Awardees archive
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3 awardees
East Asian Languages and Cultures
Lillian Ngan is a Ph.D. candidate in East Asian Languages and Cultures at USC. Her research focuses on trans-Asian literary and media cultures, especially in Vietnam. She has published articles, received fellowships, and contributed to teaching and conferences.
Performing Arts
She is a ballet dancer, musician, and award-winning poet from Los Angeles. She has trained in ballet for over 14 years and performed in productions such as The Nutcracker, Don Quixote, and La Bayadere. She also composes music, performs piano, and has received awards for her poetry.
Documentary Film
She is a Chinese documentary filmmaker and multimedia artist based in Los Angeles and a third-year MFA candidate at UCLA. Her work explores family, memory, gender, and transnational identity, blending documentary storytelling with experimental media. She uses AI and VR to expand documentary forms, with projects including Touch Me, Please! and Still Here, Still There.
3 awardees
She graduated from the University of Rochester with double degrees in Anthropology and Studio Arts. Zoe's research focuses on how ordinary people experience state effects through their personal bodies and minds. Subfields that she has worked with include critical tourism studies, the revival of popular religions and folklore performances in China and Japan, and state management of cultural heritages. Her interdisciplinary practice enables her to express her sociocultural imagination through academic papers, photographs, documentaries, sculptures, and installation arts.
Jiaqi Liu is a concept-driven, project-based artist. Her works have been showcased internationally, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts (US), Brooklyn Bridge Park (US), AMC Empire Theatre (US), Microscope Gallery (US), Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (KR), Jupiter Art Museum (CN), Galerie KUB (DE), and on large public screens in Denver (US), Kalamata (GR), and Rethymno (GR). Previously, she received a Dual-MS in Computer and Information Science from Cornell University and a BFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Marcus is a French-American and award-winning filmmaker from Paris. He's a senior at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, majoring in film & television. His films have screened at the Yale Student Film Festival, New York Shorts International Film Festival, and NYU's New Visions and Voices Film Festival. As the writer, director, and editor of The Lion of Teranga, coupled with his diverse background and passion for sports, he's committed to telling a wholly authentic story about the intersection between friendship, sports, and abuse.
4 awardees
Alex completed her BFA Film and Television Production degree at University of Southern California, School of Cinematic Arts. Her passion lies in writing, directing, and producing, and her short films have won multiple international awards. She embraces her identity as a female Asian filmmaker and wishes to make her voice seen and heard.
Lenti received her Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts Media from University of California, San Diego. As the Director/Producer/Editor/Writer, she has been involved in the production of a number of short films and commercials.
She received her B.A. in Chinese Studies from Xiamen University, and received her M.A. in Comparative Literature and World Literature from Beijing Normal University. She specializes in modern East Asian literatures, cinema and migratory culture, and is an award-winning published poet, a digital poetry journal founder and editor-in-chief as well as a final judge for the Flower Trail Literary Award.
Yejia received her BFA Film and Media Studies from Communication University of China, and received the Diploma in Screenwriting from Beijing Film Academy. She is a dramaturg, filmmaker, and writer. Her dramaturgical works are performed at National Sawdust, Chain Theater, Under St. Marks Theater, and Frederick Loewe Theatre. Her playwriting work was featured in the New Play Festival of Cellunova at Theaterlab. She is now in a Student-Artist-Residency at Movement Lab.
4 awardees
Ms. Jinsui Song is a writer/director based in LA. She obtained her bachelor's degree in Screenwriting from Beijing Film Academy. Her graduate thesis Something Blue, supported by the Panavision New Filmmaker Program, is currently in post-production. Her film endeavor is to explore the lives of Asian/Asian-American women and the many facets of their womanhood.
Xin Jiang is a promising writer and director who is currently pursuing an MFA degree in Cinema at San Francisco State University. With previous experience in screenwriting, Xin is dedicated to showcasing Asian and Asian queer stories in his films. He advocates for his Chinese compatriots and calls for greater cohesion within the Asian American community.
Yaxing Lin, a director and producer, studies Film and TV Production at USC. Her short films, which focus on underrepresented communities and issues, have been recognized at prestigious events such as the DGA Student Awards and Outfest Film Festival. Yaxing's career goal is to create stories that espouse female aesthetics, perspectives, and values, specifically from the Asian female perspective. She aims to improve the representation of Asian women in the film industry and increase the Asian F-Rate.
Zhongyu (Robin) Wang is a Student Emmys-nominated film director and producer from the University of Southern California. Wang has brought his films to over a hundred international film festivals worldwide and is recognized for his coming-of-age Asian-themed dramas exploring the meaning of "home" and "homelessness" against the massive Asian diaspora.
1 awardee
Jiawen Han is an award-winning director who is currently completing her MFA in Directing at the prestigious UCLA graduate film school. She is a passionate female storyteller who has nuanced observations of mundane life and gentle commentary on family stories. Her goal as a filmmaker is to bring awareness to unaddressed social issues through her films; to connect and inspire the audience to self-reflection and realization; to make this world a better place.
3 awardees
Maggie has made five short films that have been selected into 38 film festivals. Her short documentary Left Behind has been selected into two Academy Awards qualifying film festivals and will be screened at the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival.
Graduated from Duke University with a BA in International Comparative Studies and History. She is currently an MFA candidate at USC School of Cinematic Arts. As a director and producer, she brings her films to more than 30 international film festivals such as Flicker Rhode Island International Film Festival, Canada Shorts, and SCAD Savannah Film Festival. The recent documentary short she produced "Unfinished Lives" (2020) is a gold medalist in the 47th Student Academy Awards. She is currently working on her thesis film "Mother in the Mist" (2021), which is a touching drama about a rural Chinese mother who tries to reunite with her baby in COVID-hit Wuhan.
Yiwei Lu currently works as an independent art curator and magazine columnist in Los Angeles while studying for her master's degree in visual anthropology at University of Southern California. She founded Yiwei Gallery after graduating from Loyola Marymount University to promote Chinese artists in the U.S.