AAPI artists nominated for Emmys

CREATED BY GEMINI

The 2026 Emmy nominations are out, and once again, it is a mixed bag for our community. While we are seeing historic representation on one side of the ledger, the TV Academy still manages to leave some of our finest talent out in the cold.

Let’s break down the wins, the behind-the-scenes power players, and the glaring omissions that have us scratching our heads.

Actors' noted

Our community showed up in major acting categories this year. Leading the pack is Riz Ahmed, who secured a Lead Actor nod for his powerful role in Bait. 

Meanwhile, the second season of Netflix's smash hit Beef brought in major acting love: Oscar-winner Youn Yuh-jung and Charles Melton both scored Supporting Actress and Actor nominations for their respective turns in the anthological dramedy.

Over on the drama side, Sepideh Moafi clinched a Supporting Actress nod for her stellar performance in Max’s medical juggernaut The Pitt. playing Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi, a doctor taking over the ER as Noah Wiley's character prepares for a sabbatical. She is the first Iranian woman and woman from the Middle East to be nominated in the support actress in a drama series category, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"I can’t imagine a more ideal world, show, character to have this sort of recognition with," Moafi said after she heard about her nomination. 

"Playing this woman who carries so many worlds, so many of which I can identify with in my own way, and that I’ve heard over the last several months, so many people identify with, whether it’s with her chronic disease, her chronic illness, people with disability, people who are mixed race, people who are from the Middle East or Africa, women in medicine who are in similar positions and have to deal with certain male counterparts."

FYI: The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards will air live on NBC on Monday, September 14, 2026 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT

Steven Yeun, who won an Emmy two years ago in the first season of Beef, landed a voice-over nomination for keeping things animated in Invincible.

True representation means having a seat at the table where decisions are made, and our behind-the-scenes creatives are dominating this year's Emmy ballot.

The Beef mastermind Lee Sung Jin, continues his historic streak, earning individual nominations for Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series, alongside a nod for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series as executive producer. He's joined in the executive producers' circle by Steven Yeun, Ali Wong, Kitao Sakurai and Anna Ouyang Moench.

Destin Daniel Cretton, the Japanese American director-producer, is nominated as the driving executive producer behind Marvel’s buzzy Wonder Man.

Hiro Murai & Claudia Shin: The powerhouse duo earned Executive Producer nods for Apple TV+'s freshman comedy hit Widow's Bay.

FYI: For a complete list of the 2026 Emmy nominees, click here.

Chris Nguyen-Gia & Marian Wang: Nguyen-Gia scored a Best Drama Series nomination as a producer for the freshman drama Paradise, while Wang is back in the mix as a producer for the late-night champion Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

Yulin Kuang: Celebrated writer-director Kuang scored an Outstanding Television Movie screenplay nomination for adapting Netflix's People We Meet on Vacation.

You can't talk about the Emmys without talking about who got left behind, and the Academy dropped the ball on several standout AAPI performances.

Should have been nominated

Isa Briones (The Pitt): In what is arguably the most heartbreaking snub of the morning, Briones was completely shut out for her role as the sharp, headstrong Dr. Trinity Santos. What makes this a bitter pill to swallow is that The Pitt actually led the entire pack with 25 total nominations—including 13 acting nods for her co-stars. How voters completely bypassed Briones's polarizing, fiercely layered performance is beyond us.

Bowen Yang (Saturday Night Live): Despite delivering a highly celebrated final run on the sketch show before his mid-season departure, Yang missed out on a Supporting Actor in a Comedy nod. The Academy chose to shut out the entire regular SNL cast this year.

Industry Cast & Crew: HBO's financial thriller was entirely shut out by the Television Academy. This means no love for Ken Leung, who has consistently turned in a masterclass performance as the complex and shrewd management executive Eric Tao.

Young Mazino & Tati Gabrielle: Both actors missed out on highly predicted guest and supporting drama nominations for their impactful roles in The Last of Us.

View from the edge

We've come a long way from the days of absolute invisibility, but as these snubs show, the fight for the Academy to fully recognize the depth of our talent continues.

What is especially noteworthy, is none of the characters played by AAPI actors, are the stereotypes that pigeonholed generations of Asian actors in Hollywood.

But there is so much more room for improvement. That's why overlooking Briones' role as Dr. Trinity Santos in The Pitt is so disappointing. There were so many moments where we saw glimpses of the life of Santos beyond the ER -- such as a white-passing Filipino American -- makes us crave  for more of her storyline to explore.

