Entertainment
Georgia’s ‘Guria’ Wins Best Film at Asia Pacific Screen Awards as Thailand’s Sompot Chidgasornpongse Takes Director Prize
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Published 10/30/2026 11:25:38 PM
Georgia's 'Guria' Wins Best Film at Asia Pacific Screen Awards
Georgian filmmaker Levan Koguashvili’s “Guria” was named best film at the 19th Asia Pacific Screen Awards, handed out Oct. 30 at The Star Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.
Koguashvili shared the prize with fellow producers Olena Yershova and Boris Frumin. The film was made across seven countries: Georgia, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Türkiye, Norway and Saudi Arabia.
Thai director Sompot Chidgasornpongse won best director for “9 Temples to Heaven,” a co-production involving Thailand, Singapore, France, Norway, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Qatar. Myanmar’s Aung Phyoe received a special mention in the directing category for “Fruit Gathering.” Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat took the Jury Grand Prize for “No Good Men.”
This year’s field comprised 36 nominated films from 32 countries and regions.
Nepalese actor Pushpa Thing Lama won best performance for “Elephants in the Fog,” and South Korea’s Sim Su-bin was named best new performer for “The World Before.” The screenplay award went to Rakan Mayasi, Wahid Ajmi and Pôl Seif for “Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep,” backed by Belgium, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Vietnamese cinematographer Nguyễn Vinh Phúc won for “Hearing.”
New Zealand’s Paloma Schneideman took best youth film for “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” produced by Vicky Pope and Thomas Coppell. The animation prize went to “The Violinist,” a co-production between Singapore, Spain and Italy that was co-directed by Singapore’s Ervin Han and Spain’s Raúl García.
Itab Azzam and Jack MacInness won best documentary for “One in a Million,” a U.K.-U.S. film that follows the life of a Syrian refugee. Isabelle Kalandar, who both directed and produced “Another Birth,” received the Cultural Diversity Award for the Tajikistan, U.S. and Qatar collaboration. India’s R. Gowtham earned the Young Cinema Award, given with NETPAC, for “Members of the Problematic Family.”
Malaysian filmmaker Haziqah Azemi won the Forum Filmmaker Award, run with The Post Lounge Group, for her project “Garek.” The story centers on a woman whose relationship is tested when she faces religious persecution after becoming pregnant outside marriage. Azemi, who took part in the Griffith Film School and APSA Regional Reels program, came back to APSA this year after developing the project with mentoring from APSA Academy member Yulia Evina Bhara.
Tracey Vieira, chair of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, said: “From ‘Guria’ and ‘No Good Men’ to ‘Elephants in the Fog,’ this year’s winners remind us of the extraordinary stories emerging from our region and the importance of creating opportunities for these voices to be recognized internationally.”
Veteran Indian producer Bobby Bedi was handed the FIAPF Award for outstanding contribution to film in the Asia Pacific. Luis Alberto Scalella, president of FIAPF, said: “Through landmark films such as ‘Bandit Queen’ and ‘Fire,’ he has championed powerful stories that have challenged audiences and resonated far beyond India.”
The ceremony also revealed five projects selected for the 2026 MPA APSA Academy Film Fund, each of which will get a $10,000 grant funded entirely by the Motion Picture Association. They are Payal Kapadia’s “A Memory of Being Here” (India), produced by Thomas Hakim; Davy Chou’s “My Father’s Glory” (France, Cambodia), produced by Charlotte Vincent; Taifeng Liu’s “A Place in the Sun” (China), produced by Janet (Yan Yan) Wu; Nicole Midori Woodford’s “Incarnation” (Singapore, Japan), produced by Anthony Chen; and Zhanana Kurmasheva’s documentary “The Story of My Shirt” (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Chile), produced by Banu Ramazanova.
Three of the five projects are directed by women. Chen returns to the fund after working on “We Are All Strangers,” which received a grant in 2023 and was among this year’s nominees.
Urmila Venugopalan, president and managing director, Asia Pacific, at the Motion Picture Association, said the success of films such as “9 Temples to Heaven,” which received MPA APSA Academy Film Fund support in 2021, “shows the importance of supporting filmmakers and their stories from the earliest stages of development.”
Every APSA nominee, along with members of the nominations councils and juries, joins the APSA Academy, whose president is Australian screen veteran Jack Thompson. The body now has upward of 1,816 members across 84 countries and areas.
The full list of winners:
Best Film
“Guria,” dir. Levan Koguashvili; prod. Olena Yershova, Levan Koguashvili, Boris Frumin (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 Youth Film
“Big Girls Don’t Cry,” dir. Paloma Schneideman; prod. Vicky Pope, Thomas Coppell (New Zealand)
Best Animated Film
“The Violinist,” dir. Ervin Han, Raúl García; prod. Paloma Mora, Cristiano Bortone, Justin Deimen, Leonard Lai, Takafumi Yuki (Singapore, Spain, Italy)
Best Documentary Film
“One in a Million,” dir. Itab Azzam, Jack MacInness; prod. Itab Azzam, Jack MacInness, Will Anderson, James Bluemel, Andrew Palmer, Raney Aronson-Rath (U.K., U.S.)
