Minari snubbed in Golden Globe nominations

AAPI watchers of the entertainment industry were up in arms early this morning when the Golden Globes announced its nominations for the awards because the Hollywood Foreign Press Association passed over Asian American film 'Minari in the acting,  directing and writing categories.

There was already a controversy when the film, which walked away with a best picture in the Sundance Film Festival, about an Korean American immigrant family was classified as a Foreign Language film. Since the movie is predominantly in Korean, the language spoken at home of first-generation immigrants from Korea, HFPA rules made it ineligible for Best Picture.

When HPFA announced their decision about Minari last December, writer Lulu Wang tweeted her disappointment about the news that the film would be excluded from the Best Picture category. “I have not seen a more American film than #Minari this year,” Wang wrote. “It's a story about an immigrant family, IN America, pursuing the American dream. We really need to change these antiquated rules that characterize American as only English-speaking.”

Adding insult to injury, when Minari's lead actor, Steven Yeun (Walking Dead)  and presumed frontrunner Youn Yuh-Jung were passed over for best actor and best supporting actress, respectively, the criticism exploded on social media.

Minari director Lee Isaac Chung, who also wrote the screenplay partially based on his real-life experiences, also missed out when he wasn't among the nominees for best director, either.

Some of the sting of having Chung overlooked was eased by Chloe Zhao's nomination in the Best Director's category. She is the first woman of Asian descent to be included in that classification. She was nominated for her work for Nomadland, a moody piece of contemporary Americana starring Frances McDormand, who was also nominated for Best Actress in a Drama.

Nomadland is in the running for Best Motion Picture Drama. Zhao also nabbed a nomination for her screenplay.

The Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama includes Riz Ahmed for his performance in The Sound of Metal, in which he plays a metal band drummer who is losing his hearing.

(For the curious, Tahar Rahim who received a Best Actor nomination for The Mauritanian, although Muslim, is from Algeria and so we could not list him as an Asian.)

Joining Ahmed is Dev Patel, who in a case of color-blind casting, was nominated in the category of Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, for  playing the lead role in The Personal History of David Copperfield.

Filipino American H.E.R. (Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson) was nominated in the Best Song category for "Fight For You" (cowritten by Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II and Tiara Thomas) for Judas and the Black Messiah, the story of Black Panther Fred Hampton who was killed in the infamous shootout with Chicago police.

Over the Moon, the animated feature of an Asian American girl and her friends seeking the moon goddess, based on a Chinese fable, was nominated for Best Animated Movie. It featured AAPI actors giving voice to the characters.

The HFPA, made up of about 90 members who are based in Southern California and write for a wide-ranging list of foreign media, are the voters of the Golden Globes. The group are not exclusively movie critics but also include feature writers or gossip writers, have been criticized for their subjectivity and for their susceptibility to celebrity glamor and influence. In other words, if an actor or studio caters to the HFPA, he or she would likely be better received by the HFPA than someone who doesn't cater to them.

It's no small comfort to know that a lot of really outstanding products got overlooked  by the Golden Globes, and perhaps its just coincidence that the majority of the snubs were films that featured POC. I mean, Emily in Paris? Really? Certainly  Netflix's Da Five Bloods, HBO's groundbreaking Insecure, the actors of Lovecraft Country and PEN15, the Good Place deserved some mention.

The 78th Golden Globe Awards will take place 8 p.m. ET, on Feb. 28 on NBC. Comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will split co-hosting duties for the ceremony, (or should I say "ceremonies?) being held simultaneously in New York City and Los Angeles.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is my opinion. Readers are urged to read several sources to form your own opinion.

#HollywoodSoWhite: Report says Hollywood has mostly a black & white view of America

THE 89th ACADEMY AWARDS airs Sunday (Feb. 26) with a different look. This year's awards show might give the appearance of progress in diversity with black actors nominated in every acting category and two black-themed movies nominated for Best Picture. But don't talk about progress to Asian and Latino actors, directors, producers and writers. There's only one Asian nominated in the acting categories and zero Latinos.

