Sunday, March 4, 2018

Pre-Oscar: Asian American filmmakers win Independent Spirit Awards

Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon at the Spirit Awards.

FORGET THE OSCARS! If you're a proponent of diversity in content, perspectives and talent in filmmaking, the really big awards night was the day before the Oscars. 


In one night, the Independent Spirit Awards gave more recognition and awards to Asian/American creatives than other award shows for film, television or Broadway.

Asian/American filmmakers and actors nabbed  awards in four categories and received nominations
 in several categories.

Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily V. Gordon won in the Best First Screenplay for the semi-autobiographical romantic comedy The Big Sick.

Chloe Zhao
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom won in Best Cinematography for his work capturing the Tuscan landscape and atmosphere in Call Me by Your Name.

Producer/director ChloƩ Zhao (The Rider) won the inaugural Bonnie Award, named after Bonnie Tiburzi Caputo (the first female pilot to fly for a major airline) recognizes a mid-career female director and includes $50,000 unrestricted grant for the winner. Also in this category was Korean/American filmmaker So Yong Kim.

Justin Chon, director of Gook, won the Someone to Watch Award, which recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Kiehl’s Since 1851.

Besides the winners, AAPI talent nominated in their categories included:

Producer Chloe Zhao's The Rider was nominated in the Best Feature category. The eventual winner was Get Out.

Columbus, directed by Kogonada and starring John Cho, was nominated for Best First Feature.

In the same category, Oh, Lucy, was nominated. Directed and produced by Atsuko Hirayanagi, her movie is based on her short film, a story of a middle-aged woman coming of age in a foreign environment.

Shinobu Teraijima
Shinobu Terajima was nominated for Best Actress in Oh Lucy! She lost out to winner Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbings, Missouri.

Chloe Zhao was also nominated in the Best Director category for The Rider.

Kogonada also received a nomination in Best First Screenplay for Columbus.

Motherland, about the young women giving birth in a Manila hospital, was nominated for Best Documentary by Filipino/American filmmakers Director/Producer Ramona S. Diaz and Producer Rey Cuerdo.
Upon winning the Spirit Award for Best Feature Award, Get Out director Jordan Peele said: "It's clear to everybody in this room, and across the country and across the world, that we are in the beginning of a renaissance right now — where stories from the outsider, stories from the people in this room — the same stories that independent filmmakers have been telling for years — are being honored and recognized and celebrated and I'm so proud to be here with this group of people receiving this."

Missed the show? Relive some of the highlights below. You can watch the entire broadcast again in its entirety via the Film Independent Spirit Awards page on Facebook Watch.


Watch for these films at a theater near you: 
  • Gook was released August 18, 2017.
  • Oh, Lucy was released March 2, 2018.
  • The Rider will be released May 20, 2018.
(UPDATED for clarity, March 5, 12:20 a.m.) 
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