APSA awards six development grants to Asia Pacific film-makers

Six script development grants totalling more than $140,000 have been awarded to film-makers from the Asia Pacific region.  

The grants are split into two funds - the Motion Picture Association and Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) Academy Film Fund and the new APSA Children’s Film Fund, a partnership with Manila based 4 Boys Films to support films for and about children.

Both funds are available exclusively to APSA Academy members.

The recipients of the MPA/APSA Academy Film Fund, who will each receive $25,000 towards script development for their new feature film projects are:

Shawkat Amin Korki (Iraq/Kurdistan) for Memories on Stone
Peyman Moadi (Iran) for Those Days
Maryam Ebrahimi [pictured] (Iran/Sweden) Burqas Behind Bars
Pryas Gupta (India) The Cricket Tree

The recipients for the APSA Children’s Film Fund who will each receive $20,000 are:
Garin Nugroho (Indonesia) for The Seen and The Unseen.
Songtaijia (People’s Republic of China/Tibet) for The Stone with Nine Eyes

Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation was one of the four projects to receive funding in 2010, going on to win the Golden Bear at Berlin and this year’s APSA Best Feature Film Award.