2022 Jury Members
FESTIVAL JURY
Truong is an award-winning actress, model, singer, entrepreneur and philanthropist. She has starred in and/or produced over 30 film and television productions and is best known for her roles in Rise and Abduction. After graduating with a major in Advertising and Marketing in Singapore, she started her business career by establishing Anh Viet advertising agency in 2006, one of the first advertising agencies in Vietnam, which has achieved considerable success. In 2015, she founded the Transnational Art Entertainment Co., Ltd. with her partner, Janet Ngo with the company now focusing on producing the historical blockbuster project Truong Vuong - Shekings. In addition, Truong is the CEO of AD Film Company, specializing in the field of film production and talent training, as well as President of NOVA E&M, one of the largest entertainment and media companies in Vietnam.Truong has also won many prestigious awards domestically and internationally for her unremitting efforts as a top model and Vietnamese A-list actress.
TRUONG NGOC ANH (PRESIDENT)
Janet Hsieh is a television presenter, actor, published author of ten books, and concert violinist. She is the host of Discovery Travel and Living’s longest running travel show in Asia, Fun Taiwan, which has spawned several spin offs including Fun USA, Fun Asia, Fun Taiwan: All-Stars, Fun Taiwan Challenge, and The Aqua Challenge. As an actress, Janet has starred in several movies, independent films, VR films and television series on Netflix, HBO, Disney+, and local networks. One of her favorite roles has been as the Mandarin voice of Princess Anna for Disney’s Frozen. Currently an ambassador for over a dozen international brands and featured on the cover of numerous globally recognized magazines, Janet hopes to continue utilizing.her public image and active social media to promote environmental awareness, mental health issues, and women’s health.
JANET HSIEH
Jongman Kim is an actor based in Los Angeles, CA and Seoul, South Korea. He has appeared in numerous Korean movies including the Netflix movie Yacha (2022) and Idol (2019), which premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. He also starred in the independent feature film Clytaemnestra (2021), which premiered at BAMcinemaFest in Brooklyn, NY and is streaming on MUBI streaming service (2022). His television credits include a recurring guest role on the Netflix series Love (created by Judd Apatow), as well as on ABC's Speechless and FX's You are the Worst. He also appeared as Elvis in Apple's worldwide Iphone commercial, and starred in MGM International's Bellagio Hotel and Casino national campaign, which won a 2022 CANNES Silver Lion Award. He is currently starring in the music video for Son Lux, and is the composer of A24's feature film Everything Everywhere All at Once. He will also star in the upcoming TV show Western Avenue, a DeJong Film production, which tells the story of Korean immigrant filmmakers in LA.
JONGMAN KIM
Arawinda Kirana is an actress and filmmaker born in Indonesia. Her breakout performance in YUNI (2021) was critically-acclaimed, and won her seven Best Actress awards from various international festivals, as well as the Platform Prize from Toronto International Film Festival. Festival critics commended her performance as an "Engaging titular heroine" and "Sublime", with Variety quoting "Excellent, performed with an unfussy and convincing naturalism", and Paste Magazine stating that "Kirana's portrayal of that untenable position is desperately moving and magnetic". Karina's love for film goes beyond being in front of the camera, and within the past 5 years she has produced several humanitarian documentaries and short student films. She is currently studying Film and Television Production through a scholarship at the University of Southern California - School of Cinematic Arts.
ARAWINDA KIRANA
Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) which votes on and presents the annual Golden Globe awards. She has been a member of the HFPA since 2008 and has held various positions in association as an officer and board member. Based in Los Angeles, Hanet is a University of Santo Tomas (UST) Journalism cum laude graduate who was recognized by the Filipina Women’s Network (FWN) as one of the “100 Most Influential Filipino Women in the U.S.” in 2012 and one of the “100 Most Influential Filipino Women in the World” in 2013. She is a co-author of the first FWN book entitled DISRUPT: Filipina Women: Proud. Loud. Leading Without A Doubt. and published her first coffee table book FASHION. Filipino. Hollywood. The World. which is a first of its kind book, since it highlights Filipino fashion designers and their creations for the Hollywood red carpet and around the world. The paperback edition of the book is now available on Amazon.com. Janet received the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism from President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. at The Outstanding Filipinos in America (TOFA) Awards held on September 16, 2022 in New York and she has been a consistent winner of the Los Angeles Press Club’s annual Southern California Journalism Awards and the annual National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. Janet is a regular Hollywood Correspondent for GMA-7 News Online, where she has a weekly column entitled Hollywood Insider, and GMA-7 TV Network. She is also a columnist for the Filipina American News.
