Turkish films lead pack at Asia Pacific award nominations

Turkish films are leading the nominations in this year's Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), set to be announced Friday for the sixth year in a row. Turkish productions are vying for awards in a total of six categories in this year's awards, where 34 films from 18 countries from the Asia Pacific region have been nominated. "Tepenin Ardi" (Beyond the Hill), the debut feature effort by director Emin Alper, is up against five other films in the race for the best film honor. The film, a Turkish-Greek co-production, is also up for best screenplay for writer-director Alper, and best actor for Tamer Levent. "Tepenin Ardi" had its world premiere earlier this year in the Berlin film festival. Other films in the running for best film are "Bear," from Iran; "The Horde," from Russia; "Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time," from South Korea and "Wu Xia" from Hong Kong. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on Friday in Australia's Brisbane, that will be streamed live. "Lal Gece" (Night of Silence), the fifth directorial effort by Turkey's Reis Celik, which also won an award this year in Berlin, is entering Friday's ceremony with two nominations -- for best director and best screenplay. Iranian-Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi's latest feature "Rhino Season," an Iran-Turkey co-production, is nominated for the cinematography prize. A record 264 films were submitted to this year's awards, which are evaluated by a six-member international jury led by Australian producer Jan Chapman. Turkey's Zeynep Ozbatur Atakan, the producer of the Nuri Bilge Ceylan films "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia," "Three Monkeys" and "Climates," is also on the panel. To watch the award ceremony live, click www.asiapacificscreenawards.com.