Park Chan-wook’s ‘Decision to Leave’ Tops Asian Film Awards with Nominations in 10 Categories

Park Chan-wook’s romantic thriller Decision to Leave emerged as the clear favorite when the 2023 Asian Film Awards nominations were unveiled Friday. The Korean maestro’s acclaimed feature, which won best director at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and is shortlisted for an Oscar in the best international film category, scored 10 nominations, including best film, best director, best screenplay, and many of the major acting and craft categories.

Decision to Leave will face off in the best film category against Japanese auteur Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s 2022 Oscar winner Drive My Car, Kazakhstan film Poet by Darezhan Omirbayev, India’s Ponniyin Selvan: I from Mani Ratnam, and the Philippines’ When the Waves Are Gone from Lav Diaz.

The Asian Films Awards (AFAs) were inaugurated in 2007 and are organized by an academy established by the Hong Kong International Film Festival, the Busan festival and the Tokyo festival. Their remit is to honor the greatest achievements in cinema from across the diverse filmmaking traditions of the Asia Pacific region. The 2023 AFAs will be held in Hong Kong on March 12. For this year’s ceremony, which will take place at Hong Kong’s new Palace Museum the night before the Filmart content market makes its in-person return for the first time since the start of the pandemic, some 30 films, produced in 22 different regions, will compete across 16 awards categories.

Chinese director Zhang Yimou has been appointed jury president for the 2023 AFAs. Zhang, a Golden Bear winner in Berlin, a two-time Venice Golden Lion winner and a winner of the Cannes Grand Prix, will lead a panel of seven film figures from around the world to decide on the winners of this year’s awards.

The full list of nominations is below.

Here’s the list of nominations in full:

Best Film
Decision To Leave
Drive My Car
Poet
Ponniyin Selvan: Part I
When the Waves Are Gone

Best Director
KORE-EDA Hirokazu
PARK Chan-wook
HAMAGUCHI Ryusuke
Darezhan OMIRBAYEV
Davy CHOU

Best Actor
PARK Hae-il
NISHIJIMA Hidetoshi
SUZUKI Ryohei
ZHANG Yi
Mohsen TANABANDEH
Tony LEUNG Chiu Wai

Best Actress
Sylvia CHANG
Karena LAM
Happy SALMA
TANG Wei
BAISHO Chieko

Best Supporting Actor
OKADA Masaki
MIYAZAWA Hio
IM Si-wan
OH Kwang-rok
HUI Koon Man

Best Supporting Actress
ANDO Sakura
Laura BASUKI
KIM So-jin
YIN Tao
KAWAI Yumi

Best New Director
Makbul MUBARAK
Saim SADIQ
Jigme Trinley
HAYAKAWA Chie
KIM Se-in

Best Newcomer
Louise WONG
LEE Ji-eun
YANG Enyou
PARK Ji-min
MAK Pui Tung

Best Screenplay
Makbul MUBARAK
CHUNG Seo-kyung, PARK Chan-wook
HAMAGUCHI Ryusuke, OE Takamasa
LIU Jiangjiang, YU Min
Lav DIAZ

Best Editing
KIM Sang-beom
YAMAZAKI Azusa
ZHU Lin, YONG Wei, GAO Qiongjiali
Sreekar PRASAD
Dounia SICHOV

Best Cinematography
Batara GOEMPAR
KIM Ji-yong
LU Songye
URATA Hideho
Ravi VARMAN

Best Original Music
CHO Young Wuk
ISHIBASHI Eiko
A.R. RAHMAN
Jérémie ARCACHE, Christophe MUSSET
Bahman GHOBADI, Vedat YILDIRIM

Best Costume Design
RYU Hyun-min, OH Jung-geun
Karen YIP, Dora NG
Retno Ratih DAMAYANTI
SHINOZUKA Nami
Eka LAKHANI

Best Production Design
Vida Sylvia Theresia
RYU Seong-hie
LI Miao
Thota THARANI
Bill LUI, Andrew WONG

Best Visual Effects
JUNG Seung-oh
ZHANG Fan
Srinivas MOHAN
SATO Atsuki
Chas CHAU, LEUNG Wai Kit, KWOK Tai

Best Sound
TU Duu-Chih
KIM Suk-won
NOMURA Miki, OBO Tatsuya
Vincent VILLA
Ashwin RAJASHEKAR