JANET NEPALES
Pitof started his career in 1976 as photographer, assistant director and editor for films and commercials, and as a pioneer of digital imaging in France, he made his debut in visual effects in 1986. A Co-founder of Duran Duboi, the leading digital postproduction company in France, Pitof has worked on commercials, videos and feature films for acclaimed directors such as Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Lars Von Trier, Wim Wenders, Luc Besson among many others. In 1994, he won the Technical Grand Prize for visual effects at the Cannes Film Festival for his work on Dead Tired, and went on to direct commercials and short films, most notably A Tribute to Jessie Owens and Carl Lewis, for which he won the Gold Podium medal at MIFED in 1996 and the Gold Teapot medal at Imagina the same year. In 1997, Pitof took on the role of second unit director for Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien: Resurrection, and consequently won second prize for visual effects at Imagina that year. It was Pitof’s third collaboration with Jeunet after working together on the Jeunet-Caro films Delicatessen and City of Lost Children. In September 2001, Pitof's feature film directorial debut Vidocq, starring Gerard Depardieu and Guillaume Canet, premiered in France and was the first feature film ever made in High Definition. It was an international commercial success and garnered many awards including five honors: The Citizen Kane Award, Best Film, Best Director, Best Visual Effects, Best Music, and Best Makeup from the Catalonian International Film Festival in Sitges, Spain. Pitof went on to make his Hollywood debut in 2003, directing Catwoman, starring Halle Berry and Sharon Stone, for Warner Bros. During 2008, while developing and shooting projects with major producers in Hollywood, he was asked to help with the development and pre-production of an epic effect-driven feature film in Beijing, China. Recently he co-produced three feature films in Los Angeles and produced a 10’ by 10 episode Mobile-ReadySeries for Studio Plus, a French studio pioneer in mobile content for Vivendi, and in 2019 co-founded 6th Sense VR, a company developing, producing and distributing VR content for Well-Being.
PITOF
Bryan is a screenwriter from the Garden State of New Jersey. He dropped out of college to make his first feature film, A Million Miles, which he wrote and directed at the age of 22. He later moved to Los Angeles in 2001 to pursue his career but struggled to find his way, working in bars and restaurants for the next several years. Finally, his screenplay Demolition landed on the Blacklist, an annual survey of the "most-liked" motion picture screenplays not yet produced, which was eventually directed by the late, Jean-Marc Vallee. It would sadly be Jean-Marc's fnal film, although Bryan worked closely on a number of projects with Vallee from 2015 until his untimely death in 2021. In between, he wrote scripts for many producers and studios around town and his adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' The Choice was produced by Lionsgate in 2016. Bryan is currently in the final stages of development for the upcoming limited series at HBO, Gorilla and the Bird.
BRYAN SIPE
HFPA JURY
Yong Chavez is the Hollywood TV correspondent of ABS-CBN News and TFC, the biggest global Filipino media company and recently became a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Since 2005, she has written and produced TV and online stories about Hollywood’s biggest stars while, spotlighting Filipinos and Asians making their mark in the entertainment industry. She was the first TV reporter from the Philippines to present red-carpet coverage at the Academy Awards, Primetime Emmys, and the SAG Awards.Yong was also the only broadcast journalist from a Philippine network to carry out live interviews of historic first-Filipino winners such as Darren Criss at the SAG Awards and Emmys, as well as H.E.R. at the Academy Awards. Apart from covering A-list talents, she covers underrepresented talents, particularly Filipinos and Asians making their mark in the entertainment industry and documents their struggles and successes while advocating for their inclusion and making sure that their stories are not left untold.
