival Film Indonesia; Best Asian Film, Golden Horse Film Festival.

And, Golden Hanoman Award, Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival; Best Performance by an Actor, Marrakech International Film Festival; Best Picture – Asian Next Wave Competition and Best Director, QCinema International Film Festival; Best Asian Feature Film, Singapore International Film Festival; Best Directorial Debut, Stockholm Film Festival; and FIPRESCI Prize, Venice Film Festival.

The film tells a story about a young man working as a housekeeper in an empty mansion. When its owner returns to start his mayoral election campaign, the young man bonds with him and defends him when his campaign is vandalized, setting off a chain of violence.

This year’s Asian Film Awards categories include Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best New Director, Best Newcomer, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Original Music, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Visual Effects, and Best Sound.

In a press conference by the Asian Film Awards on Friday, it said that a total of 30 shortlisted films from 22 countries and regions were selected for 81 nominations and 16 awards.