News

‘Gurrumul’.

Director Paul Williams and producer Shannon Swan’s portrait of the late blind Indigenous musician Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, Gurrumul, won Best Documentary Feature Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa) in Brisbane last night.

It was the first time an Australian film has won in the category, with Gurrumul beating out Amal, Of Fathers and Sons (Syrian Arab Republic, Lebanon, Qatar, Germany), Of Love & Law (Japan, UK, France) and Up Down & Sideways

Accepting the award together with Williams, Swan described the moment as bittersweet knowing that Gurrumul wasn’t there to share in it.

“To G, thank you so much for inviting us into your life and trusting us with your story,” he said.

Gurrumul also won Feature Documentary of the Year at last week’s Screen Producers Australia Awards, and is also nominated for five awards at next week’s AACTAs, including for Best Feature Documentary alongside Mountain,...

Bruce Beresford, nominated for Achievement in Directing at the Apsa Awards, on the set of ‘Ladies in Black’. (Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing).

Four Australian films – Ladies in Black, Gurrumul, Breath and Mary Magdalene – have received nominations for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, to be held in Brisbane in November.

Overall, 46 films from 22 countries have been nominated for the awards, which celebrate films from the region.

The Palme d’Or winning Shoplifters, from Japanese auteur Kore-eda Hirokazu, is the only film to receive three nominations, including Best Feature Film, Best Screenplay and Achievement in Directing. It will compete for Best Feature Film against Burning (Korea), The Gentle Indifference of the World, Balangiga: Howling Wilderness (Philippines) and Manta Ray.

Competing against Kore-eda for the directing award is Australia’s Bruce Beresford, nominated for his work on 1960s comedy drama Ladies in Black. Also up in the category are Nadine Labaki...

Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Japanese composer who will this week be honored as the Asian Filmmaker of the Year in Busan, will head the jury for the best original score prize at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. It is the first time that the APSAs, now in their 12th edition, present a best original score prize.

Sakamoto was previously the 2012 recipient of the Apsa Fiapf award, and performed extracts from “Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence” at the Brisbane prize ceremony. Also on the jury are Indian composer and music director Sneha Khanwalkar (“Gangs of Wasseypur”) and Australian composer, conductor and musician Nigel Westlake (“Babe,” “Paper Planes”).

The five nominees are: Eleni Karaindrou for “Bomb, A Love Story” (aka “Bomb, Yek Asheghaneh”) (Iran); Harry Gregson-Williams for “Breath” (Australia); Hildur Guonadottir, Johann Johannsson for “Mary Magdalene” (Australia, U.K.); Ryan Cayabyab for “The Portrait” (aka “Ang Larawan”) (Philippines); and

Omar Fadel for “Yomeddine” (Egypt...

I am so excited about this upcoming film festival! It's a film exhibition series "and networking event designed to elevate and showcase emerging Filipino and Filipino-American talent, films and television content to the world stage."

Take a look at what you can expect from Cinematografo:

To buy tickets, click here to go to their official website. Hope to see you guys there!

Here's the full press release:

The very first Cinematografo International Film Festival (Ciff), a film exhibition series and networking event designed to elevate and showcase emerging Filipino and Filipino-American talent, films and television content to the world stage, was launched in a by-invitation presser at the AMC Dine-In Kabuki 8 in San Francisco.s Japantown last week. The initial Cinematografo is a project of the leading Filipino media and entertainment company Abs-cbn International. The press conference was attended by representatives from various Bay Area publications, the San Francisco Film Commission,...

I am so excited about this upcoming film festival! It's a film exhibition series "and networking event designed to elevate and showcase emerging Filipino and Filipino-American talent, films and television content to the world stage."

Take a look at what you can expect from Cinematografo:

To buy tickets, click here to go to their official website. Hope to see you guys there!

Here's the full press release:

The very first Cinematografo International Film Festival (Ciff), a film exhibition series and networking event designed to elevate and showcase emerging Filipino and Filipino-American talent, films and television content to the world stage, was launched in a by-invitation presser at the AMC Dine-In Kabuki 8 in San Francisco.s Japantown last week. The initial Cinematografo is a project of the leading Filipino media and entertainment company Abs-cbn International. The press conference was attended by representatives from various Bay Area publications, the San Francisco Film Commission,...

Singer and Broadway sensation Lea Salonga walked into a studio in Manila with a list of songs. They represented the Philippines' three cultural regions and many languages, selected from a lifetime's worth of research by preeminent musician, scholar, and producer Ryan Cayabyab. Salonga picked songs that appealed to her, both artistically and personally. Her mother had sung her the delicate 'Ili Ili' and several others when she was a child, and came to visit during a session. The Tony Award-winning actress and vocalist, used to selling out prestigious venues worldwide, harnessed this connection and dived into the repertoire with heart and grace.

A video of the Baylor University Men’s Choir breaking into song on an international flight is going, ahem, “coconuts” on Facebook.

Seventy five members of the student group gave an impromptu musical performance complete with choreography as the other passengers disembarked an Emirates Airline flight. “It was a spontaneous performance for the crew,” says a representative for Emirates. The airline’s video post has over 1.2 million views.

Their song of choice is Da Coconut Nut by Filipino musician and composer Ryan Cayabyab.

Related: A Teen Flying by Himself Was Booted Off an Overbooked Flight and Left Behind

The choir was traveling between Nairobi,...