Whew, big week for film news. First we told you about this great slate of Chinese documentaries at SFMOMA, then there was news of a possible Fan Bingbing comeback, and then… well, then there was this: Mike Tyson and Steven Seagal Action Flick “Debuts” for a Third Time, Continues to Suck And now we have the full list of nominations for the 2019 Asian Film Awards. Yup, it’s awards season in Asia too. China has two horses in the race for the Best Film prize: surprisingly heavy-hitting drugs smuggling drama Dying to Survive and Tibetan language revenge movie Jinpa. Here’s a short clip from the latter: That film has also earned Pema Tseden a Best Director nomination, a category which also features Hong Kong’s Fruit Chan for the film Three Husbands, which Variety said painted a “grotesquely satirical picture of Hong Kong”. In the Best New Director nominations, Beijing Film Academy graduate Bai Xue gets recognition for her debut feature The Crossing, which centers on a young drug mule to tell a “moving, universal story of teenage angst” according to the Hollywood Reporter. Other Chinese films featured on the awards shortlist include stirring dialect-heavy Jia Zhangke offering Ash is Purest White — for which Zhao Tao gets a well-deserved Best Actress nomination to go with the film’s Best Screenplay nod — and Operation Red Sea. The latter, which somewhat bizarrely is Hong Kong’s Oscar pick, is among those hoping to take home prizes for Best Editing, Best Visual Effects, and Best Newcomer (courtesy of Johnny Huang). The awards are set to take place in Macau on March 16. Here’s the full list of nominations: Best Film Burning (South Korea) Dying to Survive (China) Jinpa (China) Sanju (India) Shoplifters (Japan) Best Director Lee Chang-dong (Burning) Pema Tseden (Jinpa) Rajkumar Hirani (Sanju) Hirokazu Koreeda (Shoplifters) Fruit Chan (Three Husbands) Best New Director Yeo Siew Hua (A Land Imagined) Rima Das (Bulbul Can Sing) Phuttiphong Aroonpheng (Manta Ray) Shinichiro Ueda (One Cut of the Dead) Oliver Chan Siu-kuen (Still Human) Bai Xue (The Crossing) Best Actor Yoo Ah-in (Burning) Xu Zheng (Dying to Survive) Aaron Kwok (Project Gutenberg) Ranbir Kapoor (Sanju) Koji Yakusho (The Blood of Wolves) Best Actress Zhao Tao (Ash Is Purest White) Samal Yeslyamova (Ayka) Han Ji-min (Miss Baek) Sakura Ando (Shoplifters) Chloe Maayan (Three Husbands) Best Supporting Actor Zhang Yu (Dying to Survive) Kwon Hae-hyo (Hotel by the River) Shinya Tsukamoto (Killing) Vicky Kaushal (Sanju) River Huang (Tracey) Best Supporting Actress Jin Seo-yeon (Believer) Ding Ning (Cities of Last Things) Xu Qing (Hidden Man) Mayu Matsuoka (Shoplifters) Kara Wai (Tracey) Best Newcomer Erika Karata (Asako I & II) Jun Jong-seo (Burning) Xie Zhangying (Cities of Last Things) Johnny Huang (Operation Red Sea) Huang Yao (The Crossing) Chan Charm-man (Three Husbands) Best Screenplay Ash Is Purest White Burning Dying to Survive Project Gutenberg Sanju Best Editing Killing Operation Red Sea Project Gutenberg Shadow The Spy Gone North Best Cinematography Burning Jinpa Manta Ray Shadow Tumbbad Best Original Music Believer Jinpa Sanju Shadow Shoplifters Best Costume Design Hidden Man Project Gutenberg Punk Samurai Slash Down Shadow The Spy Gone North Best Production Design Burning Hidden Man Shadow Shoplifters Tumbbad Best Visual Effects 2.0 Hidden Man Operation Red Sea Project Gutenberg Punk Samurai Slash Down
