Jill Bilcock, ASE ACE, ground-breaking Australian film editor, heads the International Jury for the 2017 Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) November 23rd, founded in 2006; it's the region’s highest accolade in film.

Chair of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards and its Academy Michael Hawkins said: “APSA is delighted that Jill Bilcock will preside as the President of the International Jury of the five member Jury, together with Chinese actress He Saifei, Filipino writer/director Adolfo Alix Jr, and Kazakh writer, director, cinematographer Adilkhan Yerzhanov, and Programming Director of Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) Yoshi Yatabe. Bilcock is acclaimed for her unifying force on a film’s production, her ability to see the essence of a scene and her great collaborative approach in her work, all of which we know she will bring to her role as Jury President. It is an honour to have a legend of Bilcock’s standing in the Australian and international film industry lead the Jury this year.”

He Saifei, Adolfo Alix Jr, Adilkhan Yerzhanov, and Yoshi Yatabe.
A total of 41 films from 25 countries and areas of the Asia Pacific region have received nominations in 2017, including the first nomination for a film from Bhutan.

Films competing for the APSA for Best Feature Film in 2017 are Vivian Qu’s Angels Wear White (Jia Nian Hua, People’s Republic of China, France), Samuel Maoz’s Foxtrot (Israel, Germany, France, Switzerland), Sergei Loznitsa’s A Gentle Creature (Krotkaya; France, Germany, Lithuania, Netherlands), Mohammad Rasoulof’s A Man of Integrity (Lerd; Islamic Republic of Iran) and Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country (Australia). For the first time three of the extraordinary filmmakers have had previous films win Asia Pacific Screen Awards: Vivien Qu (Black Coal, Thin Ice, 2014), Samuel Maoz (Lebanon, 2010), Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah, 2009). Additionally, Mohammad Rasoulof’s Goodbye, received three nominations in 2011.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said: “These five films tell unique stories from Australia, China, Iran, Israel and Russia, each representing the incredible diversity and high calibre of filmmaking from the Asia Pacific region. This is a significant opportunity for our city to host some of the world’s most respected names in film and a great chance for our local and national film industry to forge new connections with the region. The Asia Pacific Screen Awards helps to elevate Brisbane’s position as a cultural hub and is a testament to our role as a leader in the region.”

The APSA International Jury determines the winners of Best Feature Film, Achievement in Directing, Achievement in Cinematography, Best Screenplay and two acting categories, Best Performance by the Actress and Actor. They will also determine the winners in the prestigious Cultural Diversity Award, under the patronage of UNESCO. The Jury can, at its discretion, award a Jury Grand Prize.

The winners will be announced at the 11th APSA ceremony on November 23, where they will be presented with a unique and exquisite handmade APSA award vessel made by Brisbane-based internationally awarded glass artist Joanna Bone.

About Jill Bilcock
With a career spanning more than three decades, Bilcock is an Academy Award® and four-time BAFTA® nominee. Bilcock has won awards from the American Film Institute and American Cinema Editors Guild Awards, five AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards, received four additional AFI nominations, and two AACTA (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts) nominations. In 1995 she was awarded the AFI’s prestigious Byron Kennedy Award for her outstanding creative enterprise within the industry. Bilcock is a member of the ASE (Auxzstralian Screen Editors) and ACE (American Cinema Editors). Jill Bilcock has edited six of the 20 highest-grossing Australian films of all time. Alongside Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom (1992) and Moulin Rouge! (2001), she edited PJ Hogan’s Muriel’s Wedding (1994), Kriv Stenders’ Red Dog (2011, APSA nominee for Best Children’s Feature Film), the Working Dog production of The Dish (2000), and Jocelyn Moorhouse’s The Dressmaker (2015).
Her long-lasting creative collaboration with Baz Luhrmann on Strictly Ballroom (1992), Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Moulin Rouge! (2001), was hailed for the fast-paced, modern editing techniques applied to classic genres of the musical and Shakespearean romance, which proved to be highly influential and considered key to the films’ success. Her ongoing collaboration with Richard Lowenstein started her feature film credits with Strikebound (1984), iconic rock musical Dogs in Space (1986), concert documentary Australian Made: The Movie (1987), children’s drama Say a Little Prayer (1993) and continues now with Mystify: Michael Hutchence, a documentary about the late INXS singer and star of Dogs in Space.
Internationally she has worked closely with Shekhar Kapur on Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), both starring Cate Blanchett, in addition to Sam Mendes’ Road to Perdition (2002) with Tom Hanks and Paul Newman, and Jean-Marc Vallée’s The Young Victoria (2009). All of these films won Academy Awards®.
Significantly, Bilcock has worked extensively alongside female filmmakers within the Australian film industry including Jocelyn Moorhouse and Ana Kokkinos, Sue Brooks, Clara Law and Robyn Nevin.
A documentary about her life and career, Jill Bilcock: Dancing the Invisible, premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival, and won the Best Feature Documentary. The film, whose origins started at an International Editing Symposium at Griffith Film School (GFS) in Brisbane, between Jill Bilcock and the film’s director/editor Axel Grigor, is produced by Grigor together with APSA Academy member and GFS alumni Faramarz K-Rahber.

About The Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA)
The Asia Pacific Screen Awards, based in Brisbane, is supported by Brisbane City Council and managed by economic development board Brisbane Marketing. APSA has the privilege of a unique collaboration with Paris-based UNESCO and FIAPF-International Federation of Film Producers Associations, and recognises and promotes cinematic excellence and cultural diversity of the world’s fastest growing film region: comprising 70 countries and areas, 4.5 billion people, and is responsible for half of the world’s film output.
Nominees and Jury are inducted into the Asia Pacific Screen Academy making them eligible to apply for the 2017 MPA APSA Academy Film Fund. The 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, and is wholly supported by the MPA (Motion Picture Association).
APSA and its Academy is committed to its ongoing collaborations with UNESCO, FIAPF, the European Film Academy (EFA), the Motion Picture Association (MPA), NETPAC (the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema), the Asia Pacific Screen Lab (APSL) and Griffith Film School.