41st Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival Announces Award Winners

May 13, 2025

LOS ANGELES ASIAN PACIFIC FILM FESTIVAL 2025 ANNOUNCES AWARD WINNERS

MONGRELS, Directed By Jerome Yoo Wins Jury Prize For Best Narrative Feature

BETWEEN GOODBYES, Directed By Jota Mun, Wins Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature

THE BOYS AND THE DONKEY, Directed By Tsering Yangjyab, Wins Golden Reel Award
For Best Narrative Short

WOULDN’T MAKE IT ANY OTHER WAY, Directed by Hao Zhou, Wins Golden Reel Award
For Best Documentary Short

Directors Xiaoxuan Han and Sungbin Moon Wins Linda Mabalot New Visions Award 

(May 15, 2025) Los Angeles, CA – Visual Communications (VC),  the first non-profit organization in the US dedicated to the honest and accurate portrayals of Asian, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander communities through media arts announced the award winners for the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF) – the 41st edition of their film festival, also known as the VC FILM FEST.  The largest Festival of its kind in Southern California, LAAPFF celebrated 7 days of film presentations and panel discussions; centering the storytelling power from Asian, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander communities, and encouraged audiences to activate that power into action at home to build solidarity with organizations that people of the global majority.

Jurors from different regions around the world were able to participate in this year’s Festival.

In the Narrative Features section, jurors Melissa Bisagni, Susan E. Kim, and Iram Parveen Bilal bestowed the Grand Jury Award for Best Feature to MONGRELS directed by Jerome Yoo.

Jerome Yoo (Director, MONGRELS). (Photo By Jason Tiangco/LAAPFF)

The jury also gave a Special Recognition award to MOLOKA’I BOUND, directed by Alika Tengan and BITTERROOT, directed by Vera Brunner-Sung.

In the Documentary Feature section, jurors Bryan Griffin, Vincent N. Pham, and Jin Yoo-Kim awarded BETWEEN GOODBYES, directed by Jota Mun with the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature. 

BETWEEN GOODBYES team (L-R): Jota Mun (Director), Ruth Jeon (Participant), Samantha Futerman and Zoe Sua Cho (Producer). (Photo By Sthanlee B. Mirador/LAAPFF)

The jury also gave a special recognition to YEAR OF THE CAT, directed by Tony Nguyen and TE PUNA ORA (THE SOURCE OF LIFE), directed by Virgine Tetoofa.

The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival is proud to be an Academy Award® qualifying Festival for the Short Film Awards. Recipient(s) of the Film Festival’s Golden Reel Award for Narrative/Animated Short Film will be eligible to submit in the Animated Short Film/Live-Action Short Film category of the Academy Awards® and recipient(s) of the Film Festival’s Golden Reel Award for Documentary Short Film will be eligible to submit in the Documentary Short Film category of the Academy Awards®. In the Shorts section, jurors So Young Shelly Yo, Set Hernandez, and Mariquita “Micki” Davis gave the Golden Reel Award for Best Narrative Short to THE BOYS AND THE DONKEY, directed by Tsering Yangjyab and the Golden Reel Award Winner for Best Documentary Short to WOULDN’T MAKE IT ANY OTHER WAY, directed by Hao Zhou.

The jury gave Special Recognitions to the Narrative shorts VOX HUMANA, directed by Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan and VAHA’A | THE DISTANCE BETWEEN, directed by Pingi Moli.

The jury also gave a Special Recognition to the Documentary shorts WE WERE THE SCENERY, directed by Christopher Radcliff and TO DANCE AGAIN, directed by MG Evangelista.

Linda Mabalot New Visions Award: CROW, STARFISH AND UNICORN, directed by Xiaoxuan Han

Linda Mabalot New Visions Award: AFTER THE STORM, directed by Sungbin Moon.

LAAPFF also announced 5 more award winners, that celebrate the passion and of the next generation of storytellers.

Former Visual Communications Executive Director Linda Mabalot is lovingly remembered for her passion and commitment to nurturing and developing emerging Asian Pacific filmmakers. In that spirit, the Linda Mabalot New Directors/New Visions Award is presented to two short films that demonstrates an innovative and creative use of cinematic language. Previous recipients include TAMA TU (dir. Taika Waititi), PILGRIMAGE (dir. Tadashi Nakamura), PAULINA (dir. Caylee So), MISS WORLD (dir. Georgia Fu), DRIFTING (dir. Hanxiong Bo) and F1-100 (dir. Emory Chao Johnson). This year’s Linda Mabalot New Directors/New Visions Award is given to CROW, STARFISH AND UNICORN, directed by Xiaoxuan Han and AFTER THE STORM, directed by Sungbin Moon.

Emerging Filmmaker Award for Narrative Feature: Jinho Myung, director of SOFTSHELL

Emerging Filmmaker Award for Documentary Feature: Vicky Du, director of LIGHT OF THE SETTING SUN

The Emerging Filmmaker Awards are given to Narrative Feature and Documentary Feature filmmakers who have shown amazing promise as our future filmmakers and storytellers. Filmmakers with their first or second feature film are eligible for the award. This year’s recipients are:

• Jinho Myung for SOFTSHELL

• Vicky Du for LIGHT OF THE SETTING SUN

THIRD ACT – Tadashi Nakamura (Director), Robert A. Nakamura, Karen Ishizuka, “Prince” Paulo Nakamura, Cindy Sangalang and Malaya Nakamura. (Photo By Sthanlee B. Mirador/LAAPFF)

SPECIAL RECOGNITION – GENERATIONS OF LIGHT
The Festival recognizes THIRD ACT as a film that continues the vision and intentions of Visual Communications. We honor the work of our Founding Director Robert A. Nakamura who sparked Visual Communications 55 years ago, and the light that his son, Tad Nakamura, carries forward for future generations.

Visual Communications continues its legacy as the first non-profit organization in the US dedicated to the honest and accurate portrayals of the Asian Pacific American peoples, communities, and heritage through the media arts. Audiences are encouraged to check out more films online in the VC Archives, one of the largest photographic and moving image archives on Asian Pacific experiences in America archives.vcmedia.org/