Compared to the last couple of years that gave rise to the #OscarsSoWhite social media campaign last year, the 2017 Academy Award nominations are definitely more colorful. 

But before Hollywood begins to pat itself on the back, the UCLA’s fourth annual Hollywood Diversity Report reveals that despite the increase of nominees of color, the exclusion of people of color and women, Hollywood has a ways to go.

RELATED: The Anna Awards are for overlooked AAPI artists

The annual report, published by UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, does note that women have made some strides in Hollywood in the past year, and that several television shows featuring diverse casts have been successful. But it also finds that racial minorities and women remain severely underrepresented in film and television hiring.

Despite the Oscar nomination of Dev Patel for Best Supporting Actor in Lion and Auli'i Cravalho singing "How Far I'll Go" from Moana, Asian and Asian/American presence will be missing. In an effort to showcase the diversity of the movie industry, you'll see some AAPI presenters such as Dwayne Johnson and Riz Ahmed, but essentially, we're rendered invisible, once again.

The only Asian to be nominated for an Oscar, Dev Patel is a
long shot to win an Oscar in the Best Supporting Actor category.

“While there have been some improvements, especially in television, the numbers remain disheartening across the board,” said Darnell Hunt, the report’s lead author and director of the Bunche Center. “At the heart of it is the fact that Hollywood is simply not structured to make the most of today’s market realities.”

People of color made some progress in five of the 11 categories (lead performers in films, lead performers in broadcast scripted shows, lead performers in broadcast reality shows, lead performers in digital scripted shows and creators of broadcast scripted shows). Minorities lost ground in four of the 11 job categories (film directors, film writers, lead actors in cable scripted shows and creators of digital scripted programs) and held ground in the other two (creators of cable scripted shows and lead performers in cable reality and other programs).

Minorities make up 40 percent of the U.S. population but only 13.6 percent of lead actors in theatrical films and 10.1 percent of Hollywood directors.

On TV, hit shows like “Empire” and “Fresh Off the Boat” gave a diversity boost in 2014–15.“In terms of sophistication of content, television might be considered to be in something of a golden age,” said Hunt, who also is chair of the UCLA sociology department. “But in terms of representation and opportunity, we still have a long way to go. White men are still dominant, and women and people of color struggle to get the opportunities to succeed.”

Ana-Christina Ramón, the report’s co-author and assistant director of the Bunche Center, said the lack of diversity has a societal impact that extends far beyond the entertainment industry.

“Authentic storytelling humanizes those who are often depicted as stereotypes or not worthy of being depicted at all,” she said. “Representation matters to the little girl who has yet to dream of who she will become and to the grandmother who has never seen someone like herself on screen.”

The report’s authors also point out that the lack of diversity in Hollywood also has a clear economic impact. Bunche Center research has consistently found that film and television content that is more diverse tends to be more successful — both among white and minority audiences — and delivers a better financial return on investment.

“Less-diverse product underperforms in the marketplace, and yet it still dominates,” Ramón said. “This makes no financial sense.”

Hunt said audiences are only becoming more diverse, and they’ve demonstrated that they search for stories that reflect our more diverse world — factors that will be critical for Hollywood’s long-term success.

Lately, Hollywood has been trying to get into the enormous Chinese market that could surpass the U.S. market this year. Chinese investors have been making inroads in Hollywood by buying studios and investing in coproductions.

Given Chinese audiences' increasing appetite for movies like The Great Wall with the internationally bankable Matt Damon in the lead role, it "feels like a missed opportunity" that Hollywood isn't developing bankable Asian/American stars for this market, Hunt told USA Today.

Part of the problem is that studios have historically been focused on Europe, where U.S. films have been distributed since the beginning of the movie industry, but represents "a relatively small part of the world's population," Hunt says. 

