APSA to Honor Late Abbas Kiarostami, Newcomer Ilgar Najaf

The Asia Pacific Screen Awards are to honor the late Iranian auteur Abbas Kiarostami with a special prize. It has commended Kiarostami’s final feature “24 Frames” and will give him posthumous admission to the APSA Academy.

“’24 Frames’ is an exquisite reverie on scenes from nature. Through still, but precise frames, and aided by subtle staging or effects, he captures the haunting, haiku-like poetry of nature, its beauty, amorousness and brutality. The play with the double meaning of ‘frame’ reflects his profound mediation on the cinematic form,” said Kim Hong-joon, hair of the APSA international nominations council.

Director of “Certified Copy,” “Taste of Cherry,” and “Through the Olive Trees,” Kiarostami died in July this year.

Director and producer, Ilgar Najaf has been awarded the APSA Young Cinema Award in partnership with Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) and the Griffith Film School for his second film “Pomegranate Orchard” (aka “Nar Bagi”).

The story involves a man returning home to the humble family farmstead, surrounded by an orchard of venerable pomegranate trees, 12 years after his sudden departure. He finds that the deep emotional scars he left behind have not been erased.

The 11th APSAs will be presented on Thursday Nov. 23 at Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.