2023 AAAFF Award Winners

Eid Mubarak - Narrative Shorts Jury Winner

We selected this film for its sumptuous cinematography, gorgeous color palette, and childhood whimsy. A captivating look at Eid Mubarak through the eyes of a child, every stylistic choice put us in the shoes of Iman as she navigates the sacrifice the must be made in the name of tradition.

A complete story from start to finish, this personal and charming film is a testament to the filmmaker’s ability to take the audience on an emotional journey in just 16 minutes.

Fremont - Narrative Feature Jury Winner

We selected this film for its quietly affecting lead performance and its comforting tone, which wraps the viewer up like a warm blanket.

A refreshing new take on the immigrant story, this story charms with its deadpan humor and strikes an emotional chord in its portrayal of loneliness.

Shot in gorgeous black-and-white with winning performances from its ensemble cast, Fremont is a slice-of-life film that makes ordinary events compelling.

DEAR CORKY - SHORT DOCUMENTARY JURY WINNER

A loving tribute to a documentarian of invaluable Asian American history and culture.

While Corky Lee’s photographs span decades of Asian Americans making social, cultural, and historical waves, the film allows the audience a glimpse into the person behind the camera, the toil of his craft, and his love for his community.

The Fall of I-Hotel - Documentary Feature Jury Winner

A timeless, tender film that demonstrates the enduring power of cinema, and how archival can be a mirror into our past, present, and future. From the endearing snapshots of the elderly Manongs, to the haunting way the camera floats through the emptied hallways, Curtis Choy’s veneration for the iconic I-Hotel is palpable from start to finish.

We also celebrate another aspect of filmmaking that can be overlooked: the restoration process, and the tremendous technical work that allows films to be appreciated decades later. It’s a story that’s more relevant now than ever — this is essential cinema of our Asian American history.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

HONORABLE MENTION: THINGS I HAVEN’T TOLD YOU YET

A beautiful personal exorcism of familial relationships that playfully toggles a full breadth of what’s possible in the cinematic language.

HONORABLE MENTION: WISDOM GONE WILD

We felt a full breadth of emotions while watching Wisdom Gone Wild.

While the subject of elderly care and dementia is always heart-wrenching, the story of Rea and her mother is one filled with love, levity, humor and theatricality.

The film is a testament to the systemic whole - how much community it takes to care for each other.

HONORABLE MENTION: BLOODY GRAVEL

A tense, high-wire act, this film drops the audience in a maelstrom of chaos and human desperation.

After an anxiety-inducing climax, its ending provokes questions long after the credits roll.

HONORABLE MENTION: STARRING JERRY AS HIMSELF

Documentary?

Fiction?

This surprising film blurs the lines of genre with an innovative approach to the truth.

A low-budget labour of love with new, exciting ideas, Starring Jerry as Himself is a riveting and emotionally resonant story that will prompt you to call your grandpa immediately afterwards.

Audience Awards

EID MUBARAK- AUDIENCE AWARD SHORT WINNER

THE GRIZZLIE TRUTH - AUDIENCE AWARD FEATURE WINNER

2023 AAAFF Jury

For each film festival, AAAFF assembles a Narrative & Documentary Jury of peers from the film and entertainment industry to select awards. Categories include jury selections for feature and short films. Short films up for jury consideration are eligible for a $250 award.

Narrative Jury

Sarah Kambe Holland

Sarah Kambe Holland is a film director working between Austin, TX and New York City. She is best known for her debut feature film, Egghead & Twinkie, for which she was also the screenwriter, co-producer, and co-editor. The film is currently screening at festivals all over the world, including TIFF Next Wave, BFI Flare, the Seattle International Film Festival, and the Florida Film Festival, where it took home the Audience Award for Best Film.

Leading up to her feature debut, Holland directed a number of narrative shorts, including the ten-minute documentary, "Lady Bikers", filmed on location in Kolkata, India. In 2019, she received the Best Directing Award from the Women Making a Scene International Film Project.

Holland makes her living by directing commercial work for clients. She loves working with emerging talent and developing multi-faceted characters, with a special focus on telling queer and Asian American stories.

jazmyne moreno

Jazmyne Moreno joined the Austin Film Society as Associate Programmer in Summer 2021. Before she joined AFS, she was a freelance film programmer.

Series she programmed and co-programmed for the Alamo Drafthouse and Austin Film Society include “Burn Hollywood Burn: The Early Films of Spike Lee,” Weird Wednesday with Laird Jimenez (Alamo Drafthouse), and “Deep End”, a monthly cult film series (AFS).

In 2019, she produced a live music and screening collaboration with Holodeck Records for RA: PATH OF THE SUN GOD for SXSW, marking the film’s US premiere. She is currently a programmer and host of the weekly series “Lates” at the Austin Film Society and Lead Programmer of the Houston Cinema Arts Festival.

Her work has been featured in The Austin Chronicle, Criterion’s The Current, and Sightlines Magazine among others.

Documentary Jury

Ái Vuong

Ái Vuong is a Vietnamese-born and Texas-bred filmmaker. She co-founded TÁPI Story in 2018, a production company that focuses on human-centered stories told from a systemic perspective with compassion, empathy and dignity.

In 2021, TÁPI Story was awarded a Silver Telly for their short film, “Remember Love”, documenting the memories of the orphaned children of the war on drugs in the Philippines. “La Cosecha,” a short documentary she produced and co-wrote, premiered at SXSW as part of the Texas Shorts Competition in 2023.

Her films have been showcased internationally, along with recent screenings at CineFestival (San Antonio, TX) and the Austin Asian American Film Festival. Ái was recently named a Tory Burch Foundation Fellow in 2023. Prior to receiving a master’s in NGO Management and Public Policy from NYU, she worked in Vietnam for 6 years on youth development and leadership. She served as the Executive Director of a local NGO in Vietnam called the Friends of Hue Foundation.

Samuel Díaz Fernández

Samuel is a Colombian-born filmmaker, TEDx speaker, and educator. In 2022, he was named a National Geographic Explorer for his upcoming short doc on Thermal Inequities and Community perceptions of heat in Austin TX. This will comprise one part of his Austin trilogy—a series of shorts that focus on the lived experience of vulnerable communities in Austin around themes of heat, food access and flooding.

In 2021, he received a Silver Telly for directing the short film, “Remember Love,” on the memories of children orphaned by the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. His films have been shown at CineFestival, Austin Asian American Film Festival, Cambodia International Film Festival, and his latest film—”La Cosecha”—had its world premiere at the SXSW film festival in 2023.

He is also the co-founder of TÁPI Story and the School of Slow Media—a documentary filmmaking training program, based in Southeast Asia, that mixes filmmaking practices with somatic methodologies and a new awareness of the ethical demands of filmmaking. He has formerly served as global coordinator for communications and advocacy for the World YMCA, and a communications consultant for the International Labour Organisation in Geneva, Switzerland.