The 2012 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival announced its annual award winners the other night, wrapping up the main L.A. portion of the 28th anniversary festival: And the Winners Are... Musa Sayeed's exquisite narrative feature Valley of Saints and Sasha Friedlander's documentary feature Where Heaven Meets Hell took home top jury honors, while Justin Tipping's short Nani received the Gold Reel Award, and Mitsuyo Miyazaki was honored with the Linda Mabalot New Directors/New Visions Award.
Here's the full list of award winners:
LOS ANGELES ASIAN PACIFIC FILM FESTIVAL 2012 AWARDSValley of Saints and Where Heaven Meets Hell will screen this weekend as part of the festival's encore shows at the Art Theater of Long Beach. For theater information and showtimes, go to the festival website here.
NARRATIVE FEATURES AWARDS
GRAND JURY PRIZE - BEST OVERALL FILM
VALLEY OF SAINTS
Director/Writer MUSA SYEED; Producer NICHOLAS BRUCKMAN
OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR
MUSA SYEED - VALLEY OF SAINTS
*Special Jury Mention - Outstanding Director
LILY MARIYE - MODEL MINORITY
OUTSTANDING SCREENPLAY
H.P. MENDOZA - YES WE’RE OPEN
OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY
JOHN MATYSIAK - MODEL MINORITY/TWO SHADOWS
OUTSTANDING FIRST FEATURE
SHANGHAI CALLING - DANIEL HSIA
ACTING AWARDS
BEST NEWCOMER ACTORS
NICHOLE BLOOM - MODEL MINORITY
KEVIN WU - HANG LOOSE
BEST ENSEMBLE ACTING AWARD
SUNSET STORIES - Sung Kang, Monique Curnen, Michelle Krusiec, Joshua Leonard and Sandy Martin
BEST ACTOR
DANTE BASCO - PARADISE BROKEN/HANG LOOSE
DOCUMENTARY AWARDS
GRAND JURY PRIZE
WHERE HEAVEN MEETS HELL - SASHA FRIEDLANDER
OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR
DEBBIE LUM - SEEKING ASIAN FEMALE
OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY - tie
WHERE HEAVEN MEETS HELL - SASHA FRIEDLANDER and BAO NGUYEN
CHINA HEAVYWEIGHT - SUN SHAOGUANG
SPECIAL JURY AWARD FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
GIVE UP TOMORROW - Director MICHAEL COLLINS; Producer MARTY SYJUCO
SHORTS AWARDS
GOLDEN REEL
NANI - JUSTIN TIPPING
LINDA MABALOT NEW DIRECTORS/NEW VISIONS
TSUYAKO - MITSUYO MIYAZAKI
HONORABLE MENTION
THIEF - JAY CHERN
C3: PROJECT MARKET
JURY AWARD
SEEING RED - Liselle Mei & Derek Nguyen
HONORABLE MENTION
THE DOCTOR - Musa Syeed & Nicholas Bruckman