At a press conference yesterday in Los Angeles, the 2007 AZN Asian Excellence Awards announced the nominees for this year's awards presentation, honoring outstanding achievements of Asians and Asian Americans in media, entertainment and culture. Aaaand the nominees are...
Outstanding Film
Babel
Curse of the Golden Flower
Letters From Iwo Jima
The Namesake
Outstanding Actor - Film
Jet Li / Fearless
Kal Penn / The Namesake
Ken Watanabe / Letters From Iwo Jima
Outstanding Actress - Film
Maggie Cheung / Clean
Gong Li / Curse of the Golden Flower
Rinko Kikuchi / Babel
Tabu / The Namesake
Outstanding Actor - Television
Naveen Andrews / Lost
Daniel Dae Kim / Lost
Masi Oka / Heroes
B.D. Wong / Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Outstanding Actress - Television
Kelly Hu / In Case of Emergency
Yunjin Kim / Lost
Parminder Nagra / ER
Sandra Oh / Grey's Anatomy
Outstanding Supporting Actress - Film
Cindy Cheung / Lady in the Water
Sharon Leal / Dreamgirls
Maggie Q / Mission: Impossible 3
Betty Sun / Fearless
Outstanding Supporting Actor - Film
Roger Fan / Annapolis
Sung Kang / The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
Dustin Nguyen / Little Fish
Koji Yakusho / Babel
Outstanding Supporting Actor - Television
James Kyson Lee / Heroes
Rex Lee / Entourage
Will Yun Lee / Thief
Sendhil Ramamurthy / Heroes
Outstanding Supporting Actress - Television
Keiko Agena - Gilmore Girls
Michaela Conlin - Bones
Mindy Kaling - The Office
Grace Park - Battlestar Galactica
Lauren Tom - Men In Trees
Outstanding Comedy Performance
Margaret Cho
Dat Phan
Russell Peters
There you go. Kind of a weird list, isn't it? Still a big improvement from last year's nominees (at least Zack Morris isn't on the list this time), but I find the whole thing a little odd. For one thing, it's all really mainstream. Looks like they've taken cues from the Oscars, nominating only studio stuff like Babel and Letters From Iwo Jima in the film category, and relegating independent films to the Viewers Choice category. And it looks they had to try really hard to fill up these categories—some awards have four nominees, some three, some five. What's up with that? I don't get it. But hey, I'm not complaining—the fact there are enough Asian Americans in film and television these days to have a decent pool to choose from, at least you can call that progress. I like all the television category nominees... but some of the film ones need a little work. (Betty Sun for Fearless? She's in the movie for like ten minutes.)
Anyway, as mentioned previously, honorary awards will also be presented to restauranteur Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa, actor Chow Yun Fat, and fashion designer Vivienne Tam. And you, the viewers, can choose your Favorite Reality Star and Outstanding Asian Independent Film. Vote online here. The awards will be taped next week, May 16th at UCLA's Royce Hall, and will be hosted by Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim. It'll air later this month, May 28th on AZN Television, preceded by a one-hour red carpet special May 24th on E! Entertainment Television.