In fact, you can say that about all the acting AAPI nominees and the AAPI community as a whole. As two seasons of Beef have shown us, there's more complexity in us than Hollywood has been able to capture so far.  Hollywood's creators and artists are only starting to scratch the surface of the multiple worlds we live in and start delving into those stories.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. If you find this perspective interesting, please repost.

Golden Globes: 'Beef' Ali Wong, Steven Yeun win

From left, Beef's Steven Yeun, Lee Sung Jin and Ali Wong after winning their Golden Globes.

Win some. Lose some. The diversity of Asian America was on full display Sunday at the Golden Globes Awards, from the triumphs of Beef to the struggles of comedian Jo Koy, the show's last-minute host.

Beef was awarded Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television.

In addition, Beef’s lead factors Ali Wong and Steven Yeun took home awards for best performance by an actress and an actor, respectively.

The Netflix movie’s director and writer Lee Sung Jin, made sure to thank his counterpart in the real-life road rage incident that inspired the show. “I’d be remiss not to thank that driver,” he said. “Sir, I hope you honk and yell and inspire others for years to come.

Beef’s lead factors Ali Wong and Steven Yeun took home awards for best performance by an actress and an actor, respectively.

        FYI: Complete list of winners and nominees.

It was the first time an Asian American production won in these respective categories in Golden Globe history and Wong made history as the first Asian Amereican actress to win in that category.

The awards show also made history with its first Filipino American host Jo Koy. Unfortunately, the standup comedian’s opening monologue wasn’t his best performance. Many of his jokes fell flat in front of the show biz audience.

SCREEN CAPTURE / BBC

Jo Koy's jokes failed to hit with the show business audience. 

At one point during his monologue, Koy was met with boos prompting him to ask for the audience's understanding since he took the job only 10 days ago after several other potential emcees turned down the gig.

The morning after his hosting disaster, Koy was a gust on GMA3. Co-hosts Eva Pilgrim and DeMarco Morgan noted that Koy seemed a bit down deflated during an interview.

“I’d be lying if it doesn’t hurt,” said Koy of the reviews. “I hit a little moment there [during the monologue] where I was just like, ‘Ah.’ Hosting is a tough gig. Yes, I am a stand-up comic, but that hosting position is a different style. It’s not the same style.”

“That’s a tough gig! I’m not gonna lie,” he told the Hollywood Reporter this morning. “I really love the art of stand-up and it was cool that the opportunity came to me. Hosting is just a beast… and the crash course was really hard, too. … I literally got the call and haven’t slept since, just trying to write something, just trying to to write what we had to write. And the guys were great. Everyone was great. It’s just… that was that night. I had an off night!”

He added, “I wanted to give a little bit more of me, and I just fell a little short and that’s all.”

“It’s hard to blame the guy though given that it was not only his first time hosting an awards show but he had very little time to get his act together,” read commentary from Rolling Stone‘s Marlow Stern.

Koy tried to look at the bright side his below par performance. “That’s one thing I want to be proud about,” he said. "It was a long journey, and the opportunity came, and no one knew where the Golden Globes was gonna be, and then last second CBS picked up the show and everyone was kind of turning down the offer because of the time, and I jumped on it. I was like, ‘You know what? Let’s try it. Let’s go for it.’”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me at Threads.net/eduardodiok, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at the blog Views From the Edge.

'Beef" and 'Past Lives' garner Golden Globe nominations

Steven Yeun and Ali Wong (Beef) and Greta Lee (Past Lives) got Golden Globe nominations.

Two films with Asian American leads were among the nominees for the 2024 Golden Globes. The movies Beef and Past Lives expand Asian American characterizations beyond the typical stereotypes.

Past Lives, which is on most critics' lists of 2023's best movies, has two chances to win a Golden Globe for Best Drama Motion Picture and Best Foreign Language Motion Picture.

The romantic movie's lead actress, Greta Lee, earned a nod in the Best Actress in a Dramatic Motion Picture category.

In addition, the film won nominations for Celine Song for Best Director and her screenplay.

Unlike the Oscars which give awards to motion pictures only, and the Emmy's which award television projects, the Golden Globes hand out trophies to both mediums.

Netflix's dark comedy Beef was nominated Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television.