YONG CHAVEZ (PRESIDENT)
C-Tru is a Filipino-American award winning rapper, singer-songwriter, music producer, and entertainment executive from California. He stands for diversity and inclusion and uses music as a platform to advance positive change in the world. With a growing reputation as the go-to person for high profile music projects, in 2017 he collaborated with rap icon DMX on the track “The Dog in Me”. The video has accumulated a million plus views on YouTube and was Gold certified in Europe. C-Tru has had another hit record with his song with hip hop legend Snoop Dogg, “California Party”, and with millions of views on YouTube, it has had music placements on TV and in films. Helping to lead a movement of AAPI empowerment, in 2021 he partnered with ‘Joy Ruckus Club’ (the largest virtual Asian music festival) for a series of unique concerts that gave back to the communities and businesses affected by anti-Asian hate crimes. As VP of Music/Entertainment at AsianNet Media, C-Tru works to empower creatives and artists by bridging Asian culture and art with U.S. entertainment. Having collaborated with numerous multi-million dollar companies, entrepreneurs and superstar music artists, his comprehensive experience in the entertainment industry enables him to bring projects to life.
C-TRU
Sam Kadi is an award winning Syrian born-American filmmaker based in Santa Barbara, California. Sam is the director, writer and producer of the critically acclaimed feature drama, The Citizen, which has won multiple awards and was named one of the “Best 10 Films of 2013” by Examiner.com. Sam's recent war-zone documentary Little Gandhi was an official selection for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2017 Oscars, and he is the producer of the upcoming feature animation Lamya’s Poem about the celebrated 13th century poet, Rumi. He has been recognized by the prestigious Cinema For Peace organization for raising awareness of human rights issues through film, and was asked to speak on the same subject before the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands. Sam is also a TEDx speaker, a juror for multiple film festivals, and a member of the Directors Guild of America, where he serves on the Guild Asian American committee.
SAM KADI
Long Nguyen, born in Nha-Trang, Vietnam, is a veteran actor best known for his roles in the films Seven Psychopaths (2012), Actress Wanted, (2018), Six Days Seven Nights (1998), Heaven and Earth (1993), Journey from the Fall (2006) and Could You Please Repeat That (2022) as well as recurring roles in TV series Lodge 49, NCIS: Los Angeles and This is Us. He has also won a number of awards throughout his career, including the Jury Award for Best Actor (Journey from the Fall) at the Newport Beach Film Festival.
LONG NGUYEN
Minnie Nguyen, known as Mi Minh, is the founder & CEO at WDA Entertainment. Starting out as a professional child actor in Vietnam in 2007, her career took off after she played the lead role in hit Vietnamese musical television show Hat Ca Benh Bong, where she co-starred alongside many other Vietnamese A-list stars. After the show’s success, Minnie continued to take on lead roles for various Vietnamese television shows and feature films. At the height of her career, Minnie decided to leave the spotlight to pursue her education abroad after recognizing the potential that Vietnamese cinema can offer. She participated in a highly selective performing arts program in Vancouver, Canada, led by award-winning Canadian educator and politician Jack Trovato. Later on, Minnie attended the prestigious School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, majoring in Film & Television Production. During this time, she shifted her career path to producing and directing. Additionally, she dedicated the rest of her time to provide mentorship on films and entertainment for young filmmakers, as well as leading creative programs that help families in need for non-profit organizations. In 2018, Minnie founded WDA Entertainment whose mission is to guide and provide a supportive platform for young Asian-American filmmakers and artists who have the courage to dream. Furthermore, she is committed to direct and produce passion projects that advocate positive changes in society.
MINNIE NGUYEN
Miyuki Matsunaga is an award-winning Japanese actress, voice actor and performing artist from Japan, currently based in Los Angeles. She has worked on several films, TV shows, musicals, event stages and workshops, and the Netflix production Day Shift, in which she stars as Momoko, recently hit the top of the streaming charts. Miyuki has also appeared in the Warner Brothers' movie Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, played the lead role in Midori in Hawaii on Amazon Prime and had roles in Tales of the Valley of the Wind and 1000 Ways to Die. In addition Miyuki is a Founder and CEO of 501(c)(3) organization Wave Studio, a performing arts school/healing studio in Torrance, California, serving Japanese communities around the world.
MIYUKI MATSUNAGA