Hindi
Shyam Benegal to head jury for Asia Pacific Screen Awards
NEW DELHI: Famed filmmaker Anurag Kashyap’s Ugly has been shortlisted in the features in competition of the 7th Annual Awards of the Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
Other films from acclaimed filmmakers include Hong Kong’s Wong Kar Wai (The Grandmaster), Japan’s Hayao Miyazaki (The Wind Rises) and Hirokazu Kore Eda (Like Father, Like Son), as well as Kim Ki Duk (Moebius) from the Republic of Korea and Asghar Farhadi (The Past) from the Islamic Republic of Iran. First timers competing with them include Singapore’s Anthony Chen (Ilo, Ilo) and Australia’s Kim Mordaunt (The Rocket).
The International Nominations Council is currently deliberating in Brisbane ahead of the 2013 nominations announcement this month. The 2013 Asia Pacific Screen Awards ceremony will be held in Brisbane’s historic City Hall on 12 December at a glittering event, with nominees and industry luminaries in attendance. Films are submitted to the awards across four categories; Feature Film, Documentary Feature Film, Animated Feature Film and Children’s Feature Film.
The 2013 International Nominations Council are currently in Brisbane to determine the nominees in the six feature film categories of Best Feature Film, Achievement in Directing, Best Screenplay, Achievement in Cinematography, Best Performance by an Actress and Best Performance by an Actor.
The awards are the Asia Pacific region’s highest accolade in film, recognising and promoting cinematic excellence and cultural diversity of the world’s fastest growing film region: comprising 70 countries and areas, 4.5 billion people, and responsible for half of the world’s film output.
With an incredibly strong line-up of over 230 films from 41 countries and areas, including Academy Award Best Foreign Language Film submissions from an unprecedented 19 countries, the 2013 competition reinforces the award’s position as the region’s highest accolade in film, recognising and promoting the cinematic excellence and cultural diversity of the vast Asia Pacific.
Features in competition for 2013 include films not only awarded within their own countries and areas, but also at the world’s leading film festivals beyond Asia Pacific, with the line-up including multiple award winners from Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, Sundance, Venice and Tribeca.
Winners in the feature film categories will be determined by the 2013 APSA International Jury, headed by esteemed Indian screenwriter and director Shyam Benegal, who will lead a group of accomplished Jury members including Korean screenwriter and director Kim Tae-yong, “Queen of Sri Lankan Cinema” actress of stage and screen Hon Dr Malani Fonseka, Turkish actor Tamer Levent, Swiss director Christoph Schaub and Hong Kong producer Albert Lee. The International Jury can also, at its discretion, present a further prize: the Jury Grand Prize, for which nominated feature films are eligible.
Winners of the Documentary Feature Film, Animated Feature Film and Children’s Feature Film categories will be peer-voted by the APSA Academy members.
The Middle Eastern countries encompassed by the Asia Pacific region have a particularly strong number of entries this year, from countries and areas including Iraqi Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and the Palestinian Territories. The Islamic Republic of Iran alone sees no less than four grand masters of cinema in the competition, APSA Academy members Asghar Farhadi (The Past), Jafar Panahi (Closed Curtain), Mohammad Rasoulof (Manuscripts Don’t Burn) and also Mohsen Makhmalbaf (The Gardener).
APSA Director of Awards Competition, Maxine Williamson is thrilled by the final competition: ‘It’s extremely satisfying to see the competition line up get even stronger year after year, and what is particularly rewarding in 2013 is the healthy number of entries received from the thriving APSA Academy, testament to the ever-growing strength of the awards.’
In addition to the many entries from APSA Academy members, the completed 2011 MPA APSA Academy Film Fund project, Maryam Ebrahimi’s documentary feature film No Burqas Behind Bars, is also entered in competition, and is the third completed film fund project to enter the competition.
Brisbane’s Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said of the close of competition: “This is a very exciting part of the Awards process, and I looking forward to announcing the 2013 nominees. It will be our great pleasure to welcome the nominees to Brisbane in December for this extremely prestigious international event.”
The chairman of the 2013 International Nominations Council is South Korea’s Professor Hong-Joon Kimwhi is a published author, award-winning director and screenwriter, Professor Kim is also a former Commissioner of the Korean Film Council and is a Film Professor at the Korean National University of Arts.
Members include India’s Meenakshi Shedde, an independent film curator, film festival consultant, film critic, film director and journalist who is the India Consultant to the Berlin and Dubai Film Festivals; Jeanette Paulson Hereniko (Hawaii), the founder of the Hawaii International Film Festival, a founding board member of the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC), and a former film festival juror at Berlin, Rotterdam, Busan, Singapore and Mumbai; Kathryn Weir (Australia), head curator of the Australian Cinémath?que and also Head Curator of International Contemporary Art at Queensland’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA); producer Peggy Chiao (Taiwan), the former chairperson of the prestigious Golden Horse Film Festival, and the pioneer who cultivated the co-production of films among China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan; Philip Cheah (Singapore), film critic, Vice-President of NETPAC and program consultant for the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival, Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival, South-east Asian Film Festival, Shanghai International Film Festival, Dubai International Film Festival and the Asia Pacific Films website; and APSA Film Competition Director Maxine Williamson (Australia).
Two additional major awards for outstanding achievement will be presented at the ceremony. The UNESCO Award for outstanding contribution to the promotion and preservation of cultural diversity through film, and the FIAPF Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film which celebrates a film practitioner from the region whose career and actions contribute strongly to the development of the film industry. The APSA NETPAC Development Prize of $ 5,000 will also be awarded.
