TEHRAN- The Asian Film Awards announced its nominees in the 2021 Asian Film Festival and the Islamic Republic of Iran was nominated for four awards.

The 15th edition of Asian Film Awards announced the nominees for the 2021 Awards and the Islamic Republic of Iran, along with nominees from countries including China, Japan, and South Korea, was nominated for four awards.

Iranian cinema has been nominated for four Asian Film Awards as follows, the nomination of Best New Director for Ahmad Bahrami’s "Silent Plain" Film, the nomination of Best New Leading Actor for Ruhollah Zamani for his role in "Sun" Film, the nomination of Hassan Hasandoust in the section of the Best Editor for "Sun" Film and nomination of Masoud Amini Tirani for the Best Cinematography for "Silent Plain" Film.

This year, China is for Asian Film Award with “One Second” Film directed by Yi-Mou Zhang, South Korea with Lee Joon-ik's "Fish Book," Film and Chaitanya Tamhane’s “Disciple” from India, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s "Wheel of Fortune" and "Spy Wife" directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa from Japan has been nominated for Best Awards.

Yi-Mou Zhang is nominated for the best director award for "One Second" Film, Lee Joon-ik for "Fish Book" Film, Ryusuke Hamaguchi for "Wheel of Fortune" Film, Kiyoshi Kurosawa for "Spy Wife" Film and Adilkhan Yerzhanov from Kazakhstan for "Yellow Cat" Film.

This year, the awards announce their winners again concurrent with Busan International Film Festival. The awards ceremony will be held on October 8, 2021, in a combination of both in-person and online forms.

In 2020, the 14th Asian Film Award was transferred to Busan International Film Festival for the first time and was held online (video conference) due to the spread of coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic.

It should be noted that Hong Kong and Macao hosted the event in previous years.

One of the surprises of nominees was that “Cliff Walkers” the latest film directed by Yi-Mou Zhang, did not win the Best Director Award. However, the film received six nominations including a supporting role for a male and female actor.

Totally, two films received the most nominations, which include "One Second" and "Spy Wife". "Book of Fish" and another Korean film "Save Us from Evil" and "Limbo" from Hong Kong also won four nominations.

It is worth mentioning that the best-selling film of 2020 i.e. "Eight Hundred", won two nominations in only two technical sections.

This year, the Jury Board will be chaired by Lee Chang-dong from South Korea who is a film director, screenwriter, and novelist.