Asian Film Awards: Main Nominations ‘Decide to Leave’ and ‘Drive My Car’

Park Chan-wook’s stylish crime drama Decide to leave leads the nominations for this year’s Asian Film Awards with a whopping 10 nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture.

The film’s impressive nominations also include nominations for Best Screenplay and acting nominations for lead actors Park Hae-il and Tang Wei, as well as bottom line recognition for Cinematography, Editing, Music and Production Design.

Decide to leave follows a detective (Park Hae-il) investigating the death of a man in the mountains when he meets the dead man’s mysterious wife, a suspect in the case, and begins a complicated affair. The film premiered at Cannes, where Park won the Best Director award. Korea also submitted the film as an entry for the international Oscar race.

Japanese filmmaker Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s Drive my car routes with eight nominations. The epic road movie also debuted at Cannes, but in 2021. Elsewhere, Hirokazu Koreeda received a Best Director nomination for his latest picture Brokerand Saim Sadiq has been nominated in the Best New Director category for Pakistani drama Joyland.

This year, Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou will lead the jury of the Asian Film Awards. Zhang, a two-time winner of the Venice Golden Lion, succeeds Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong in the role. Zhang’s jury consists of seven other members from around the world who will determine the winners in each category.

A total of 30 films produced in 22 regions received 81 nominations in 16 categories for this year’s awards ceremony, which returns to Hong Kong after two consecutive years in Busan, Korea. The event will take place on March 12 at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Auditorium at the Hong Kong Palace Museum.

Here is the full list of nominations:

Best Movie
Decide to leave
Drive my car
Poet
Ponniyin Selvan: Part I
When the waves are gone

Dear Director
KORE-EDA Hirokazu
PARK Chan-wook
HAMAGUCHI Ryusuke
Darezhan OMIRBAYEV
Davy CHO

Best Actor
PARK Hae-il
NISHIJIMA Hidetoshi
SUZUKI Ryohei
ZHANGYi
Mohsen TANABANDEH
Tony LEUNG Chiu Wai

Best Actress
Sylvia CHANG
Karena LAM
Happy SALMA
TANG Wei
BAISHO Chieko

Best Supporting Actor
OKADA Masaki
MIYAZAWA Hio
IM Si-wan
OH Kwang Skirt
HUI Koon man

Best Supporting Actress
ANDO Sakura
Laura BASUKI
Kim So-jin
YIN Tao
KAWAI Yumi

Best New Director
Makbul MUBARAK
Say SADIQ
Jimmy Trinley
HAYAKAWA Chie
Kim Se-in

best newbie
Louise WONG
LEE Ji-eun
YANG And you
PARK Ji-min
MAK Pui Tung

Best screenplay
Makbul MUBARAK
CHUNG Seo-kyung, PARK Chan-wook
HAMAGUCHI Ryusuke, OE Takamasa
LIU Jiangjiang, YU Min
Lav DIAZ

Best editing
Kim Sang-beom
YAMAZAKI Azusa
ZHU Lin, YONG Wei, GAO Qiongjiali
Sreekar PRASAD
Dounia SICHOV

Best Cinematography
Batara GUMPAR
Kim Ji-yong
LU Songye
URATA Hideho
Ravi VARMAN

Best Original Music
CHO Young Wuk
ISHIBASHI Eiko
AR RAHMAN
Jérémie ARCACHE, Christophe MUSSET
Bahman GHOBADI, Vedat YILDIRIM

Best Costume Design
RYU Hyun-min, OH Jung-geun
Karen YIP, Dora NG
Retno Ratih DAMAYANTI
SHINOSUKA Nami
Eka LAKHANI

Best Production Design
Vida Sylvia Teresa
RYU Seong-hie
LI Miao
Thota THARANI
Bill LUI, Andrew WONG

Best visual effects
JUNG Seung-oh
ZHANG fan
Sriniva MOHAN
SATO Atsuki
Chas CHAU, LION Wai Kit, KWOK Tai

Best sounds
TU Duu-Chih
Kim Suk-won
NOMURA Miki, OBO Tatsuya
Vincent VILLA
Ashwin RAJASHEKAR