"This whole idea that Hollywood has perpetuated for years that people of color don't travel overseas as leads is pretty much an artifact. ... The rest of the world wants to see diversity because the rest of the world is diverse."

By next year -- or more likely in 2018 -- AAPIs will have a better chance of garnering an Oscar nomination with all-Asian casts slated for the live-action Mulan and Crazy Rich Asians that are slated for production this year. Whether or not these two films will be critically acclaimed remains to be seen but you can bet Hollywood will be eyeing the box office receipts when these movies finally make it to the big screen. If the movies are hits, you can be sure there will be more opportunities for AAPI in front of, and behind, the camera.

“When a business is overlooking the desires of its customer base, it is serving them poorly and leaving money on the table,” Hunt said. “For a variety of reasons, studios, networks and talent agencies — the institutions that decide what films and shows will get made and how they are promoted — have to diversify so they are no longer demographically and culturally out of step with their audiences.”

“Those changes will not only make our culture richer," said Ramón. "They will make the industry richer as well.”

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Awards season means the return of the Anna Awards

Best Picture goes to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story by casting three Asian actors in prominent roles. Above, the Rogue One crew didn't include a single white male (See below).

IT'S AWARDS SEASON for the entertainment industry and once again, Asian/Americans and Pacific Islanders have mostly been overlooked for the best known awards for the Oscars, Emmy's and Tony's. 

Hence, the Anna Awards returns for its third installment. The awards below are named after Anna May Wong, a pioneer Asian/American actress who - even back then in the start of the motion picture industry - was conscious of the stereotypes Hollywood was perpetuating with its portrayal of Asian men and women and turned down roles that would reinforce those stereotypes.

This is the third year of the awards given to the performances on stage, the silver screen and on television. The categories are whimsical ones that I just made up which I get to do since I'm judge, jury and the majority vote in determining who is deserving based on their performance in 2016.

Drumroll, please ...

From left: Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen and Riz Ahmed.

Best Asian/American motion picture
For this category, we had to stretch a bit because so few movies prominently feature AAPI characters. Even though they were not in the lead, three Asian/American actors formed the core rebel team in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen and Riz Ahmed had key roles in the sci-fi storyline started by George Lucas. Outside of the fact they formed the majority of the rebel team -- they were were gay, bad ass and non-stereotypical. Although they were not the lead actors, they managed to lend unusual depth and conflict to their characters that we rarely see in these space swashbucklers. Rounding out the team of five was the lead character Jyn Ersois (British actress Felicity Jones) and Cassian Andor (Latino actor Diego Luna). A lesson to Hollywood: The fact there wasn't a white male among them did not hurt the box-office appeal as audiences flocked to the theaters to watch the latest installment of the Star Wars franchise.


Best Director

Taika Waititi on the set of The Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

Taika Waititi is a Maori whose offbeat sense of humor is well-known in his native New Zealand. He used that sense of humor with an overlay of poignancy to make a small film about human beings and relationships, The Hunt for the Wilderpeople. It is a movie that wasn't widely seen but it should be seen by any minority director who doesn't want to slip into the basketfull of ethnic stereotypes. His next film moves him from the small human drama category into the superhero realm of big budgets and big action. He'll direct Aquaman, starring fellow Polynesian actor Jason Mamoa (Game of Thrones), who is half-Hawaiian.

Best Actor
Dev Patel in the motion picture Lion. Dev was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the Golden Globes, which he didn't win because of the super-strong competition and he faces the same hurdles for Best Supporting Actor in the Academy Awards. I wondered about those nominations because anyone seeing the movie can clearly see that Patel was the main actor and if we were to get strict with the rules, he should have been entered in the Best Actor category. The studio, seeing the competition in that category, thought he stood a better chance (albeit, a slim one) in the supporting actor category. 

