Singapore – Award-winning Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen will sit on the International Jury for this year’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA).
The appointment was announced on June 6 at a special event at the private residence of Philip Green, Australian High Commissioner to Singapore, and follows Anthony Chen’s 2013 APSA win for Achievement in Directing for his debut feature Ilo, Ilo, the first APSA win for a Singaporean film.
Michael Hawkins, Philip Green, Anthony Chen and Cr Adrian Schrinner
The Asia Pacific Screen Awards are held annually in Brisbane, Australia, which is also the venue for the upcoming 2014 G20 Leaders’ Summit. Brisbane-based APSA Chairman Michael Hawkins said it was a great pleasure to announce talented filmmaker Anthony Chen would be a member of the International Jury for 2014.
“It is a special moment for APSA as Mr Chen is the first International Jury member to represent Singapore,” Hawkins said. “We look forward to his involvement in the event in Brisbane for the second year in a row.”
One of Variety magazine’s 10 Directors to Watch, Anthony Chen said APSA was held in high regard because of its discerning and uncompromising quest to recognise the best filmmaking the Asia-Pacific region had to offer.
“It is a real honour for me to return to Brisbane as a jury member and even more special to be judging alongside Jury President Asghar Farhadi, a filmmaker I admire and respect greatly,” Chen said.
The Deputy Lord Mayor of Brisbane Cr Adrian Schrinner also attended the event, along with APSA International Nominations Council member Philip Cheah and members of the Singaporean film industry.
Cr Schrinner said this year’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards would be held on December 11, a month after the city hosted the 2014 G20 Leaders’ Summit.
“The summit will be the most important gathering of world leaders ever held in Australia, with members representing around 85 per cent of global GDP, more than 75 per cent of
global trade and two-thirds of the world’s population,” Cr Schrinner said.
“Brisbane is Australia’s new world city, a rising star in the Asia Pacific and a key economic development hub.
“It’s estimated that 4000 delegates and up to 3000 media representatives will descend on the city in November and for two days Brisbane will be the capital of the world.
“Already considered a world-class destination for business, tourism and education, the 2014 G20 Leaders’ Summit provides a once in a generation chance for Brisbane to step up and take its place among the emerging new world cities of the 21st century.”
As host city of the summit, Australia has invited guest countries including Singapore to participate in the G20 this year.
Brisbane and Singapore enjoy close ties, with Singaporean companies like Frasers Hospitality and Silverneedle Hotels currently developing hotel projects in the city’s central business district.
Silverneedle’s NEXT Hotel project in Brisbane’s Queen St Mall is on track to open shortly, in time for the G20 Leaders Summit, while Fraser’s Hospitality’s office tower-to-hotel refurbishment project will open early next year.
The 8th Asia Pacific Screen Awards are presented by Treasury Casino & Hotel and will be held in Brisbane’s City Hall.
The awards are supported by Brisbane City Council and managed by economic development board Brisbane Marketing in a unique collaboration with Paris-based UNESCO and FIAPF — International Federation of Film Producers Associations.
They recognise and promote cinematic excellence and cultural diversity of the world’s fastest growing film region: comprising 70 countries and areas, 4.5 billion people, and responsible for half of the world’s film output.
In 2013, 39 films from 22 countries and areas received award nominations.
Ilo, Ilo, written and directed by Chen, was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and was awarded the Camera d’Or for Best Debut Feature, the first award for a Singapore feature film at Cannes. It picked up over 30 other awards at festivals worldwide including four Golden Horse Awards.
Inspired by a real-life maid who worked for Chen’s family when he was a child, Ilo, Ilo chronicles the relationship between a Singaporean family of three and their newly-arrived Filipino maid, Teresa, who had come, like many other Filipino women, in search of a better life.
