The Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) and its Academy, and the Motion Picture Association (MPA) Asia Pacific officially renewed their successful partnership at an event held during the MPA-BFM Film Workshop at the 6th Beijing International Film Festival. Together they launched the 7th round of the MPA APSA Academy Film Fund and announced the distinguished film professionals who will be determining the recipients of four script development grants to nurture Asia Pacific stories in November 2016.

Returning Chair Andrew Pike (Australia) will be joined by André Morgan (USA/China), the Oscar®-winning founder of the international production powerhouse studio Ruddy Morgan Organisation, and Fujioka Asako (Japan), former director of the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival and longstanding member of the selection committee for the Busan International Film Festival’s Asian Network of Documentary (AND) Fund.

Mike Ellis, President and Managing Director Asia Pacific MPA, said, “We are thrilled to launch the 2016 MPA APSA Academy Film Fund here at the Beijing International Film Festival. The Fund is committed to showcase the diverse and multicultural face of Asia Pacific and every year we are in awe of the high calibre of film projects that we receive from the region. The Fund has a notable record of identifying quality scripts which then go on to be produced, distributed and win a fair share of awards at festivals. We congratulate the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, in their 10th year, for their incredible contribution to film culture in Asia Pacific, and wish all Academy members well with their current projects.”

Present at the event in Beijing, newly announced 2016 Fund panellist André Morgan said, “Entertainment underpins a nation’s culture, and when you look at a nation’s culture you are looking at the soul of its people and the glue that binds a society.”

The MPA APSA Academy Film Fund was created to support, at script stage, new feature film projects originated by APSA Academy members and their colleagues across Asia Pacific. The fund awards four development grants of US$25,000 annually. The 7th round of the Fund will bring the total number of projects funded to 28. The recipients of the grants will be announced during the 10th Asia Pacific Screen Awards Ceremony on Thursday 24 November 2016 in Brisbane, Australia.

Launching the 2016 MPA APSA Academy Film Fund at the event in Beijing, APSA Board Member John Kirby AM said, “The Asia Pacific Screen Awards is an outstanding cultural initiative from Brisbane, Australia. The awards are a vital platform that allows the voices and images of film to be promoted across the region and has an unrivalled role in Asia Pacific. The APSA Academy has opportunities to further their creative talents through dedicated funding initiatives.”