The Asia Pacific Screen Awards are managed by economic development board Brisbane Marketing in a unique collaboration with Paris-based UNESCO and FIAPF-International Federation of Film Producers Associations.
Hindi
GUEST COLUMN: Why film libraries & IPs are the new engines of growth
Unlocking value through catalogue strength and IP synergy
MUMBAI:In a media landscape defined by fragmentation, platform proliferation, and ever-evolving audience behavior, the economics of filmmaking are undergoing a fundamental shift. No longer confined to box office performance, a film’s true value is now measured across an extended lifecycle that spans digital platforms, syndication networks, and global markets. As content consumption becomes increasingly non-linear and algorithm-driven, film libraries and intellectual properties (IPs) are emerging as strategic assets, capable of delivering sustained, long-term returns. For Mohan Gopinath, head – bollywood business at Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd., this transformation signals a decisive move from hit-driven models to portfolio-led value creation. In this piece, Gopinath explores how legacy content, when intelligently repurposed and distributed, can unlock recurring revenue streams, why the interplay between catalogue and original IP is critical, and how media companies can build resilient, future-ready entertainment businesses.
For all these years, we thought that a film is successful if it performs well in theatres. There are opening weekend numbers, box office milestones, and distribution footprints that gave a good picture of how the movie has done commercially and also tell us about its cultural impact. However, there are multiple platforms today, always-on content ecosystem, which has caused a shift. Today, the theatrical performance is not the culmination of a film’s journey but merely the beginning of a much longer and more dynamic lifecycle.
Film libraries today are emerging as high-value, constantly evolving assets that deliver sustained returns well beyond initial release cycles. This becomes a point of great advantage for legacy content owners with diverse catalogues, to shape long-term business outcomes.
According to FICCI-EY, the media and entertainment industry of India achieved a valuation of Rs 2.78 trillion in 2025 which is expected to reach Rs 3.3 trillion by 2028 through a compound annual growth rate of approximately 7 per cent and digital media will bring in more than Rs 1 trillion to become the biggest sector which generates about 36 per cent of overall market revenues.
This shift is the expansion of distribution endpoints. We know how satellite television was once the primary secondary window but today, it coexists with YouTube, OTT platforms, Connected TV, and FAST channels. Each of these platforms caters to distinct audience demographics and consumption behaviors, helping content owners to obtain more value from the same asset across multiple formats.
For instance, films that had great reruns, now find continuous engagement across digital platforms. On YouTube, classic Hindi cinema continues to attract significant viewership, reaching audiences across generations and geographies with remarkable consistency. At Shemaroo Entertainment, this is reflected in our film library shaped over decades as part of a long association with Indian entertainment. From classics such as Amar Akbar Anthony to much-loved entertainers like Jab We Met, Welcome, Dhamaal, Phir Hera Pheri, Dhol, Golmaal, and Bhagam Bhag, many of these titles continue finding new audiences while retaining their place in popular memory. Their enduring appeal reflects how culturally resonant stories can continue creating value over time. Similarly, FAST channels have created curated, always-on environments where catalogue content can continue to thrive through star-led and genre-based programming.
This multi-platform approach has very well transformed films into long-tail IP assets which are capable of generating recurring revenue across advertising, subscription, and syndication models.
The evolution of audience behavior is equally important. Nowadays, it’s more important to find what’s more relative than what’s recent as viewers are more influenced by mood, memories, and algorithmic suggestions than by release schedules. Even if a movie was released decades ago, it can trend alongside a newly released movie, if surfaced in the right context. Thoughtful packaging, whether through festival-based playlists, actor-driven collections, or genre clusters, allows catalogue content to remain dynamic and continuously discoverable. Shemaroo Entertainment has built extensive film libraries over decades and its focus has mostly been on recontextualizing content for the consumption of newer environments. This process doesn’t just include digitization and restoration, but also re-packaging of films as per platforms.
Syndication itself has evolved into a key growth driver. In perspective, when looking at the domestic market, curated content packages continue to find strong demand across broadcast and digital platforms. Meanwhile, in the international market, especially in markets like Middle East, North America and Southeast Asia, the appetite for Indian content is opening up new monetization avenues. Here, the ability to package and position catalogue content effectively becomes as important as the content itself.
Importantly, the need to re-package catalogue content does not diminish the role of new content. In fact, originals and fresh IP are essential to sustaining the long-term value of a film library because they act as discovery engines that bring audiences into the ecosystem, while catalogue content drives depth, retention, and repeat engagement.
This interplay between the “new” and the “known” is what defines a robust content strategy today. While new films generate spikes in consumption, catalogue titles offer familiarity and comfort. These are factors that are increasingly valuable in an era of content abundance and decision fatigue. This is also shaping our strategy, drawing value from both a deep catalogue assets and a growing focus on original IPs to strengthen long-term audience engagement and build more predictable revenue streams.
There is growing recognition that long-term value in entertainment will be shaped not only by how intelligently existing content continues to live, travel and find relevance, but also by how consistently new stories are created to renew that ecosystem. In that sense, film libraries and original IP are not parallel bets, but reinforcing engines of growth. For media companies, the opportunity lies in making these two forces work together, because that is increasingly where more resilient and predictable businesses are being shaped.
Note: The views expressed in this article are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect our own.
