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SCREEN CAPTURE / ABC Co-directors and writing team Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan give thanks to the Academy. |
When the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once won the Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble award earlier this month, 94-year old James Wong, veteran of over 600 movies and TV shows, reminded the audience about how White actors used to go Yellowface to portray Asian characters. He reveled at the acting award, "Look at us now!"
After winning seven Oscars last night, including the big prize for Best Picture and two of the four acting awards, you could not blame the AANHPI communities repeat Hong's exclamation, "Look at us, now!"
"This is for my dad, who like so many immigrant parents, died young. He is so proud of me, not because of this, but because we made this movie with what he taught me to do... and no one is more important than anyone else." said co-producer Jonathan Wang upon receiving his statuette for Best Picture.
"This is for my dad, who like so many immigrant parents, died young. He is so proud of me, not because of this, but because we made this movie with what he taught me to do... and no one is more important than anyone else." said co-producer Jonathan Wang upon receiving his statuette for Best Picture.
History was made when Michelle Yao was named Best Actress, the first Asian* to win this award.
(*When Indian American Merle Oberon won Best Actress in 1936 for The Dark Angel, she was "passing.")
"For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities," the Malaysia-born Yeoh said as she held up her Oscar. "Dream big and dreams do come true."
The 60-year old actress who has been acting for 40 years also gave a shout-out to women, saying, "And ladies, don't let anybody tell you you are ever past your prime. Never give up."
"For all the little boys and girls who look like me watching tonight, this is a beacon of hope and possibilities," the Malaysia-born Yeoh said as she held up her Oscar. "Dream big and dreams do come true."
The 60-year old actress who has been acting for 40 years also gave a shout-out to women, saying, "And ladies, don't let anybody tell you you are ever past your prime. Never give up."
Ke Huy Quan won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, only the second actor of Asian descent to win this award. Haing Ngor won for The Killing Fields in 1984.
In his emotional acceptance speech, Quan said, "My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refuge camp. And somehow, I ended up here on Hollywood's biggest stage."
"They say stories like this only happen the movies. I cannot believe it's happening to me. This -- this is the American dream," he added.
In addition to Best Picture, EEAAO won best director, best original screenplay and best supporting actress Jamie Lee Curtis for her role as the IRS agent and Editing.
“There is greatness in every single person,” Daniel Kwan said as he accepted best director with co-director Daniel Schenert,. “It doesn’t matter who we are. There is genius in every single person, you just have to find it. Thank you to the people who unlocked my genius.”
Kwan becomes the third winner of Asian descent to win a directing Oscar. Chloe Zhao (Nomadland, 2021) and Bong Joon (Parasite, 2020) have also won the coveted statuette, the highest recognition in the movie industry.
Kwan becomes the third winner of Asian descent to win a directing Oscar. Chloe Zhao (Nomadland, 2021) and Bong Joon (Parasite, 2020) have also won the coveted statuette, the highest recognition in the movie industry.
The acting Oscars won by Yeoh and Quan marks the most given to Asian actors in a single year.
In addition, Stephanie Hsu, the daughter in EEAAO and Hong Chau (The Whale) were also nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category making the most acting nominations ever in the same year.
Asian Americans believe this year's Academy Awards and EEAAO popular success was a watershed moment in representation and recognition of the AANHPI communities because Everything Everywhere All at Once is decidedly an Asian American film about an Asian American family.
Following the critical success of 2018's Crazy Rich Asians which opened the door for Asian American and Asian movies like Minari and The Farewell and the award-winning Parasite, have helped paved the way for general acceptance despite the surge of anti-Asian incidents that continue to occur.
In a way, Academy recognition could be interpreted as another step towards the recognition of all AANHPI people who are too often perceived as perpetual foreigners, no matter how long they have lived in the US.
Other Oscar winners with Asian themes this year include: RRR, an Indian production, which won for Best Song, "Naatu Naatu;" and The Elephant Whisperers for Best Short Documentary, which is about a Tamil couple raising an elephant in India
EDITOR'S NOTE: Updated, March 13, 12 pm. For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.
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