‘Evil Does Not Exist’ Heads Asia Pacific Screen Awards Nominations

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s “Evil Does Not Exist” collected four nominations for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, making it the narrow favorite ahead of the three times nominated “Snow Leopard,” by the late Pema Tseden.
The narrow lead matches the overall pattern this year’s, where Japanese and Chinese films dominate APSA nominations proceedings.
Nominations were announced at midnight on Thursday in Gold Coast, Queensland, where the final awards will be celebrated on Nov. 3.
“Evil Does Not Exist,” an eco-drama that premiered in Venice, is nominated in best film, best director, best screenplay and cinematography categories.

“Snow Leopard” has nods for best film, best screenplay and best performance. Pema Tseden, aka Wanma Caidan, died in May this year, age 53.

“Snow Leopard” is his fifth film to be nominated at the APSAs – four as director, one as producer.
The other three features nominated for best film are: Wim Wenders’ Japan-set “Perfect Days,” Georgian story “Citizen Saint” (aka “Mokalake Tsmindani”) by Tinatin Kajrishvili, and “Qas” (aka “Qash”) by Aisultan Saitov (Kazakhstan). Hamaguchi previously won the APSA for best film with 2021’s “Drive My Car.”
In the running for APSA best screenplay award, alongside Pema Tseden and Hamaguchi, are Anthony Shim for “Riceboy Sleeps” (Canada, Korea), Liang Ming for “Carefree Days” (China) and Nicole Midori Woodford for “Last Shadow at First Light” (Singapore, Japan, Slovenia, Philippines, Indonesia).
For the APSA best director, Hamaguchi is up against Celine Song for “Past Lives” (Korea, U.S.), Darkhan Tulegenov for “Brothers” (aka “Bratya”) from Kazakhstan, Liang for “Carefree Days” and India’s Rima Das for “Tora’s Husband.”
In the running for best animation film are: “Deep Sea,” directed by Tian Xiaopeng (China); two Japanese hits “The First Slam Dunk” directed by Inoue Takehiko and “Suzume,” by Shinkai Makoto; Australia’s “Scarygirl” directed by Ricard Cussó and co-directed by Tania Vincent; and “The Siren” directed by Sepideh Farsi.
The APSA for best performance is gender-neutral for the second year.