The Asian Academy Creative Awards (AACA) has introduced a new category for its 2026 edition that will honour best direction (feature film).
The move reflects AACA’s ambition to recognise a wider range of creative achievement across the region’s screen industries.
The inaugural nominees in the category were revealed when the AACA unveiled its National Winners at the end of September.
Ahead of his year’s gala awards, set to take place on December 3 at the Capitol Theatre in Singapore, Screen profiles the filmmakers.
Larry Yang, The Shadow’s Edge (China-HK)
Beijing Film Academy and University of Edinburgh graduate Yang made his directorial debut in 2012 with Nana before gaining recognition for Mountain Cry, a rural drama following a mute widow in a remote mountain village in Shanxi, China. The film marked a breakthrough for Yang, bringing his intimate, realist storytelling to the international stage when it was selected to close the Busan International Film Festival in 2015.
The filmmaker has since built a diverse body of work spanning sports drama with 2017’s My Other Home, and action comedy with 2023’s Ride On starring Jackie Chan.
The Shadow’s Edge marks Yang’s second collaboration with Chan, who plays a tracking expert brought out of retirement to assist the Macau police in catching a sophisticated organisation of thieves. He faces off against veteran Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Ka-fai who plays the elusive “Wolf King”.
The film grossed around $188m in mainland China and screened at Busan in 2025.
Suresh Triveni, Subedaar (India)
Malayali writer-director Triveni studied visual communication in Chennai, helping kickstart his career directing commercials and branded films. He made his feature debut in 2017 with intimate domestic comedy-drama Tumhari Sulu, which won best film at the Indian International Film Academy Awards.
Subedaar marks Triveni’s third feature and his first foray into large-scale action. Renowned star Anil Kapoor plays a retired soldier grappling with grief for his late wife and an increasingly fractured relationship with his daughter. His life takes another turn when a run-in with local criminals leads him to uncover ties with a powerful sand-mafia network and systemic corruption.
Triveni has resisted drawing a line between “commercial” and “meaningful” cinema, arguing that stories should ultimately connect with audiences.
Norhanisham “Labu” Muhammad, Forbidden Nights (Malay)
Malaysian director Muhammad is nominated posthumously, having died in May. Known as Labu, the filmmaker built his career primarily through camera work, establishing himself as a cinematographer with credits including Nur Kasih: The Movie, for which he received a best cinematography nomination at the 2011 Malaysian Film Festival.
He later moved into directing, with several episodic credits on series such as Scammer and Budak Hotel, before making his feature directorial debut with Forbidden Nights.
Set in Malaysia in 1987, the supernatural horror follows an 18-year-old aspiring journalist whose family is haunted by disturbing paranormal events after her sister’s mysterious death. With a sick mother and a father consumed by a political campaign, her investigation takes her down a rabbit hole, uncovering buried family secrets and the devastating consequences of an obsession with black magic.
Before his passing, Labu directed Wantugo, billed as Malaysia’s first Battle Royale-style film. The project is in post-production.
Win Lwin Htet, Dream Rhyme (My)
Throughout his career, this Myanmar filmmaker has established himself as a cinematographer, writer and director, first earning national recognition for his work behind the camera on 2018’s Clinging With Hate, which earned him a Myanmar Motion Picture Academy Award.
He went on to direct several romantic comedies and dramas including 2023’s The Lucky, which won best film and best cinematography at that year’s national awards.
Dream Rhyme (aka Eain Mat Kar Yan), recognised as Myanmar’s first feature-length musical film, follows an ensemble cast of popular local screen stars including Nay Toe and Hlwan Paing. Combining narrative, choreography, and an extensive catalogue of songs, the film explores the choices people make when personal relationships collide with creative aspirations.
The film earned him a best director win at the 2024 Myanmar Motion Picture Academy Awards, making him a three-time recipient of the national honours across both cinematography and directing.
Sigrid Andrea P. Bernardo, I’m Perfect (Phil)
Filipina director Bernardo began her career with short films such as 2005’s award-winning Babae before making her feature debut with Ang Huling Cha-Cha Ni Anita in 2013. The film won several prizes at that year’s CineFilipino Film Festival.
With a degree in theatre arts from the University of Philippines, Bernardo’s work frequently explores relationships through wider social, cultural and gender perspectives, with recurring themes of identity and human rights.
Her 2017 feature Kita Kita starring Alessandra di Rossi marked a major commercial breakthrough, becoming the highest-grossing independent film in the Philippines at the time of its release.
Berando’s latest film, I’m Perfect, follows two adults with Down’s syndrome who fall in love and strive for independence in a society that questions their autonomy.
Conceived more than a decade before production, the project underwent several iterations before being realised with performers Anne Krystle Daphne Go and Earl Jonathan Amaba.
Yen Hu, Chao Koi-wang, No One Home (Tai)
This Taiwanese directing duo bring complementary backgrounds in theatre, screenwriting and short filmmaking to No One Home, a mystery drama about a man returning to the abandoned makeshift container he once called home. Retracing memories of life with his debt-ridden father and his father’s girlfriend, he seeks answers to his mysterious father’s disappearance as the film examines what makes a family and a home.
Hu began his career in theatre and playwriting before moving into screenwriting, developing No One Home from his field research into abandoned homes.
Chao, a Macau-born filmmaker who studied at Taipei National University of the Arts, established his reputation through award-winning short films including 2023’s Chuff Chuff Chuff, which competed at Busan and screened in Vancouver.
No One Home earned eight nominations at the 2026 Golden Bell Awards and received international recognition with a best TV movie nomination at the Seoul International Drama Awards.
The pair previously co-directed Goddess, which premiered at the 2023 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and was nominated for best narrative short at the 2024 Golden Harvest Awards.
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