About The Asia Pacific Screen Academy

The Asia Pacific Screen Academy was formed in 2008 and comprises all APSA nominees, winners, jurors and International Nominations Council members. They number more than 1,650 of the world’s most successful and acclaimed film professionals and practitioners including winners of the Palme d’Or, the Golden Bear, the Golden Globe® for Best Foreign Language Film and the Academy Award® for Best Picture.

Led by the President of the Academy, Australian screen icon Jack Thompson AM PhD, it serves to foster dialogue and development, furthering the common interests of Asia Pacific filmmakers and connecting them professionally as well as those around the globe who believe in the region as a place to create and produce their art. Professional partnerships have emerged out of the APSA Academy, many that never would have eventuated without the introduction that APSA allows.

The Asia Pacific Screen Forum is run every year in the lead-up to the APSA ceremony. Featuring a collection of panels, screenings and networking functions, this program acts as both a welcome to the Academy and as a means of strengthening connections between new and current members. Furthermore, in response to the Academy’s global reach, a variety of international events are held throughout the year including an MPA screening in Washington DC and a UNESCO screening and award presentation in Paris.

Since 2010, APSA has supported members through the crucial process of script development via the Motion Picture Association (MPA) APSA Academy Film Fund, providing four annual grants of US$25,000. To date, more than US$800,000 has been granted to Academy members to help bring their stories to the screen. Films funded by the MPA APSA Academy Film Fund include Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation, which won the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film.

In celebration of APSA’s ten-year anniversary milestone in 2016, a new and relevant award achievement was introduced – the Young Cinema Award in Partnership with the Network for the Promotion of Asia Pacific Cinema (NETPAC) and Griffith Film School (GFS). This important award continues in 2018, recognising the abundant emerging talent of the Asia Pacific, which increases in prevalence in the APSA competition each year. The Award is eligible to directors of debut or sophomore feature narrative films, with the recipient chosen from the APSA feature narrative competition and inducted into the Academy.

The Asia Pacific Screen Lab is an immersive yearlong development incubator/mentoring program. In partnership with GFS, the Academy and NETPAC, it supports emerging filmmakers from Asia Pacific who are ready for the next step in their career, and enabling film co-production across the region. APSA and the Academy also collaborate with FIAPF-International Federation of Film Producers Associations to present an award each year to a filmmaker who has demonstrated outstanding dedication to the Asia Pacific region. In 2011 the European Film Academy formed an alliance with APSA and the Academy, acknowledging the similar multicultural aims and outcomes of both organisations. In 2018 it was announced a similar alliance would be formed between APSA and the Premios Platino Awards, extending the Academy’s reach across five continents.