Best Actress
Lucy Liu in the TV series Elementary. She plays a smart, sassy and deep Dr. Watson to the erratic Sherlock Holmes played by Johnny Lee Hammer. Liu could have just been just another sidekick, but her Watson holds her own against Holmes and the long-running show gives Liu and the show's writers the time to portray a character with a depth rarely given to any character played by an Asian. 

Best Breakout Performance
2016 was quite a year for Riz Ahmed with roles on TV and movies it seemed that the British actor was everywhere. But it was his role in The Night Of, where he starts out as a frightened victimized student who is transformed into a tough, prison-hardened tattooed character. For his performance, he was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award and may still get an Emmy nod for making us believe in his character as a student and as an ex-con.

Bad-ass Woman of the Year
With the presidential campaigns in 2016, along with the surge of #OscarsSoWhite in the entertainment field, actress Constance Wu stepped up and said all the things we were thinking, even, some say, it might hurt her growing career beyond her Fresh Off the Boat success. She decried the practice of white-washing that saw non-Asian actress cast in obviously Asian roles such as Scarlett Johansson in the upcoming Ghost in a Shell motion picture and Tilda Swinton in the Dr. Strange film. She was in the thick of Hillary Clinton's failed campaign for President and joining the Women's March in Washington, D.C. She is currently in negotiations for the lead role in the all-Asian cast for Crazy Rich Asians directed by John Chu.



Bad-ass Man of the Year
You would have to come up with something really spectacular to give this to anybody but Daniel Wu for his portrayal of martial artist Sunny in Into the Badlands. The Berkeley-born actor made his fame in Asia and came back to this actioned that takes place in a future dystopian America where guns don't work so inhabitants have to resort to various forms of martial arts, swords and fisticuffs.


Best Fight Scene of the Year

It stands to reason that the best fight sequence involves one of our Bad-ass winners. Since Constance Wu won on the basis of her efforts off-camera, that means Daniel Wu (no relation to Constance) was involved. The opening sequence in the premiere of Into the Badlands has one of the best choreographed fights we've since in a long time. It's not quite the breathtaking fight between Michele Yeo's and Zhang Ziyi's characters in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; or the  sword fight in Akira Kurosawa's Sanjuro when Toshiro Mifune's samurai character, Sanjuro, found himself surrounded by about a dozen other swordsmen; but, it's a really, really good fight for TV. Fight choreographer used a lot of the fantastic Kung Fu acrobatics that made him so much in demand in China and Hong Kong flicks.

Promising newcomer(s)
For the first time, we have a tie in this category with three new actors who bear watching. Brandon Perea who plays the smart student in Netflix's surprise sci-fi hit "The OA,"  is half-Puerto Rican and half-Filipino, but all American. His character is named French, who is smart, head on right, the kind of guy who could be voted Mr. Popularity on campus, everybody likes him. Despite all that could lead to being the stereotypical social snob, it turns out he's a nice, sensitive guy. He's a leader-type that doesn't have to show his abs. This unusual show kind of sneaked up on everybody and Bang!, everybody got hooked. It just got renewed for a second season.

Auli’i Cravalho, for her voice-over portrayal of Moana in the animated musical feature of the same name. We might never have seen her in person in the movie, but despite that, she gave a life and energy to the lead character who, in fact, did look a little like the Hawaiian-born actress. Look for her to sing the Oscar-nominated title song "How Far I'll Go," written by Hamilton's Lin Manuel Miranda, during the Academy Awards.

Hayden Szeto who played the unrequited love interest in the movie, Edge of 17, opposite Filipina/American Hailee Steinfeld. The role could just have been of any race but Szeto won over the director and producer. He avoided the nerdy stereotype and played his character as an all-American guy who has a crush on Hailee. Kudos to him and to the director to not succumbing to the way-too-easy portrayal of the stereotype.

