Update February 9, 2020

Hollywood

by Suzanne Kai

"Parasite" made history tonight becoming the first non-English film to win an Oscar for Best Picture. The South Korean film won an Oscar for best picture, best director and best international film. 

For the complete list of Oscar winners

Hollywood

December 9, 2019

Nora Lum, known professionally as Awkwafina is nominated for Best Actress for her role in "The Farewell" in the category of Best Performance in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy at the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards. The Golden Globes Awards will be broadcast on January 5, 2020. 

(Photo credit: The Farewell / A24)

If Awkwafina wins, she will become the first Asian American to win the Golden Globe award.

Her role in 2019's "The Farewell" follows her breakout role as Peik Lin in 2018's 'Crazy Rich Asians' which made her a globally known actress to watch. 'Crazy, Rich Asians' also catapulted her into another Hollywood movie, "Ocean's Eight' with cast mates Cate Blanchette, Anne Hathaway and Rihanna. 

(Photo credit: Sanja Bucko/Warner Bros. Pictures)

After her 2018 breakout role in Warner Bros feature film "Crazy, Rich Asians," the first Hollywood movie with an all Asian cast in 26 years since "Joy Luck Club" Awkwafina played a pick pocket in Ocean's 8 with cast mates

(Photo credit: Warner Bros/Barry Wetcher)

Prior to her breakout role in "Crazy, Rich Asians" she was best known as a popular Youtube star where she posted her rap videos and comedic routines. 

Hollywood

January 5, 2020

Congratulations to Nora Lum, known professionally as Awkwafina. She  is the first Asian American to win a Golden Globe for Best Actress!

Awkwafina won for her role in "The Farewell" in the category of Best Performance in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy at the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards. 

Here is a Youtube.com link to her acceptance speech.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EQlY2UrCN4

(Photo credit: The Farewell / A24)

Her role in 2019's "The Farewell" follows her breakout role as Peik Lin in 2018's 'Crazy Rich Asians' which made her a globally known actress to watch. 'Crazy, Rich Asians' also catapulted her into another Hollywood movie, "Ocean's Eight' with cast mates Cate Blanchette, Anne Hathaway and Rihanna. 

(Photo credit: Sanja Bucko/Warner Bros. Pictures)

After her 2018 breakout role in Warner Bros feature film "Crazy, Rich Asians," the first Hollywood movie with an all Asian cast in 26 years since "Joy Luck Club" Awkwafina played a pick pocket in Ocean's 8 with cast mates

(Photo credit: Warner Bros/Barry Wetcher)

Prior to her breakout role in "Crazy, Rich Asians" she was best known as a popular Youtube star where she posted her rap videos and comedic routines. 

October 8, 2019

Hollywood

Actor Tim Lounibos wrote on his Facebook page  about the positive changes he is currently experiencing in Hollywood.

We caught up with him to share his thoughts with us.

Asian Americans have historically found limited opportunities as actors in movies and television in Hollywood, but fortunately for Tim he had a great start as a busy actor in the 1990s, but then his career went off a cliff - temporarily. 

We thank Tim for sharing his personal thoughts with our readers.

In the 1990's Tim Lounibos was a busy actor in Hollywood with roles in hot shows such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Suddenly Susan, and The Nanny, and recurring roles in Beverly Hills, 90210, The Practice, JAG and The West Wing, plus starring in one of the first US films shot in Hong Kong, Erotique.

At the local café with tears in my eyes – because of joy not sadness…

I’m an actor. 

I left for seven years because of the lack of opportunity for those like me. That was heartbreaking but necessary. Family comes first. Always. On returning, I’ve been very fortunate; because as an actor, I’m relevant again and working consistently, but merely working is not the be all and end all.

Something happened that reminded me of why I act.

December 5, 2018

Los Angeles

The Courage Under Fire Award from the International Documentary Association honors documentary filmmaker Stephen Maing, at the IDA's annual awards, December 8 in Los Angeles.

Maing is honored for his explosive documentary exposing the New York police department's racially discriminatory policing practices.

A class action suit by twelve minority whistleblower officers revealed the NYPD's practice of pressuring minority officers to issue predetermined numbers of arrests and summonses per month, often in communities of color it classified as 'high crime.'

Stephen Maing is an Emmy-nominated, Brooklyn-based filmmaker. His 2012 feature documentary, High Tech, Low Life, chronicled the gripping story of two of China's first dissident citizen-journalists fighting state-monitored censorship, and was broadcast nationally on PBS.  

His short film The Surrender, produced with Academy Award winner Laura Poitras, documented State Department intelligence analyst Stephen Kim's harsh prosecution under the Espionage Act, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Documentary.

He has directed numerous films for Time Magazine, The Nation, The New York Times, The Intercept, PBS and Field of Vision; his New York Times Op-Docs documentary, Hers to Lose, was awarded a World Press Photo Award for Long Features.