Winner, Best Screenplay, 2016
Writer and director Ryusuke Hamaguchi first came to international notice when his graduation film Passion was selected for the Zabaltegi Section of San Sebastián International Film Festival in 2008 as well as the Tokyo FILMeX competition. Since then he has crafted feature and documentary feature films including The Depths (2010), the Tohoku Trilogy documentary series (2011—13), and feature films Intimacies (2012) and Touching the Skin of Eeriness (2013). Happy Hour’s screenplay was awarded a Special Mention at Locarno. Tadashi Nohara entered the Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts in 2007, where he studied under APSA Academy member Kiyoshi Kurosawa. An accomplished writer and director, his works include feature film Kyoko, a piece of the omnibus Lush Life (2009) originally written by Kotaro Isaka and feature film Elephant Love (2009). Tomoyuki Takahashi holds a Masters from the Graduate School of Nihon University College of Arts where he studied screenwriting. Starting his career writing for horror projects, his major scripts are for Hamaguchi’s Touching the Skin of Eeriness and Natsuka Kusano’s Antonym (2014).
APSA Winner Clip
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and present. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