Best Stage Performance
This was a tough one. There were some very good performances by a number of artists on stage this year but if I had to narrow it to just one, ... I can't ... this will have to be another tie for the duet of Darren Criss and Lena Hall for their roles in Hedwig and the Angry Inch musical traveling show. Both of the Asian/American performers received rave reviews for the lead roles in that musical about a transexual glam rocker. While Criss played the lead role most of the time, Hall had the next most important male role of Itzak, and at times, took over Criss' role during his days off. Honorable Mentions go to Daniel Dae Kim in the King and I, Ali Ewoldt in Phantom of the Opera and Philiippa Soo in Hamilton.

Best Portrayal of an Asian by a non-Asian

From left: Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton and Matt Damon don't deserve this award.

Hmmm. Lots of nominations here including Scarlett Johansson as Major in Ghost In A Shell, Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One in Dr. Strange, one can even make an argument that Matt Damon's role in The Great Wall should have been an Asian savior. Problem is, none of them deserve the "best" anything so we're leaving this category empty.

Is She, or Isn't She?
This award goes to the actor who no one would have guessed was AAPI. This year's award goes to Sharon Leal, who at first glance one would perceive to be African/American, but, it turns out, she is half Filipino. She loves her Filipino food, adobo and dinaguan, cooked by her mother. Unfortunately, her role on the CW's Supergirl is that of a Martian (Filipinos from Mars?) so she won't be able to draw on her ethnic heritage for her character.


TV show missing an Asian cast member

Asians are too rare in a setting that should have more Asian staff  since Sandra Oh, 2nd from left, exited the show.

ABC's long-running Grey's Anatomy hasn't been the same since Sandra Oh's Dr. Christina Yang left the cast. Not only did a favorite character leave a void, any urban hospital in America always has a strong presence of Asian staff as med-techs, nurses and doctors. The show is set in Seattle with a large AAPI population but you wouldn't know that watching the show. Produced by Shonda Rhimes, who has been outspoken about diversity in casting, should have an Asian character in a recurring role beyond the masked surgical nurse in the operating room.

Best Musical Performance in the Super Bowl

Well, since there is only one Super Bowl per year, it's pretty obvious the award for 2016 goes, hands down, to Bruno Mars for his performance when he and his dancers faced off with Beyonce and her Formation army of women. Mars more than held his own as the trio belted out Mars' hit "Uptown Funk." The dance-off sequence between Mars' and Beyonce's dancers was a hair-raising thriller, perhaps equalling the gym sequence between the Jets and Sharks in West Side Story. Here's a replay incase you missed it the first time.

Best Stereotype Buster
Conrad Ricamora as Oliver Hampton in How To Get Away With Murder. Well, he is a computer expert, but that's not the stereotype we're talking about. Ricamora recently won the Visibility Award for his portrayal of a gay character. Oliver is an interesting and multi-dimensional LGBTQ person of color -- a great role for the actor but also great visibility for the Asian/American and LGBTQ communities. “I will say that it’s a little ironic to be getting the Visibility Award because so much of growing up as a kid was spent trying to be invisible,” said Ricamora. “It was rough, not only being gay, but having the colored skin that I have. I was terrified that someone would see me as gay and I was also terrified that I would see myself for what I naturally was.”

Best Farewell Performance
We would be remiss if we didn't mention Steven Yeun's portrayal of Glenn Rhee as played in TV's The Walking Dead. Glenn's brutal demise at the hands of Negan and his baseball bat Lucille, was one of the most shocking and dreadful end to one of television's best Asian/American characters. Through seven seasons, Yeun was able to transform Glenn from the pizza-delivery guy to a heroic zombie killer without ever resorting to anything that hinted at the Asian male stereotype. The character of Glenn was perhaps the best nuanced, AAPI characters television has ever presented.

RELATED:

• The first awards was called the Eddies
• The 2nd awards became the Anna's because the Eddies Awards were already taken

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Dev Patel, 'Moana' song nominated for Oscars

Oscar nominee Dev Patel in a scene from 'Lion.'

By Louis Chan
ASAM NEWS

HOPEFULLY, #OscarsSoWhite, is no more.

