SINGAPORE - Home-grown actor Fir Rahman is up for a Best Newcomer award at the upcoming Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong, the first time a Singaporean actor has secured a nomination there.

The 36-year-old is nominated for his moving performance in Boo Junfeng's drama Apprentice (2016), in which he plays the titular role of an apprentice to an executioner in a Singapore prison.

Also up for the Best Newcomer award this year are South Korea's Kim Tae Ri (The Handmaiden); Japan's Takara Sakumoto (Rage); Hong Kong's Wu Tsz Tung (Weeds On Fire), and China's Jelly Lin (The Mermaid).

Past winners of the same award include Taiwan's Mark Chao for Monga (2010), and Malaysia's Ng Meng Hui for At The End Of Daybreak (2009).

The 11th Asian Film Awards, which will be held next Tuesday (March 21), honours excellence in Asian film-making and performance.