The Best Director goes to.. "The Convert"

54th Asia Pacific Film Festival held last night at the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Taiwan. There were 56 films from 18 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including 12 Taiwanese ones, vying for awards at the festival, with the figures hitting record highs.

The late Yasmin Ahmad of Malaysia won the Best Director award for the film “The Convert.”
The Best Feature Film award was won by the Indian film “Janala,” directed by Buddhadeb Dasgupta.
The Best Leading Actor award was went to Hamid Farrokhnezhad for the Iranian film “The Fateful Night,”
The Best Leading Actress award was won by Anita Linda, for her outstanding performance in the Filipino film “Lola.”
The Best Documentary Film award was granted to a Hong Kong's “Music and Life,” directed by King-wai Cheung.
The Best Short Film award was won by a Taiwanese film, “Sleeping with Her,” directed by Wen Chih-yi.
The Best Supporting Actress award went to Oh-Woo Jung, a Korean actress, for “Enlightenment Film,”
The Best Supporting Actor award was received by Sounitr Chatterjee, an Indian actor, for “Angshuman's Film.”
The Best Movie Music award was won by Sandee Chan for her performance in the Taiwanese film “Monga,”
The Best Arts Director award was received by Cheng Po-jen and Huang Mei-ching for their work in the film.
The Best Music Effect award was received by Duu-chih Tu for Japanese film “Rail Truck.”
The Best Photography award was captured by Mong-hing Chung for the Taiwanese film “The Fourth Portrait.”
Jackie Chan, a heavyweight Chinese actor, won the Outstanding Film Achievement award.

For the record, the late Yasmin Ahmad is the first Malaysian to win the award as Best Director. Malaysia's past winners were the late Tan Sri P. Ramlee for Best Actor in (Anakku Sazali (1957), Maya Karin for Best Actress (2004) and Datin Seri Tiara Jacquelina, also for Best Actress (2005).

Note:
In October 2010 Muallaf (The Convert) unlisted for major nominations like Best Director, Best Storyline, Best Actress and Actor even Best Photography at 23rd Malaysia Film Festival... isn't ironic??? "the bacterium across the sea is seen, but the elephant on eyelid is not seen"

Tribute To Yasmin Ahmad

(July 1, 1958 - July 25, 2009)

Yasmin Ahmad was a critically-acclaimed multi-award winning film director, writer and scriptwriter from Malaysia and was also the executive creative director at Leo Burnett Kuala Lumpur. Her television commercials and films are well-known in Malaysia for their humour, heart and love that crosses cross-cultural barriers, in particular her ads for Petronas, the national oil and gas company. Her works have won multiple awards both within Malaysia and internationally. She suffered a stroke and was admitted to hospital. She was pronounced dead at 11.25 p.m, 25th July 2009.

Her first film was Rabun in 2002. Yasmin's films have won many international awards and praise from the critics and public alike. Most of her films have been screened at the Berlin, San Francisco, Singapore and Cannes (film market) international film festivals. Her films were featured in a special retrospective at the 19th Tokyo International Film Festival in October 2006. An April 2007 retrospective of her feature films was sponsored by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Hawaii, and the Honolulu Academy of Arts.