The Oscar nominations came out today with six black actors garnering nominations, the most in Oscar history. After huge uproars two years in a row about the lack of diversity at the Academy Awards, this was a refreshing change.

Asian/American Pacific Islanders were also among the honored.

Dev Patel snagged a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role as Saroo Brierley in Lion, which stars Nicole Kidman and Rooney Mara. Patel portrays an Indian-born Australian businessman who goes in search for his birth mother 25 years later.

Patel's breakout film was Slum Dog Millionaire, which won eight Academy Awards, but none for acting. Patel was not even nominated back then. He is just the third Indian actor and just the 13th Asian to ever receive a nomination.

Disney’s Moana received a nomination for best animated feature. The film garnered praise from some members of the Pacific Islander community for its cultural authenticity and for its extensive research into the Island culture. Others, however, condemned it for what they perceived as cultural appropriation.

Moana was also nominated for best song for "How Far I’ll Go," performed in the movie by Auli’i Cravalho, a 16-year Hawaiian actress making her Hollywood debut.

Kubo and the Two Strings won two nominations, for best visual effects and best animated feature. It starred George Takei, but was largely criticized for its lack of diversity for a film set in ancient Japan.

Director Justin Lin’s Star Trek Beyond was honored with a nomination for best make up and hair.

The nominated songs are typically performed during the telecast of the Oscars. There are several versions of the songs by a host of singers. In their push for the song, created by Hamilton's Lin Manuel Miranda, Disney had the song recorded by Asian singers popular in their respective countries. In the U.S., it was released with pop singer Alessia Cara because Disney thought it was more commercial than actress/singer Auli'l Carvalho, who is the voice of the title character.

I don't know about that. Which version do you prefer? It sure would be great to have a Hawaiian sing the song live during the Oscar's program, one of the most watched TV shows in the world.

This animated version features the voice of Auli'l Carvalho.

This version features Alessia Cara. (Voices From the Edge contributed to this report.)

How did AAPI actors fare in the Critics Choice & Golden Globes?

Dev Patel in 'Lion' was nominated as a supporting actor.

HAILEE STEINFELD and Dev Patel got shut out in the Critics Choice Awards but they still have a chance for a Golden Globe Awards

It's award-show season and Asian/American actors are getting recognized, even if they don't bring home the statuettes.

Hailee Steinfeld

If the two awards shows are predictors for Oscar nominations, the Academy Awards should be more diverse than it has been the last two years when no actors of color were nominated in any of the acting category spawning the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.

Nevertheless, AAPI actors are considered long shots for any of the categories they were nominated in but that's better than not being recognized at all.

Filipina/American actress Steinfeld, who convincingly played a white teenager in Edge of Seventeen, lost out to Lucas Hedges in Manchester by the Sea in the Critics Choice category of Best Young Actor/Actress and to Meryl Streep in Florence Foster Jenkins in the Critics category of Best Actress in a Comedy.

Moonlight's Mahershala Ali got the nod over Dev Patel in Lion for the Best Supporting Actor category of the Critics Choice.

The Critics also favored Kate McKinnon of Saturday Night Live over Constance Wu in Fresh Off the Boat in the Best TV Actress in a Comedy Series.

Steinfeld was also nominated for a Golden Globes Award in the category for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy where she faces some stiff competition.

Patel also received a nomination in the Globe's awards in the category Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture.

In the category of Best Animated Feature, there were two AAPI-related nominees: Moana and Kubo and the Two Strings.

Moana also got a nomination for Best Original Song for "How Far I'll Go."

The HBO movie The Night Of, the story of Muslim/American young man caught in a web of sex and murder and gave us an inside look at the American criminal justice system received three nominations, in the category of Motion Picture Made for Television and actors Riz Ahmed and John Turturro will compete against each other for Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series.

Riz Ahmed was praised for his performance in 'The Night of.

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