award winners at the 24th los angeles asian pacific film festival

Just wanted to give one last wrap-up shout-out to the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, which closed out last Thursday with a bang. Director Sarab Neelam and his debut feature film Ocean of Pearls took home the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature Film, while the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature Film went to Doan Hoang's Oh, Saigon. Ocean of Pearls also nabbed the Audience Award for Narrative Feature, and Christine Choy's Long Story Short took home the Audience Award for Documentary Feature. Great stuff. Here's the full press release:

"OCEAN OF PEARLS" AND "OH SAIGON" TAKE GRAND JURY PRIZES AT 24TH LOS ANGELES ASIAN PACIFIC FILM FESTIVAL

AUDIENCE AWARDS GO TO "OCEAN OF PEARLS" AND "LONG STORY SHORT" WHILE SHORT FILIMS "TAILORMADE: CHINATOWN'S LAST TAILOR" WINS GOLDEN REEL AND "SWEAT" WINs NEW DIRECTIONS/NEW VISIONS AWARDS

LOS ANGELES, CA, MAY 8, 2008 - Director Sarab Neelam and his debut feature film "OCEAN OF PEARLS" took home the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature Film at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival presented by Honda and produced by Visual Communications as announced at closing night. Neelam, one of the few, if not the only Sikh filmmaker in the U.S., made an impressive directorial debut with a story of the Sikh experience in America with a script written by Veerendra Prasad based on a story by Neelam and Prasad.

The Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature Film went to director Doan Hoang and her film "OH SAIGON" - which tells her story of being airlifted from Vietnam in 1975 and arriving in the US to begin again, and going back 25 years later to follow up with the family and people she left behind. Moving and compelling the film illustrates the often unspoken effects of war on people.

Audiences at the festival agreed with the jurors and voted "OCEAN OF PEARLS" with the Audience Award for Narrative Feature, and embraced the non-fiction film "LONG STORY SHORT" from director Christine Choy and written by Jodi Long with the Audience Award for Documentary Feature.

Short films are a very important part of the Fest, and the Golden Reel and New Directions/New Visions awards reflect the best of these films. This year, the Fest awarded the Golden Reel to "TAILOR MADE: CHINATOWN'S LAST TAILORS" - directed by Leonard Lee and Marsha Newberry, while the New Directions/New Visions accolade went to SWEAT from director Na Hong-Jin.

The entire list of awards is as follows:

NARRATIVE FEATURE FILMS

GRAND JURY PRIZE: Ocean of Pearls, directed by Sarab Neelam with screenplay by Veerendra Prasad from a story by Neelam and Prasad

AUDIENCE AWARD: Ocean of Pearls, directed by Sarab Neelam with screenplay by Veerendra Prasad from a story by Neelam and Prasad

BEST FIRST FEATURE: Always Be Boyz, written and directed by John Kwon

TECHNICAL ART AWARD: Option 3, directed by Richard Wong with screenplay by HP Mendoza and Richard Wong

OUTSTANDING NEWCOMER: JIMMY TSAI - in the film Ping Pong Playa, directed by Jessica Yu with screenplay by Jimmy Tsai and Jessica Yu

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILMS

GRAND JURY PRIZE: Oh Saigon, written and directed by Doan Hoang

AUDIENCE AWARD: Long Story Short, directed by Christine Choi and written by Jodi Long

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE: Up the Yangtze, written and directed by Yung Chang

HONORABLE MENTION: Long Story Short, directed by Christine Choi and written by Jodi Long

SHORT FILMS

GOLDEN REEL: Tailor Made: Chinatown's Last Tailors, directed by Leonard Lee and Marsha Newberry

NEW DIRECTIONS/NEW VOICES: Sweat, written and directed by Na Hong-Jin

HONORABLE MENTION: Sweat, written and directed by Josh Kim

This year's judges included:

SHORT FILMS
Roger Fan - actor (Annapolis; Better Luck Tomorrow; Finishing the Game)
Maysie Hoy - film editor (Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns; Joy Luck Club)
Eric Nakamura - founder and publisher Giant Robot
Suchin Pak - news reporter MTV NEWS

DOCUMENTARY FILMS
Tracie Lewis - programmer, Film Independent
Ada Tseng - director, UCLA Asian Pacfic Arts Online Magazine
Win-Sie Tow - manager, Sundance Documentary Film Program

NARRATIVE FILMS
Julie Asato - producer (Finishing the Game; Better Luck Tomorrow; Ethan Mao)
Brian Hu - film critic/professor Cal State Fullerton
David Maquiling - filmmaker/writer/professor - University of Southern California

Known globally as Southern California's largest and most prestigious film festival of its kind, the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival presented by Honda launched the celebration of Asian Pacific Heritage Month through this year's slate of over 160 films and videos from both Asian Pacific American and Asian international directors from over 17 countries including the U.S. The festival was established in 1983 by Visual Communications - the nation's premier Asian American media arts resource center.

Another great year. I highly recommend checking out any of these films, because they represent some of the best stuff going on right now in Asian American/Canadian cinema. A lot of them are still pretty early on in their festival runs, so you've got a good chance of seeing them if/when they make it to your respective cities.