The Asia Film Awards released on Wednesday the list of nominees for the yearly event. The AFA returns to Hong Kong where the award ceremony would be held on March 21.
Topping the list of nominees is “The Handmaiden,” a lesbian fantasy drama produced in South Korea. The film, which got six nominations for performance and design, debuted in Cannes. But Park Chan-wook, the movie’s director was not nominated and the film is not a nominee for Best Picture, Variety reported.
“The Handmaiden’s” Nominations
The nominations of “The Handmaiden” are for Best Supporting Actress, Best Newcomer, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Costume Design and Best Production Design, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It is among the 34 movies from 12 countries nominated across 15 categories for the 2017 AFA Awards.
The Fan Bingbing-starrer, “I Am Not Madame Bovary,” got five nominations, including for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress. The four other nominees for Best Film are “The Age of Shadows” and “The Wailing” from South Korea, “Godspeed” from Taiwan and “Harmonium” from Japan.
“Train to Busan,” the surprise hit of 2016, got five nominations but not in the Best Film, Best Director or Best Script categories. Hit commercial films, such as Stephen Chow’s “The Mermaid,” “Operation Mekong” and “Your Name” from Japan received only one nomination each.
Dominated by China & Korea
Although movies from East Asia dominated the nominations, an Indian actress, Shabana Azmi is a Best Supporting Actress nominee for “Neerja” and Asghar Frahadi, an Iranian, is a Best Screenwriter nominee for “The Salesman.” China and South Korea dominated the nominations with 21 and 20, respectively.
The AFA returns to Hong Kong to observe the region’s 20th anniversary of handover to China. In the past three years, the event was held in Macau. The event would be held at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.