 It also won nominations for its leads Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, both of whom played against type. They both played heavily flawed characters who can show anger, be angry, obsessed, unpredictable and, at times, unlikeable. 

The pair are the first Asian actors to be nominated in the limited series category.

Charles Melton (Riverdale) received a supporting actor nomination for his role  in the romance film, May December, also a breakthrough for an Asian American actor.

Joe Hisaishi won a nomination as a composer for The Boy and the Heron, an animated film from Japan. The film also won a nomination in the Best Animated Feature category.

The Hollywood Foreign Journalists Association which came under fire for its lack of diversity, used to give out the awards. That body dissolved last summer amid the criticism and a boycott by actors. The awards was taken over by DCP and Eldridge DCP is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge that also owns The Hollywood Reporter.

The Globes' commitment to diversity has led to this year where 72 of the 90 performance nomination slots went to non-Hispanic white people. However, it yet to be seen if those nominations turn into awards recogntion.

The films receiving the most nominations were blindingly White. Barbie, which garnered nine nominations. Oppenheimer has eight nominations. In the television categories, Succession has the most with nine.

“This has been a year of exciting change for the Golden Globes,” said Helen Hoehne, the Globes new president. “Not only are we starting a new partnership with CBS network, but our voting body has grown to 300 members from 75 countries, making the Golden Globes the most culturally diverse major awards body.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me at Threads.net/eduardodiok, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at the blog Views From the Edge.

'Beef,' Ali Wong, Steven Yeun receive nominations for 75th Emmy Awards

A24 / BEEF

Both Ali Wong and Steven Yeun received Emmy nominations this year.

The growndbreaking series Beef, the production that threw Asian stereotypes out the window, was nominated for 13 Emmy's.

Four Asian American actors in Beef were nominated in acting categories including leads Steven Yeun and Ali Wong and supporting actors Joseph Lee and Young Mazino, as announced July 12.

Pakistani American Kumail Nanjiani was the only Asian American actor receiving a lead actor nomination for his portrayal of Somen "Steve" Banerjee, the founder of the cultural phenomenon male dance revue in the limited series Welcome to Chippendales.

Maria Bello, who plays Wong's character's mentor in Beef, also received a nod for supporting actress.

Beef is a dramedy about angry and mentally unstable Asian Americans (Yeun and Wong) involved in a road rage incident, thus breaking down the quiet, submissive,  model minority stereotype that hangs over all Asian Americans.

The Netflix series has received eight non-acting nominations in major categories, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series.

Lee Sung Jin was nominated in two categories for his behind-the-camera work: Outstanding Directing and Outstanding Writing for in the Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

Another Beef  director, Jake Schreier, was also nominated for Outstanding Director for a different episode in the 10-episode series.

The other non-acting categories Beef received nominations included Charlene Lee and Claire Koonce in Outstanding Casting For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie and a nomination for Nat Fuller and Laura Zempel in Outstanding Picture Editing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie.

Penny Harold, Andrew Garrett Lange and Sean O’Malley were nominated for Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie for the episode "The Great Fabricator."

Helen Huang, Beef's assistant costume designers Austin Wittick and YJ Hwang, and costume supervisor Mark Anthony Summers, received nods in Outstanding Contemporary Costumes.

Beef was produced by A24, the same independent studio that produced the Oscar winning feature Everything Everywhere All At Once.

FYI: For complete list of Emmy nominees, click here.

Padma Lakshmi was nominated for two Emmys: Outstanding Host of Nonfiction Series of the 20th season of the popular Bravo cooking series Top Chef and Hulu's Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi. 

Indian Matcchmaking was nominated in the category of Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program.

The nominations for the 75th Emmy Awards are dominated by Succession, The Last of Us, and The White Lotus, which represent the three most-nominated shows of the year.

Among the nominations for HBO's Succession, Indian American Andrij Parekh received a nod for Outstanding Direction for the episode "America Decides." 

The 2023 Emmy Awards is slated to be held at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on September 18 but if the members of the Screen Actors Guild is still on strike, the show could be postponed or cancelled.  

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @eduardodiok on Threads.net, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at his blog Views From the Edge.

Oscars: Still waiting for an Asian American breakthruogh

'Minari' director Isaac Lee Chung and Steven Yeun.

OPINION

I'm still a little disturbed that Hollywood seems more prepared to embrace Asians if they aren't American, but can't hold American artists who are of Asian descent in the same high esteem.

