APSA Asia Pacific Screen Forum & Awards 2023
5th Asia Pacific Screen Forum & 16th Asia Pacific Screen Awards
1 – 4 November 2023
HOTA, Home of the Arts, Gold Coast
The 5th Asia Pacific Screen Forum and Asia Pacific Screen Awards will be held from Wednesday 1st–Saturday 4th November 2023 at HOTA, Home of the Arts, Gold Coast.
Over four days, local filmmakers, APSA Award nominees, and international delegates will connect through a series of panels and presentations, roundtable discussions, networking events, workshops, and screenings. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn from a range of speakers from across the region through a dynamic program that supports Australian film practitioners to engage with pertinent industry issues, connecting the national industry with the global conversation.
The Forum features in-conversations, workshops, panel discussions, and intimate roundtables with a public program of screenings and Q&As. A unique program for the industry, encouraging relationship building networking opportunities, as well as cultural and knowledge exchange both from within Australia and across the Asia Pacific.
The marquee event over these four days is the 16th Asia Pacific Screen Awards. With nominated filmmakers and screen industry VIPs in attendance, the winners of the 16th Asia Pacific Screen Awards will be announced at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards Ceremony on Friday 3 November 2023 at HOTA Gold Coast, Australia.
IML’s Pick
Riceboy Sleeps
10am – 12pm, Friday 3 November
Event Cinemas Pacific Fair, Cinema 4
Set in the 90s, a Korean single mother raises her young son in the suburbs of Canada determined to provide a better life for him than the one she left behind. Canada. Anthony Shim’s semi-autobiographical drama has won more than 20 international awards. Anthony has been nominated for Best Screenplay at the 2023 APSA Awards.
Seoul-born Canadian filmmaker Anthony Shim’s second feature is an achingly intimate portrait of a mother’s love for her son. With delicacy and tenderness that never tips into sentimentality, Shim charts the difficulties faced by So-young and Dong-hyun as they attempt to fit into Canadian suburbia in a time when virtually no support was available. Years later we meet Dong-hyung (now known as David) as a wayward teenager who’s grown distant from his mother until a critical event takes them on an unpredictable journey into their Korean past. This shot-on-16mm treasure, drawing laudatory comparisons with Minari (SFF 2021), is superbly performed by dancer-turned-actor Choi Seung-yoon in her first feature role and 2022 TIFF Rising Star award winner Ethan Hwang.
Written and Directed by Anthony Shim
Produced by Bryan Demore, Rebecca Steele, Anthony Shim
Starring Choi Seung-yoon, Ethan Hwang, Dohyun Noel Hwang
Screening to be followed by an exclusive Q&A with Writer, Director, Producer Anthony Shim. Nominated for Best Screenplay at the 2023 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
