R Gowtham, director of the film Members of the Problematic Family, has been recognised with APSA’s Young Cinema Award, describing it as a win for ‘the little flawed kid’.
“Our film is taking us to places and getting the recognition it needs. We are just mute spectators,” he told Indian Link.
“Seeing the previous winners, it’s great company to be in.”
‘Members of the Problematic Family’ was the first Tamil language debut to screen at the Berlinale and opened the 2026 Indian Film Festival of Melbourne earlier this year.
Gowtham believes the festival success of the film is down to the universality of death and ‘primary emotions’.
“Elders of the cinema who are behind the festivals might feel that today’s youth should be reminded of something, which our film offers,” he muses.
Created by what he describes as a ‘a mix’ of film school graduates and untrained actors, Gowtham is proud of the bonds formed through the project.
“This film brought together people of very different ideas and backgrounds into one…nobody predicted this would end up this way. This film stitched together the differences and meshed everyone into one,” he said to Indian Link.
Meanwhile, Pushpa Thing Lama, star of Nepalese film Elephants in the Fog, received the Best Performance Award.
Discovered two years before the film, Lama plays Pirati, a Kinnar matriarch, and is a prominent trans rights activist in Nepal.
Speaking to Asia Pacific Transgender Network, Lama says she chose to act for the first time in this film because she wanted to ‘showcase the humanity of the trans community’.
Previously screening at Melbourne International Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival, Elephants in the Fog also received Best Film and Best Director nominations at the 2026 APSA Awards.
Finally, producer Bobby Bedi was recognised for a lifetime of work promoting arthouse Indian cinema to the world.
He received a FIAPF Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film for his body of work, which includes groundbreaking titles Bandit Queen, Saathiya and most recently, Lala and Poppy.
Speaking via video message, Bedi received the award ‘with gratitude’ and spoke about what drives his eclectic body of work.
“It’s about supporting voices that deserve to be heard, and telling stories that challenge, move and sometimes unsettle us,” he said.
Now in its 19th year, The Asia Pacific Screen Awards were held at The Star, Gold Coast, with 32 countries recognised in the nomination line-up.
Also announced on the night was a $10000 APSA Academy Film Fund grant for Payal Kapadia, the Indian director behind Oscar-nominated All We Imagine as Light, to support her latest project, A Memory of Being Here.
Read Also: Family, fractured: R Gowtham on ‘Members of the Problematic Family’
