Asian Film Awards 2021 nominations: Zhang Yimou leads race with One Second and Cliff Walkers; Japan represented by Wife of a Spy, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

Chinese director’s Cliff Walkers has the most nominations, but his film One Second is the one contending for the top prizes at the Asian Film Awards

Two Japanese films are vying for best picture, while Hong Kong films Limbo – as yet unreleased – Drifting, and The Way We Keep Dancing are up for awards

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Yu Aoi (right) and Masahiro Higashide in a still from Wife of a Spy, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

Published: 6:15pm, 9 Sep 2021

Chinese director Zhang Yimou is the nominal front runner for the 15th Asian Film Awards, leading the field with a combined 11 nominations for his two latest films, One Second and Cliff Walkers.

While the spy thriller Cliff Walkers has the most nominations – six, of which four are in the technical categories – it is Zhang’s homage to cinema set during China’s Cultural Revolution, One Second, that is in contention for the top prizes such as best picture, best director and best actor.

One Second’s five nominations are matched by Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s World War II drama Wife of a Spy, another nominee for best picture. That category is rounded out by Korean historical film The Book of Fish (with four nominations); Indian music drama The Disciple (with two), winner for best screenplay at the 2020 Venice International Film Festival; and Japanese anthology Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (also with two nominations), the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winner at 2021 the Berlin Film Festival.

Hong Kong cinema is represented by three films: Soi Cheang Pou-soi’s as-yet-unreleased crime thriller Limbo, up for four awards, including a best actor nomination for Lam Ka-tung; the poverty drama Drifting, whose stars Tse Kwan-ho and Loletta Lee Lai-chun are nominated for best supporting actor and actress; and dance sequel The Way We Keep Dancing, for best original music.

Liu Haocun in a still from Cliff Walkers, nominated in six categories at the Asian Film Awards.

The winners of the 2021 Asian Film Awards will be decided by a jury headed by Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong, the AFA’s lifetime award recipient in 2019; they will be announced on October 8 at a hybrid ceremony, which combines on-site attendance in Busan, South Korea – in conjunction with the Busan International Film Festival – and online participation.

The full list of nominations is as follows: