Filmmakers, industry and members from Pacific Arts Movement pose during the 24th Annual San Diego Asian Pacific Film Festival brunch/mixer on November 5, 2023. (Photo: Pacific Arts Movement)
THE ASIAN PACIFIC FILMMAKERS EXPERIENCE (APFE) proudly partnered with Pacific Arts Movement (PacArts) for the Filmmakers Brunch at their 24th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival (SDAFF) in Mira Mesa, San Diego, CA on November 5.
This year, the event brought together over 150+ filmmakers, industry execs and festival attendees, with APFE’s Milton Liu (Interim Executive Director, Asian American Media Alliance) and Rhian Moore (Programs Manager, Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) addressing the crowd and celebrating their achievements, their storytelling and our communities.
Special thanks to PacArts’ and SDAFF’s Carmela Prudencio, Selena Do, Brian Hu and Alex Villafuerte for leading the way to this annual event, and congratulations on the success of the 24th annual San Diego Asian Film Festival!
Milton Liu (APFE) with filmmakers Michelle Krusiec and HP Mendoza, during the Filmmakers Brunch during the 24th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival, on November 5, 2023. (Photo: Milton Liu)
On Tuesday, October 17, 2023, the Asian American Media Alliance (AAMA) and the Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience (APFE) hosted a virtual documentary filmmaker workshop presented by Getty Images, to provide background on how to utilize the world’s largest private archive of images for projects.
The one-hour session began with Milton Liu (interim Executive Director, AAMA) welcoming the audience by introducing AAMA. The Asian American Media Alliance is a national network of civil rights and media activism organizations founded in 1999 to empower the Asian American Pacific Islander community by advocating for full inclusion and representation in visual entertainment and media. Since its first chairperson, former U.S. Secretary Norman Mineta, the AAMA provides an annual assessment of the major television broadcast networks’ programming and evaluating AAPI representation in front of, and behind the camera. AAMA is also a member of the Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience, alongside Kollaboration, David Magdael & Associates, Visual Communications and CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment). Since the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, APFE brings artists, creators, and industry insiders together in celebration of our experiences and our stories. We recognize our community’s talents and compelling filmmaking that shifts the landscape, changes hearts and minds, and announces our presence.
Milton then introduced Heather Tanning (Senior Manager, Regional Marketing, Getty Images) who first asked the question, what is Getty Images? While many would be partially correct in saying they are behind the red carpet photos or the news photos seen on CNN, Getty Images is much more. They are a living and breathing archive, dedicated to preserving the past, capturing the present and impacting the future. As a creative partner to filmmakers, Getty helps filmmakers and storytellers to discover, license and share Getty’s powerful visual content from the world’s best photographers and videographers.
After a brief overview, Lyndon Umali (Director, North America Production, Getty Images) then introduced a deeper dive into Getty Images and the Production team. Founded in 1995, Getty Images employs over 1,700 people globally, along with 115 staff photographers and videographers. Getty Images offers a growing library of over 538 million visual assets that delivers unmatched depth, breadth and quality. Getty Images has an extensive and comprehensive archive with over 135 million images dating back to the beginning of photography.
Getty Images also pioneered the content partner model and now serves as the distribution partner for more than 310 such relationships. These partners rely on Getty Images as their primary distribution channel for commercializing their digital content. Impressively, new content is added daily, with over 10 million new assets added each quarter.
Getty Images also has a long history with major film and television studios, streamers and independent production companies thus setting a legal standard in indemnification and coverage, creating a multitude of trusted film and TV partnerships.
Umali also spoke about his team being tasked to serve the broader film and television community and to cater to the needs of filmmakers and projects of all genres, subject matter and budgets. Plus, the staff is well versed in commercial licensing, everything from scripted television shows, shorts to trailers to documentaries.
Tanning then spoke about Getty Images Archive, as custodians of the world’s largest privately owned archive, Getty Images has analog facilities in London, Paris, Los Angeles, New Jersey and Pittsburgh, with access to over 135 million images — from world class museums and media partners to unique individual content holdings.
Getty Images’ media partners include Sports Illustrated, The Washington Post, Sony Music, Billboard, CBS, Bloomberg, Rolling Stone, The Los Angeles Times, Kyodo, Toronto Star, NBC News Archives, The Walt Disney Company, BBC, Warner Bros. Discovery, Smithsonian, NHK, Law & Crime Trial Network, and more.
Getty Images also has exclusive partnerships, particularly in sports and entertainment from The Oscars, The Met Gala, Vanity Fair, The Grammy Awards, Major League Baseball, and more.
Tanning reminded the audience of the various ways Getty Images’ content can be used for — including B-roll, establishers, set design, props, playback, title/end sequences, key art, promos, and more. She added that their team are experts in usages. Most importantly, the Getty Images team is here to guide filmmakers through every aspect of the production cycle as it relates to licensed content, from proof of concept to final cut. No project is too small. It is also recommended to bring in Getty Images early to avoid issues during post, including approvals.
Then the audience was guided through an interactive search process with Eric Simon (Senior Product Specialist, Content Overview / Search, Getty Images). Simon presented a search tour of images/stills and videos, editorial and creative, background music and collections or curated sets.
Following the search demonstration, online content versus offline content was covered by Dina Elsayed (Senior Product Specialist, Offline Materials / Search, Getty Images). Elsayed explained that offline content is from a partner that houses their own content versus being on GettyImages.com. NBC News Archives, BBC, ITN, TV New Zealand are examples of offline partners. She also reminded the audience on how to get started, which is to reach out to Getty Images and provide project details and to be as descriptive as possible. Then, a Product Specialist will contact you. To reach the Getty Images team, send an email to na.prod@gettyimages.com.
Finally, the session ended with an audience Q&A, where questions were asked about budget minimum (Getty has none) to the AANHPI content offerings Getty has. Getty also launched a Black content collection with historically Black college and universities (HBCUs) under its corporate social responsibility efforts with plans to launch additional marginalized and underrepresented communities, including Native and Indigenous.
Members of the crew from the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival smile for the camera during its extremely well-attended mixer/get-together at the Reel Asian rooftop during the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 11. (Photo/Mike Tjioe)
THE ASIAN PACIFIC FILMMAKERS EXPERIENCE proudly partnered with Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival as one of the sponsors and supporters of the Reel Asian X TIFF 2023 Reception, which was held on September 11 at the Toronto International Film Festival.
This year, the event brought together over 300+ filmmakers and festival attendees for the Toronto International Film Festival 2023. Together with Reel Asian and TIFF, we celebrated Asian Pacific Islander filmmakers from all over the world who were in attendance and some who presented their films at the festival. A record number of Asian Pacific filmmakers/ producers/actors/publicist/folks in the industry – all came together at the spacious rooftop patio of the Toronto Reel Asian office in downtown Toronto. This was a very special and great event.
Special thanks goes out to Toronto Reel Asian’s Deanna Wong and Aram Collier for spearheading this annual event and making this one of the highlights at TIFF 2023.
This incredible event is courtesy of Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival with food & drink provided courtesy of supporting partners:
REEL ASIAN X TIFF 2023 is one of the global events that the Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience supports outside the United States.
Veteran publicist and co-founder of the Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience, David Magdael meet up with filmmakers Kalpana Srinarayanadas and Shilpa Mankikar during the Reel Asian mixer for Asian and Pacific Islander filmmakers Sept. 11 at the Toronto International Film Festival. (Photo: Mike Tjioe)
Mismatched sisters Anne (Awkwafina) and Jenny (Sandra Oh) find themselves in a pickle that they can only dig their way out of by becoming game show champions in QUIZ LADY, Academy Award-winning director Jessica Yu’s return narrative feature to Toronto ’23. (Photo: Courtesy Toronto International Film Festival Group)
As the awards season descends upon us (admittedly, considerably delayed due to twin major labor strikes by the Writers guild of America and SAG-AFTRA), one would think that the pickings for great cinema might likewise slow to a crawl as we slowly near the end of the calendar year. Judging by the surprisingly stellar crop of works making their World and North American premiere screenings at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, it is reasonable to determine that major new works are instead coming our way real soon. With that, here is a list of works (by directors, producers, screenwriters, and/or a combination thereof) that will premiere starting September 7 through 17 in The City By The Lake.
As graduation season and Fathers’ Day weekend neared, the Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience (APFE) celebrated AANHPI filmmakers, storytellers, creatives and community leaders at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City (#APANYC). This year marked the third time in partnering with local AANHPI film partner, Asian CineVision (ACV) , to uplift and highlight new and veteran community voices at one the country’s most renowned film festivals.
Held on Saturday, June 10, 2023 at the Asian American-owned Sour Mouse Social Club on the Lower East Side, the full house first welcomed WGAE writer Madhuri Shekar (Evil Eye, The Nevers and the upcoming Sister Act 3) to discuss the ramifications of the ongoing WGA Strike and how it specifically affects our AANHPI communities and projects.
WGAE member Madhuri Shekar greets the gathered crowd. (Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images)
Afterwards, a selection of cinematic artists of Asian American and Pacific islander descent featured throughout Tribeca 2023 joined moderator Kat Moon of TV Guide for an intriguing conversation spotlighting their works. Joining Kat were:
H.P. Mendoza – Director, THE SECRET ART OF HUMAN FLIGHT Annelise Hickey – Director, HAFEKASI Taylor Shung – Producer, SOMEWHERE QUIET and THE GRADUATES Jennifer Kim – Actor, SOMEWHERE QUIET Sean Devlin – Director, ASOG Jaya – Screenwriter, ASOG Adrian Tomine – Screenwriter, SHORTCOMINGS
Kat Moon of TV Guide joined with (from left) Annelise Hickey, Jaya, Sean Devlin, Adrian Tomine, H.P. Mendoza, Taylor Shung, and Jennifer Kim to talk film and Tribeca ’23. (Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images)
Attendees were treated to complimentary drinks and delicious appetizers from local NYC Chinatown eateries. Notable guests in attendance included writer/director Andrew Ahn and producer Sanjay M. Sharma. In addition to celebrating three years at Tribeca, the day marked the birthdays of guest panelists Annelise Hickey and Jennifer Kim, who were serenaded on stage by the audience and fellow panelists.
APFE organizers David Magdael (Co-Founder, APFE), Milton Liu (Executive Director, Asian American Media Alliance & WGA West member), Michelle Sugihara (Executive Director, CAPE), Minji Chang (Board Member, Kollaboration), and Marvin Yueh (HappyEcstatic Media) welcomed attendees and thanked them for supporting AANHPI filmmakers and storytellers at Tribeca. Kayla Wong, Programs / Festival Director and Eunice Chen, Associate Director / Development, for Asian CineVision, producers of the Asian American International Film Festival, also welcomed guests to the organization’s hometown. For folks experiencing FOMO, event photographer Slaven Vlasic of Getty Images made a wonderful set of images in his official capacity as Event Photographer that can be found here. Additionally, a set of event photos by Andrew Ge can be found here.
Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience organizers, along with event panelists and organizers of event partner Asian CineVision, can finally exhale! (Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images)
Next up, catch the Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience at Comic-Con, Hawai’i International Film Festival (HIFF), and Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) with the Reel Asian Film Festival. Plus, planning is underway for the 20th anniversary of the Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience at the Sundance and Slamdance Film Festivals in Park City, Utah. Save the Date for Sunday, January 21, 2024 and we will see you in the snowy mountains, if not sooner!
The Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience (APFE) celebrated AANHPI filmmakers, storytellers, creatives and community leaders at both the 39th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (#LAAPFF2023) in Los Angeles and the 2023 CAAMFest (#CAAMFest) in San Francisco, California.
Kicking off Closing Weekend at #LAAPFF2023, over 150 attended the APFE Happy Hour on Friday, May 12. Held at 18 Social within Downtown LA’s Hotel Indigo, guests were treated to complimentary appetizers and drinks, while taking in the city’s skyline. Notable guests in attendance included award-winning documentary filmmaker, author and journalist Richard Lui, PEAK (Pasifika Entertainment Advancement Komite) Executive Director Kristian Fanene Schmidt, Visual Communications Board Member David Kwan (The Famous Group), Writer/Director/Actor Michelle Krusiec, and Director/Producer Wesley Chan.
APFE organizers Milton Liu (Executive Director, Asian American Media Alliance & WGA West member), Michelle Sugihara (Executive Director, CAPE), Laarni Rosca Dacanay (Chair, PBS SoCal KCET Community Advisory Board), Minji Chang (Board Member, Kollaboration), Marvin Yueh (Visual Communications), and Francis Cullado (Executive Director, Visual Communications) welcomed attendees and thanked them for supporting AANHPI filmmakers and storytellers at #LAAPFF2023. Milton shared a brief history of the founding of APFE over 20 years at the Sundance Film Festival and then introduced the organizers and their respective organizations. #LAAPFF2023 is produced by Visual Communications.
APFE organizers welcome guests at the #LAAPFF2023 Happy Hour (Photo: Andrew Ge)
The next day, Saturday, May 13, the Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience celebrated in the San Francisco Bay Area by recognizing AANHPI filmmakers and storytellers at the 2023 CAAMFest, produced by theCenter for Asian American Media. Held at Queer Arts Featured on Castro Street in San Francisco, APFE Co-Founder David Magdael repped the Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience: 2023 CAAMFest Happy Hour and welcomed over 100 attendees of AANHPI creatives, filmmakers, artists, and industry folks who filled their plates from local food vendors Wasabi Bistro and the Sunset Bakery.
The filmmakers and festival guests in attendance came from programs at the festival including the film teams of THE ACCIDENTAL GETAWAY DRIVER; STARRING JERRY AS HIMSELF; JAMOJAYA; JOYRIDE; WHEN YOU LEFT ME ON THAT BOULEVARD; LIQUOR STORE DREAMS; NURSE UNSEEN; AMERICAN BORN CHINESE; BIG FIGHT IN LITTLE CHINATOWN; UNSEEN; LAST SUMMER OF NATHAN LEE; BIG FIGHT IN LITTLE CHINATOWN; KAPWA, TX; PHOTOGRAPHIC JUSTICE; UNCONDITIONAL; WISDOM GONE WILD; and more. Attendees hailed the APFE 2023 CAAMFest Happy Hour as one of the best gatherings at the festival this year! Plans to do it again next year are already being talked about. Big props to CAAMFest staff Joana Cruz (LUV), Joanne Boston, Thúy Trần, Don Young, Jess Ju, Stephen Gong, and the entire staff at CAAM!
As May’s Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month wraps up, the celebration of AANHPI filmmakers and creatives continues next month as APFE partners with Asian CineVision at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival in June – stay tuned for event details!
A crowd gathers at San Francisco’s Queer Arts Featured as the Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience hosts a happy hour in honor of AAPI cinematic artists at CAAMFest 2023. (Photo: Courtesy Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience)
This month we celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and while we are halfway through May, it has already been a very robust and engaging month so far. From national events coast to coast, our heritage is being celebrated and owned by our AANHPI storytellers and creatives. One of these stories is the upcoming comedy film JOY RIDE, from first-time director Adele Lim featuring an all-Asian American-led cast and writing team. The Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience attended the world premiere at SXSW, which included an exclusive pre-panel with the directors, writers and cast. As we look back on the day and evening’s events, we were filled with so much pride, joy, laughter and tears. Breaking down stereotypes and seeing Asian American women being funny (and raw) was such a welcome feeling. Here’s to lifting up more of our stories and our storytellers, one laugh at a time!
Watch this “Heritage” video as #JoyRideMovie reclaims the narrative one messy, raunchy, perfectly imperfect character at a time. #JoyRideMovie – only in theaters July 7, 2023.
A scene from Shelly Yo’s SMOKING TIGERS, part of the Tribeca Film Festival’s U.S. Narrative Competition. (Photo: Courtesy Tribeca Enterprises)
by Abraham Ferrer
So the saying goes, it’s not the quantity, but the quality that counts. If that saying can be applied to the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival set to begin on June 7, 2023 at various venues throughout the lower half of Manhattan, then it would certainly be fitting. A typically succinct and carefully-curated fortnight of cinema, television, and immersive media is even more slimmed-down, no doubt due to the effects of a two-year forced vacation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the 2020 edition was outright cancelled, festivals in 2021 and 2022 carried on as largely festival-from-home or hybrid events, given the persistent mask mandates and omicron variant surges that have plagued the film festival circuit during that time. While 2023 signals a “return to normal,” in some cases the pandemic has prompted festival organizers to take a look at their program line-ups and determine that there is nothing wrong with trimming the fat of bloated line-ups filled with “low-hanging fruit” and instead exercise some much-welcome rigor to their selection process.
Taking a look at this year’s Tribeca line-up, it’s apparent that the idea is to control a sense of “bloat” that may be typical of certain other festivals filled with a preponderance of work, and instead emulate tightly-curated events such as the annual Berlinale (a festival that cannot be accused of finding space for that “one more” work that someone on their programming team is willing to champion). From top to bottom, the programming is sleek, the curation is tidy. Yet when looked at from the standpoint of accommodating inclusivity, it’s clear that Tribeca makes a painfully slim space for works created by people of color. One place where this policy applies can be the comparatively slim line-up of works by makers of Asian American and Pacific Islander descent. The thirty-one honorees we counted among the total line-up is already shockingly slim. Yet when one considers that a whopping FIFTEEN honorees represent a piddly FOUR productions (multiple personnel in producing and/or screenwriting roles; and one short film is co-directed by two individuals), the resulting roster of twenty-four total works at Tribeca 2023 created by AAPI makers in a directing, producing, and/or screenwriting capacity seems downright insulting.
A still frame from director H.P. Mendoza’s THE SECRET ART OF HUMAN FLIGHT, part of the Tribeca Film Festival’s U.S. Narrative Competition. (Photo: Courtesy Tribeca Enterprises)
And yet, there is still much to celebrate from this seemingly paltry selection — save for a single motion picture (Sundance 2023 holdover SHORTCOMINGS, set for release at the beginning of August but presumably selected for its showcasing of New York City), every other AAPI Tribeca work is poised to enjoy a World or International premiere engagement. This all by itself is impressive. Also impressive is the re-emergence of voices we haven’t heard from in quite a while (we’re looking at YOU, H.P. Mendoza), as well as cinematic voices who have broken out from working in near-anonymity at cookie-cutter corporate environments to tell unique, original stories (Disney Animation acolyte Peter Sohn, whose ELEMENTAL is set for a Gala presentation). Overall, this year’s Tribeca can be thought of as a celebration of riches, with precious few spoils, if any. And that’s a good thing.
Besides the aforementioned SHORTCOMINGS, among the feature-length narratives and documentaries in this year’s Tribeca line-up are thrillers (Seán Devlin’s ASOG, Om Raut’s ADIPURUSH), intense family stories (Sara Nodjoumi’s UNTITLED NICKY NODJOUMI; Hannah Logan Peterson’s THE GRADUATES), and good ol’ fashioned indie dramas (H.P. Mendoza’s THE SECRET ART OF HUMAN FLIGHT, Shelly Yo’s debut feature SMOKING TIGERS). Award-winning producer/director Nicholas Bruckman makes his latest directorial bow with the documentary MINTED, while white-hot producer Taylor Ava Shung notches another feather in her cap with SOMEWHERE QUIET, with a little help from veteran executive producers Mynette Louie and Derek Nguyen; as well as the previously-mentioned THE GRADUATES. Add in Tian Xiaopeng’s DEEP SEA, and you have a slim but impactful complement of feature-length offerings that will be hotly anticipated as Tribeca nears its opening.
Razan Ghalayini’s charming UPSIDEDOWN is one of the short subjects premiering at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. (Photo: Courtesy Tribeca Enterprises)
The line-up of short subjects by AAPI filmmakers, not to mention works in the indie episodic and immersive spaces is slim, a reflection of the overall reduced line-up of overall such works. However, the overall excellence of these works belie their small numbers, and one can only wish that Tribeca programmers would have seen fit to sneak in just a few more works into the mix. Works by South Asian filmmakers figure strongly in this mix and are well-represented by Razan Ghalayini (UPSIDEDOWN), Mitra Shahidi (STARLING), Vishavjit Singh (AMERICAN SIKH), and Vathana Suganya Suppiah (BLOOD). Part-Tongan filmmaker Annelise Hickey (the only filmmaker of Pacific Islander descent in the entire festival) brings the touching HAFEKASI to Tribeca screens, while the duo of Meng Xiaoxue and Tan Yuehan bring their short subject RESTLESS IS THE NIGHT to The Big Apple.
One would think that with the explosion of creative activity in the virtual and immersive realms, there would be a pronounced profile of such work at Tribeca, in much the same manner that whole sections of the Sundance and SXSW film festivals are devoted to such works. Think again, dear readers. A single episodic selection (TAKING ROOT: SOUTHEAST ASIAN STORIES OF RESETTLEMENT IN PHILADEPHIA, by a team led by Oanh-Nhi Nguyen) is the only Asian-created and themed work in the entire section, while a trio of immersive creators (Poulomi Basu – MAYA: THE BIRTH (CHAPTER ONE); Shirin Neshat – THE FURY; and Michaela Ternasky-Holland – REIMAGINED VOLUME II: MAHAL) stand out from the small crowd of virtual reality productions on display. Again, it could be a matter of content and style over sheer size. It would be up to the audience to decide for themselves whether quality trumps quantity. For the organizers of the Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience, we choose to go to side of quality at this year’s edition of Tribeca. The focus on a select few works forces us to carefully consider the work at hand. If you do, we think the viewers will be pleasantly surprised.
The immersive production REIMAGINED VOLUME II: MAHAL, by a large team directed by Michaela Ternasky-Holland, is one of three such works to be showcased in the “new media” section of the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. (Photo: Courtesy Tribeca Enterprises)
For the full line-up of Tribeca ’23 films by AAPI artists, click here
Ben Tanaka (Justin Min) and his bestie Alice (Sherry Cola) make an unwelcome discovery on the streets of New York City in Randall Park’s debut feature SHORTCOMINGS, screening as a Spotlight Narrative of the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. (Photo: Courtesy Tribeca Enterprises)
For those coming to New York City to attend the Tribeca Film Festival from June 7 through 18, 2023, the Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience team wants to let you all know who we’re celebrating, centering, and spotlighting. While the pickin’s are considerably slimmer than earlier this year at Sundance ’23 and SXSW ’23, this year’s Tribeca showcases a completely new generation of Asian American and Pacific Islander filmmakers and cinema artists with new works that offer much excitement as this year continues into the summer months. Be sure to catch these filmmakers’ films and new media productions. As always, we think this group is very special. And we know you’ll agree with us, too!
(All honorees are Directors unless otherwise indicated)
As a crowd of guests look on, the Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience’s Minji Chang greets the audience with Hanna Huang of the Austin Asian American Film Festival. Attracting over 100 film lovers, artists, and special guests, #APAAustin took place at Hold Out Brewing in the heart of SXSW activities. (Photo: Andrew Ge)
By Laarni Rosca Dacanay
Last month, the 2023 Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience in Austin celebrated five years at the South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) with festivities recognizing AAPI filmmakers, storytellers, creatives and community leaders.
Beginning on Tuesday, March 14, the AAPI Film + Creatives Happy Hour Mixer (co-hosted with the Austin Asian American Film Festival), was held at Hold Out Brewing, where over 100 invited press and influencers, creatives, industry executives, SXSW filmmakers, local Austin and Texas-area AAPI filmmakers, community leaders, and AAPI allies and supporters, gathered for informal networking and connecting. Noted attendees include Writer and Director Liz Sargent, 2022 CAPE Short Program alum, whose film, TAKE ME HOME, played at SXSW; Director Mai Vu and Sam Rapley, Composer of SPRING ROLL DREAM, which also played at SXSW also attended, and Assistant Director Derek Kwan of Amanda Sum‘s DIFFERENT THAN BEFORE music video, which took home the 2023 Music Video Jury Award at SXSW networked with guests.
Later that week on Friday, March 17, the Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience attended the world premiere of first-time director Adele Lim’s highly anticipated comedy, JOY RIDE, which featured an exclusive pre-panel with the director, writers and the all-Asian American women-led cast, including Academy Award Nominee Stephanie Hsu, Ashley Park, Sherry Cola and Sabrina Wu. During the festival, the Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience supported other high profile AAPI projects, including Kelvin Yu’s AMERICAN BORN CHINESE (starring Daniel Wu and Academy Award Winners Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan) and Lee Sung Jin’s BEEF (starring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong). Other festival highlights include these must watch picks curated by the Austin Asian American Film Festival. From panels to networking to premieres and screenings, the 2023 Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience in Austin was another success. Stay tuned for more information as the team heads into May’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with a networking mixer at the 39th edition of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival with Asian CineVision in June!
The co-organizers of the Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience in Austin (from left): Hanna Huang, Austin Asian American Film Festival; Milton Liu, Asian American Media Alliance; Minji Chang, Kollaboration; and Michelle Sugihara, CAPE. Not pictured: Laarni Rosca Dacanay and David Madgael, David Magdael & Associates (Photo: Andrew Ge)
asianpacificfilmexperience.org 