This is the second consecutive year that the Oscars went to an Asian film director. South Korean director Bong Joon-ho won best director and best picture last year for the Korean language Parasite.

Don't get me wrong. I have no argument for the extremely talented Chloe Zhao winning the Best Director Oscar. Hopefully, her success will spill over on Asian American directors, writers, producers and actors.

Despite being born and raised in China, Zhao has made three films that are quintessentially American. Besides Nomadland, she also helmed The Rider and Songs By Brother Taught Me, all taking place in the American West. 

In her art, she has been able to capture slices of America most people would never encounter if not for her movies. By mixing nonprofessional actors with real actors, she has been able to show the souls of their characters and the locales where the stories take place.

But -- for me, she was my second choice. I was rooting for Isaac Lee Chung to win  the director's prize. I know, just by being nominated, Chung has reached an achievement no other Asian American has reached.

His story and direction on Minari was detailed and nuanced and he did it all minus the star power of Oscar-winner Frances McDormand and the big studio support of Disney, which is considerable.

Chung had an uphill climb to get his movie made. Minari went against all the Hollywood rules for a successful movie featuring Asian Americans: A Korean immigrant family? Dialogue mostly spoken in Korean? No real bad guys? No martial arts? No sex scenes? No violence? 

After being a Hollywood outsider at the start of his career, Chung is starting to view Hollywood with a different lens. Viewing filmmaking as art can be spiritually fulfilling but what good is art if no one sees it? His previous feature, Munyurangabo, was made in Rwanda and in a Rwandan dialect. It was critically acclaimed and became film festival favorite. But still: Outside looking in.

Steven Yeun is a star, but has not yet reached the legend-level of McDormand whose previous Oscars were for 1998's Fargo and Three Billboards Outside Ebbings, Missouri in 2018. Her name alone could carry a movie.

Yeun's depiction of the father in Minari is restrained, underplayed. There is plenty of conflict and emotion, but it is mostly played out in Yeun's face and body language. I think (A gut feeling. I have no data to back this up.) an Asian or Asian American can better see the wave emotions building up behind the Yeun's mask than viewers of other ethnicities.

It is easier to be outwardly emotional: shouting, sobbing, acting hysterically,throwing things around a room, making black and white choices. That's easily interpreted by western eyes. That's acting from a Hollywood point of view.

To me, Yeun's performance was more difficult because audiences didn't know him as well as they know legendary actor Anthony Hopkins. You know what to expect from Hopkins, who won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in The Father. Despite playing different characters in the roles he plays, he still is Anthony Hopkins, with that British accent (which Americans adore too much, by the way), the world-weary eyes, every motion calculated.

On the other hand, Yeun -- despite his popularity among The Walking Dead fans -- is a blank slate to most audiences. Where does one start? To most viewers, he just goes through the motions of delivering the words given to him. But he speaks volumes: a tightening in the jaw; a seed of doubt in the eyes; a posture of resignation or steel resolve.  It is harder to see the struggles he's going through because -- well, because he's Asian and his culture and the way he was raised told him not to reveal his emotions, but in ways so subtle, he shows us he's on an emotional roller coaster.

And as a final push for the Academy voter, there's that lingering flicker of doubt: He's an American actor playing a foreigner. Voting for and Asian American -- either Chung or Yeun -- would be making a political statement in this era of anti-Asian sentiment. (The same reasoning applies to pre-telecast favorite Chadwick Boseman because of the Black Lives Matter movement.) 

Picking Hopkins, a British citizen and well-known acting quantity, and for that matter, Chinese citizen Chloe Zhao (or  Bong Joon-ho) is safer than making the tougher -- but more controversial -- choice. By voting for Joon-ho or Zhao, Hollywood can show their preference towards diversity by picking foreigners, but at the same time, not upset the apple cart for what they perceive (incorrectly, by the way) is their primary audience -- Whites in America.  This inoffensive decision is a way of putting Asian American in their nonthreatening place -- in line, but not at the front.

Of course, not everyone agrees with me. In fact, I may be in the minority. Most of the reaction for the wins by Asians and Asian Americans were greeted with high praise and jubilation.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution. This is an opinion piece. Readers are encouraged to access several news outlets to form their own opinions.

Oscars not quite as white; historic year for AAPI filmmakers

For the first time, two directors of Asian descent will compete in the Best Actor category:
Lee Isaac Chung for "Minari" and Chloe Zhao for "Nomadland."

So this is what happens when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts invites more people of color to join: The movie industry's premiere awards, the Oscars, starts to reflect the real America.

This is especially true for AAPI artists and projects. Whether or not they win in their respective categories or not, the sheer number and firsts make this year's Academy Awards one for the history books. For the first time, two Asians have been nominated in the Best Director category and two actors of Asian descent name been nominated as Best Actors.

Isaac Lee Chung and Chloe Zhao were nominated as Best Directors, as were their movies, Minari and Nomadland, respectively, named in the Best Picture catetgory. It's the first time two directors of Asian descent were named. 

Zhao, fresh off her Best Picture win in the Golden Globes, also made history as the first Asian woman nominated in the director category. She has to be the early favorite to repeat her win for the Academy Awards.

"I’m grateful to have gone on this journey with our talented team of filmmakers and to have met so many wonderful people who generously shared their stories with us," Zhao told Variety. "Thank you so much to my Academy peers for recognizing this film that is very close to my heart.” 

For the first time, there will be two Asians in the Best Actor Category: Korean American Steven Yeun for his role of quiet but determined ambition as the Korean American immigrant father in Minari; and Riz Ahmed, a Pakistani Brit, for his emotional portrayal of the drummer losing his hearing in Sound of Metal.

Riz Ahmed and Steven Yeun were nominated for Best Actor Oscars.

Minari scored another win as Yuh-Jung Youn, who plays the feisty grandmother, was nominated as Best Supporting Actress.

“Never in my dreams did I ever think a Korean actress would be nominated for an Oscar, and I can’t believe it’s me!," Youn told Variety. 

Minari's director and writer Isaac Lee Chung, who partially based the film on his own story, was nominated for Best Original Screenplay. The motion picture was also nominated for Best Original Score, by Emile Mosseri.

Zhao's writing was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Nomadland, which was adapted from the Jessica Bruder novel, "Nomadland: Surviving American in the Twenty-FIrst Century."

The Adapted Screenplay will also feature White Tiger, a rags-to-riches story shot in India and produced by Priyanka Chopra and her husband Nick Jonas.

The Filipino American R&B singer and songwriter H.E.R. had her song, "Fight For You" from the film Judas and the Black Messiah nominated for Best Song.

In the animated feature category, Over the Moon, based on a Chinese myth and featuring an all-Asian voice cast, earned a nomination.

Mulan, the live-action Disney film featuring an all-Asian and Asian American case and  based on the Chinese legend of the woman warrior, was nominated in a couple of categories, Best Costume Design and Best Visual Effects.

The nominations for Asian and Asian American projects along with the plethora of Black actors and projects nominated for an Oscar is a marked change in the past. Only a few years ago, the Oscars was derided for nominating only white actors resulting in the infamous #OscarsSoWhite hashtag.

Efforts by the Academy to diversify its selection process by inviting more movie-making individuals in front of and behind the camera to become members may be showing up in the nominations this year.

Whether or not the increased inclusion of people and perspectives other than the still-powerful white view is simply a temporary fad or a permanent trend will depend on next year, and the next and the next.

Hollywood is starting to realize that there is a wealth of material and talent outside of the traditional white bubble of the past. The fact that a majority of the movie-going audience are primarily made up of people of color helps the bottom-line, too is not lost on the profit-motivated industry.

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.

Thanks to 'Minari,' 'Nomadland' & 'Sound of Metal,' Oscars and AAPI could have a historic convergence

The Americanization of a Korean American immigrant family is told in 'Minari.'

OPINION

More and more, it looks like it could be a history-making year for Hollywood, AAPI movies and filmmakers when the Oscar nominees are announced March 15.

It looks like Minari could be up against Nomadland for best picture and best director with Sound of Metal starring Riz Ahmed as a darkhorse.

Minari, written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, won the best picture award by the New York Film Critics Online last week. This is the third straight year the critics  picked a foreign language film as best picture. Minari, the story of a Korean American family and set in Alabama is mostly in Korean.

Last year, the film critics picked the Korean film, Parasite and the year before that, Roma, the Spanish-speaking Argentinian movie. Both films were named in the Best Picture by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts in their respective years with Parasite winning Best Picture last year and Roma winning best foreign feature the year before. 