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 Performance
Pushpa Thing Lama, “Elephants in the Fog” (Nepal, Germany, Brazil, France, Norway)
Best New Performer
Sim Su-bin, “The World Before” (South Korea)
Cultural Diversity Award
“Another Birth,” dir./prod. Isabelle Kalandar (Tajikistan, U.S., Qatar)
Young Cinema Award (in partnership with Netpac)
R. Gowtham, “Members of the Problematic Family” (India)
FIAPF Award
Bobby Bedi (India)
Forum Filmmaker Award
Haziqah Azemi, “Garek” (Malaysia)
MPA APSA Academy Film Fund
“A Memory of Being Here,” dir. Payal Kapadia; prod. Thomas Hakim (India)
“My Father’s Glory,” dir. Davy Chou; prod. Charlotte Vincent (France, Cambodia)
“A Place in the Sun,” dir. Taifeng Liu; prod. Janet (Yan Yan) Wu (China)
“Incarnation,” dir. Nicole Midori Woodford; prod. Anthony Chen (Singapore, Japan)
“The Story of My Shirt,” dir. Zhanana Kurmasheva; prod. Banu Ramazanova (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Chile)
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Mexico’s beloved Guillermo del Toro descended on the 24thMorelia Film Festival like the rockstar he is, greeted by hordes of shrieking fans that impressed even the most jaded in the crowd.
In town to present the much-anticipated 3D Re-Release of “Pan’s Labyrinth,” he was everywhere all at once, holding a masterclass where tickets were as elusive as a seat at Cannes that went on for nearly three hours and a free-wheeling press conference that extended past its time limit.
It was his third time at the fest, 20 years after his multi-Oscar winning “Pan’s Labyrinth’ first played there and years later with his 2018 best picture Academy Award winner “The Shape of Water.”
Before the presser kicked off, Del Toro, an Honorary Doctorate recipient from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), received the Filmoteca UNAM Medal, an honor also bestowed on Alfonso Cuarón, in town to support his son Jonas Cuarón’s opening night film, “Campeón Gabacho,” which he produced.
Alongside Del Toro were festival director Daniela Michel, “Pan’s Labyrinth” producer Bertha Navarro, his then young lead Ivana Baquero and DP Guillermo Navarro, who took home the cinematography Oscar for his stunning work on the anti-fascist fable.
Reflecting on a question posed midway through the press conference about what has stayed the same and what has changed over the 20 years since “Pan’s Labyrinth,” del Toro responded with tears.
“The state of our species and society today goes beyond anything we could have imagined back then. But I recognize the same sadness and despair. It pains me deeply to see one, two, or three generations fail the next. We’re handing down a world in ruins, morally, socially and spiritually fractured, with the very fabric that once allowed us to tell fables and parables falling apart.”
Asked whether he knew beforehand if “Pan’s Labyrinth” would be well received, Del Toro recounted how his collaborations with both Navarros sustained him through all the challenges they faced.
“We embarked on an adventure that was financially horrifying but cinematically beautiful,” he said.
“You never know how a film will be received. We only found out when we screened it for the first time at Cannes. We got that famous standing ovation that lasted more than 22 minutes, and from that moment on, everything changed. It changed our lives.”
“I think ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ marked a before and after for me. In terms of creative freedom, possibilities and everything else, I’m where I am today because of that film. But none of it would have been possible without the faith of my immediate family, Bertha and Guillermo.”
Said DP Navarro: “Guillermo and I share the belief that cinematic language is storytelling through images that convey emotion and narrative. ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ is the ultimate expression of that. The camera is constantly searching, discovering and communicating.”
“It was also an incredibly difficult shoot. We had a limited budget, had to find unconventional solutions and took risks that could easily have failed. But we gambled and we won. Without a doubt, it’s my best film, and I hold that experience close to my heart. I hope new generations will continue to discover and appreciate it. And now, 20 years later, it returns. Olé!”
Producer Navarro, who also backed Del Toro’s career-launching feature debut “Cronos” and his much-lauded “The Devil’s Backbone,” said: “When he gave me the screenplay for ‘Cronos,’ I was absolutely fascinated. Talent shines, and you have to know how to recognize that light. That’s what I saw in Guillermo.”
“It’s been an incredible privilege to have made those three great films with Guillermo. I’ve produced many films throughout my life, but those three hold a much deeper significance for me. They changed my life.”
Baquero concurred: “’Pan’s Labyrinth’ undoubtedly opened doors for me, both into the genre and in my career. We’ve talked this afternoon about how much the film changed our lives, professionally and personally. For me, acting went from being a hobby – I had worked before ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ – to becoming my profession. Without that film, I might not be here today. It unquestionably marked a turning point in my career.”
Reflecting on its impact on young audiences. Del Toro noted: “There’s an urgency and a fragility and ferocity that coexist in ‘Pan’s Labyrinth.’ And somehow, I think it’s an urgent moment to speak, for the film to speak to a new audience.”
Local politics also crept into the conference, with a journalist asking him what he would say to the young people protesting in his hometown of Guadalajara over its current issues of contaminated water, repression and the alleged kidnapping of protesters on Oct. 11.
He responded:“This morning at my masterclass, I gave young people the floor to speak about these issues. It’s terrifying that something so fundamental should have to be fought for instead of being resolved through basic humanity and responsible leadership.”
“I said it clearly: “Their voices must be heard, and I stand with them 100%. It’s unacceptable that this remains unresolved or that anyone would try to silence them. Speaking out, protesting, and demanding a solution are fundamental rights – anytime, anywhere.”
The Morelia Film Festival began on Oct. 16 and wraps Oct. 25.
