Guria Wins Best Film at the 2026 Asia Pacific Screen Awards

By Daniel Okafor

Guria won Best Film at the 2026 Asia Pacific Screen Awards on the Gold Coast, Australia, giving Levan Koguashvili’s international co-production the ceremony’s leading prize. Olena Yershova, Koguashvili and Boris Frumin produced the film, which joins Georgia, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Türkiye, Norway and Saudi Arabia.

Seven co-production countries. One Best Film.

What did the directing awards establish?

Sompot Chidgasornpongse won Best Director for 9 Temples to Heaven, a co-production spanning Thailand, Singapore, France, Norway, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Qatar. Aung Phyoe received the Best Director special mention for Fruit Gathering, a Myanmar–Czech Republic–France co-production.

The Jury Grand Prize went instead to Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat for No Good Men, a Germany–France–Norway–Denmark–Afghanistan co-production. The jury citation praised Sadat’s “compelling approach to storytelling and her contribution to contemporary Afghan cinema”.

No clean sweep.

How did the craft and performance awards divide the field?

The APSA’s published winners list names 15 award entries, counting the director’s special mention as one of them.

• Best Youth Film: Big Girls Don’t Cry, directed by New Zealand filmmaker Paloma Schneideman and produced by Vicky Pope and Thomas Coppell, represents New Zealand.
• Best Animated Film: The Violinist went to Singapore’s Ervin Han and Spain’s Raúl García, with producers Paloma Mora, Cristiano Bortone, Justin Deimen, Leonard Lai and Takafumi Yuki; the production joins Singapore, Spain and Italy.
• Best Documentary Film: One In A Million, directed by Itab Azzam and Jack MacInness, won for its documentary storytelling and exploration of a Syrian refugee’s lived experience. Producers Azzam and MacInness joined Will Anderson, James Bluemel, Andrew Palmer and Raney Aronson-Rath in the UK–U.S. co-production.
• Best Screenplay: Rakan Mayasi, Wahid Ajmi and Pôl Seif won for Yesterday The Eye Didn’t Sleep, a collaboration involving Belgium, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
• Best Cinematography: Vietnamese cinematographer Nguyễn Vinh Phúc won for Hearing, a co-production spanning Vietnam, Singapore, Norway, France, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia, Thailand and Taiwan.
• Best Performance: Pushpa Thing Lama won for Elephants In The Fog, a Nepal–Germany–Brazil–France–Norway co-production.
• Best New Performer: South Korea’s Sim Su-bin won for The World Before.
• Cultural Diversity Award: Another Birth, directed and produced by Isabelle Kalandar, joins Tajikistan, the U.S. and Qatar.
• Young Cinema Award: India’s R Gowtham won for Members Of The Problematic Family.
• FIAPF Award: India’s Bobby Bedi received the honour.
• Forum Filmmaker Award: Malaysia’s Haziqah Azemi received the award.

What does the Academy Film Fund change?

The ceremony also announced five 2026 MPA APSA Academy Film Fund grants of $10,000 each, supported by the Motion Picture Association, totalling $50,000. The programme lists five funded projects separately from the 15 award entries.

• Indian director Payal Kapadia and producer Thomas Hakim: A Memory Of Being Here, an India project.
• Cambodian-French director Davy Chou and producer Charlotte Vincent: My Father’s Glory, a France–Cambodia project.
• Chinese director Taifeng Liu and producer Janet Wu: A Place In The Sun, a China project.
• Singaporean director Nicole Midori Woodford and producer Anthony Chen: Incarnation, a Singapore–Japan project.
• Documentary The Story Of My Shirt, from Zhanana Kurmasheva and producer Banu Ramazanova, spans Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China and Chile.

Why does the international focus matter?

Tracey Vieira, chair of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, said:

Tonight we celebrate an exceptional group of filmmakers whose work reflects the courage, creativity and cultural richness of the Asia Pacific.

From Guria and No Good Men to Elephants In The Fog, this year’s winners remind us of the extraordinary stories emerging from our region and the importance of creating opportunities for these voices to be recognised internationally.

Her emphasis falls on recognition, while the announcement supplies no budgets, release dates or audience figures. The measurable change is $50,000 in grants and 15 named award entries, with Guria at the top of the list.

Awards do not settle the race. Recognition starts it.