If history is a predictor, it bodes well for Minari, to win Hollywood's coveted Oscar.

Director Chloe Zhao on location for 'Nomadland.'

Although the film Minari won the NY film critics' Best Picture accolades and Best Supporting Actress went to Yuh-Jung Youn as the grandmother in Minari, the Best Director award went to Chloé Zhao for her work on Nomadland, which she can add to the three dozen other awards she received for directing the Frances McDormand starrer.

The NY critics gave the best actor award to another Asian American, Riz Ahmed for his performance in Sound of Metal. Ahmed is also in contention to be nominated for the Oscar's best actor award along with Minari's Steven Yeun.

The exclusive club of studio heads who give the green light to most Hollywood production is still overwhelmingly white and despite China overtaking the U.S. as the No. 1 moviegoing market, they are hesitant to venture beyond the Eurocentric paradigm when deciding which movies get made.

Riz Ahmad delivers an Oscar-worthy performance in "Sound of Metal."

There is also an outside chance that no Asian or Asian American will win an Oscar nomination, in which case, we should skip the Oscars altogether. If nothing else, this year demonstrates the depth of Asian and Asian American talent to Hollywood decision-makers. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: The nominations for the 93rd Academy Awards will be announced March 15 and the in-person awards show will held on April 25, 2021.

While the awards -- Golden Globes, SAG, Critics' Choice, People's Choice -- are nice to have, just as important is that there are so many choices to pick from. There are still not enough movies by and about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders but this year, there is at least more than one film under consideration. That's a sign of progress, I guess. It is too early to say whether this year is an anomaly, a temporary trend or the birth of a permanent genre.

For members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts who vote in the several categories, especially the newly inducted members who were "invited" to join in order to diversify its membership, we refer you to the list compiled by Gold Open in partnership with the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE) for their first-ever Gold List of outstanding work by AAPI artists. 

The full list of Gold List selections are below:

Best Picture
Minari and Sound of Metal
Honorable Mentions: The Half of It, The White Tiger, Yellow Rose

Best Director
Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) and Chloe Zhao (Nomadland)
Honorable Mentions: Ramin Bahrani (The White Tiger), Diane Paragas (Yellow Rose), Alice Wu (The Half of It), Alan Yang (Tigertail)

Best Actor
Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal) and Steven Yeun (Minari)
Honorable Mentions: Adarsh Gourav (The White Tiger), Dev Patel (The Personal History of David Copperfield), Harry Shum Jr. (All My Life) 

Best Actress
Yeri Han (Minari) and Leah Lewis (The Half of It)
Honorable Mentions: Hong Chau (Driveways), Tsai Chin (Lucky Grandma), Eva Noblezada (Yellow Rose)

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Kim (Minari) and Orion Lee (First Cow)
Honorable Mentions: Lucas Jaye (Driveways), Tzi Ma (Mulan), Rajkummar Rao (The White Tiger)

Best Supporting Actress
Phillipa Soo (Hamilton) and Yuh-Jung Youn (Minari)
Honorable Mentions: Priyanka Chopra Jonas (The White Tiger), Gong Li (Mulan), Lea Salonga (Yellow Rose)

Best Original Screenplay
Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) and Alice Wu (The Half of it)
Honorable Mentions: Mong-Hong Chung and Yao-Sheng Chang (A Sun), Diane Paragas (Yellow Rose), Isabel Sandoval (Lingua Franca), Alan Yang (Tigertail) 

Best Adapted Screenplay
Ramin Bahrani (The White Tiger) and Chloe Zhao (Nomadland)

Best Documentary Feature
Be Water and A Thousand Cuts
Honorable Mentions: 76 Days, The Donut King, The Social Dilemma

Best Animated Feature
Bombay Rose and Over the Moon
Honorable Mentions: Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, On-Gaku: Our Sound, A Whisker Away

A WORD OF CAUTION: This is an opinion piece. Readers should research multiple sources to form their own opinion.

CORRECTION Feb. 3, 12:30 p.m. to clarify Roma winning an Oscar for Best Foreign Motion Picture in 2019.

The movie, 'Minari,' tells a uniquely quintessential American story but the Golden Globes call it 'foreign'

Minari director Lee Isaac Chung, left, and the cast of his Asian American film.

OPINION

The Golden Globes stirred up a hornets' nest when it decided the movie Minari should be placed in a foreign-language film category instead of the more prestigious "Best Picture" category.

Critics of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which awards the Golden Globe Awards every year, blast the decision to judge what is essentially an American story in the foreign category.

Minari is written and directed by an American, stars mostly an American cast, with a story located in rural Arkansas and tells the uniquely American story of immigrants adjusting to America. Although Minari is about a Korean family, it could just well have been about an Italian family, or an Irish family, or an Ethiopian family or a Central American family. The universal appeal of the story speaks volumns about America, a nation built by immigrants, 

However, because the Korean American immigrants spoke Korean throughout the majority of the movie, the HFPA placed Minari in the foreign language category.

The HFPA made a similar decision last year with The Farewell, the story of a Chinese American's visit with her grandmother who lived in China. 

With Minari being mentioned as possible contenders for film industry awards, for directing (Lee Isaac Chung), screenplay (Chung), best picture and acting (Steven Yeun for Best Actor and Youn Yuh-jung, who plays the grandmother, for best supporting actress).

Asian American celebrities strongly objected to the HPFA decision that minimizes the film's accomplishments. About the categorization of Minari, "The film equivalent of being told to go back to your country when that country is America," actor Daniel Dae Kim wrote in a tweet. 

Maybe because they are the "foreign" press, the HFPA members don't know America as I know it even though most of them have lived in Southern California for years.

I certainly don't want to tell them to "Go back where you came from," (heavens no) but I also don't want them defining to the rest of the world what is American.

What began as a controversy within movie industry bubble has grown to ask the larger existential question, "What is American?"

 One of the racist barbs I've had to endure in my life is, "You speak really good English." 

Exc-u-use me? I was raised in this country and -- in fact, and rather regretfully -- English is the only language I speak fluently (most of the time.) 

In fact, I even have a picture of myself remarkably similar to the publicity photo (below) of Dale Kim as David in the movie, wearing a cowboy hat, a Roy Rogers vest and toy pistols in my holster.

Alan Kim as David in 'Minari.'

Over 70 years in the U.S. and people still view me as a foreigner.

Being seen as a foreigner, -- an outsider, an "other" -- because of the color of our skin and hair and the slant of our eyes is one of the racist slights Asian Americans have endured since the first Filipinos set foot on the continent's western shore in 1587.

Mass media and a stilted education system are big parts of why people have that perception. In the culture we grew up in -- by school textbooks and pop culture, the dolls favored by children, the beauty we seek to attain, the heroes we are supposed to emulate and even the Christian images we see in or churches -- being American meant being white, Anglo-Saxon and being blond and blue-eyed was an extra added bonus.

Minari is not a Korean story. Its the story of all immigrants who come to our country having to learn the customs, the laws and the way of American life. Yes, that includes learning the language too -- no matter how long. 

For those fearful of the balkanization of the U.S. and want to make a law mandating that English the official language of the U.S., recent studies have shown that by the third-generation of an immigrant family, English becomes the language most spoken in the home.

What the Hollywood foreign press doesn't realize and the recently outspoken celebrities are saying, is something that poets, creators, sociologists and mental health experts have known all along: 

Being American is not the color of your skin or the slant of your eyes, or even, the language you speak. Being American is not the singular act of raising your right hand reciting a pledge. Being American -- like the country itself -- is always seeking a better way, a better idea, a better life and a better self. An American is not just "being" an American, but a shared process; a continuous state of evolving not only as individuals (which is only part of the American mythology) but also as a family, a community and as a society. 

The questions surrounding Minari comes as the definition of "American" is being debated today, when immigration from Asia is higher than from any other part of the world; Asian Americans impacted the choosing of Joe Biden; and an Asian American is the Vice President-elect.

It is no coincidence that the debate is occurring today, when immigration from Asia is higher than from any other part of the world; Asian Americans impactin the Presidential election, an Asian American is the Vice President-elect, hate acts against Asian Americans are spiking and the country ever-so slowly is realizing that its future lies in the nations of Asia; a revolutionary 180-degree shift from the Eurocentric mindset that has ruled the economy and culture of this country for centuries. 

The debate over Minari is just one step in the evolution of our country. It requires a cultural shift in the minds of the 80-plus HFPA members -- not an easy task, but one that should start with the HFPA members working for Asian publications and networks.

Minari is in limited release now but will have a general release in February, 2021,

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this is news sprinkled with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions.