LEE Choon-yun also Honored at Asia Pacific Screen Awards
Juvenile Offender and Masquerade picked up prizes during the 2013 Asia Pacific Screen Awards, which were held last night in Brisbane, Australia. LEE Choon-yun, one of the industry’s top producers, was also handed a lifetime achievement award. In total, 39 films from 22 countries competed in various categories.
KANG Yi-kwan’s Juvenile Offender, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year before going on a lengthy festival run which included awards in the Tokyo and Cinemanila International Film Festivals, was triumphant in the Children’s Feature Category.
LEE Byung-hun, who featured in the Hollywood blockbuster sequels G.I. Joe: Retaliation and RED 2 this year, won in the Best Actor category for his two-role turn in last year’s period hit Masquerade, from director CHOO Chang-min. It was the second consecutive year that a Korean performer won in the category following last year’s award for CHOI Min-shik and his role in Nameless Gangster.
Also nominated was YEON Sang-ho’s The Fake in the Best Animated Film category but it lost out to Koo! Kin-Dza-Dza from Russia.
This year’s FIAPF Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film in the Asia Pacific region was given to LEE Choon-yun, the president of Korean production company Cine2000.
Other major award winners during the 7th ASPAs were the Palestinian drama Omar for Best Film, while Singapore’s Anthony CHEN won Best Director for Ilo Ilo and ZHANG Ziyi picked up Best Actress for her part in WONG Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster.