Iran’s “A Separation” wins APSA top prize

TEHRAN,Nov. 26 (MNA) -- “Nader and Simin, a Separation” won the top prize at the fifth annual Asia-Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) on the Gold Coast Thursday night, adding more to its multiple international awards. Iran’s official entry in the best foreign language film Oscar race, Asghar Farhadi’s “A Separation” is about a marital breakdown set against a backdrop of social and family turmoil. “The interesting point for me is that the reaction to the film in Iran and around the world was similar and it came to me that the similarities, despite their culture and distance, are greater than the differences,” said Farhadi, accepting his award. Farhadi was one of the first recipients of the inaugural APSA Screen Fund, started in 2010 by the Motion Picture Association of America and APSA, to hand out four awards of $25,000 in cash. “When I received the money, more than thinking about the cash, it was important to me that non-Persian speakers would understand the concept of my script,” Farhadi told Variety. “It was also a kind of encouragement to the fund that the money they gave for the script produced a film that could win the best film award.” Farhadi’s advice to the new recipients was, “Forget about the money, continue to develop and update your stories.” The major film actor Peyman Moadi was awarded for his “Those Days”. He was among the four filmmakers who each received $25,000 from the APSA Academy Film Fund, which is allocated for script development for new feature film projects. Turkey’s official Oscar foreign language film entry, “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” took three prizes including the Jury Grand Prize. Writer director Nuri Bilge Ceylan won the achievement for directing and Gökhan Tiryaki won for best cinematography. The best actor award was given to the Chinese thespian Wang Baoqiang for “Hello! Shu Xian Sheng” (Mr. Tree), while the best actress award went to Nadezhda Markina from Russia for her role in “Elena.” The jury also gave a high commendation to the cast of the Egyptian pic “Cairo 678”.