By Maria Esteves – August 1, 2016

The 39th Asian American International Film Festival 2016 (AAIFF16) Awards Ceremony presented by executive director John C. Woo, AAIFF, honoring the best independent cinema and emerging directors by Asian and Asian Americans commenced Saturday, July 30, 8PM, at the Museum of Moving Image (MOMI), Queens, New York. TOTO, directed by John Paul Su is recipient of the Audience Award.

The Closing Night New York City Premiere of FRONT COVER, directed by Raymond Yeung, post screening Q&A with director Yeung and actor James Chen and closing gala reception immediately followed the awards ceremony. FRONT COVER Opens Friday, August 5th at Cinemas Village East, NYC.

The Asian American International Film Festival founded Asian Cinevision, Inc. (ACV) in 1987, is a national media arts organization that annually presents independent cinema by Asian and Asian Americans, panel discussions, special events, screenplay competition readings and gala receptions. ACV staff members include John C. Woo, Judy Lei, Haisong Li and Kevin Bang.

This year’s jurors were Aseem Chhabra (shorts), Elizabeth Lo (for youth by youth), Fawzia Mirza (shorts), Kevin Scullin (screenplay), Kristof Deak (for youth by youth), Mansee Kong (shorts), Mark Columbus (for youth by youth), Miao Wang (documentary feature), Mikha Grumet (screenplay), Minnie Li (screenplay), Ronny Chieng (shorts), Stephen Maing (documentary feature) and Ursula Liang (documentary feature).

AAIFF16 Audience Award winner, director John Paul Su for TOTO.

The 39th AAIFF winners by category are:

Audience Award

TOTO, directed by John Paul Su

Best Emerging Director

RUBAIYAT HOSSAIN for Under Construction

Best Emerging Documentary Director

MICHAEL SIV for Daze of Justice

Best Short

FATA MORGANA, directed by Amelie Wen

Best Documentary Short

FAIRY TALE, directed by Rongfei Guo

One To Watch Award

SEARCHING FOR BONG, directed by Ha Rim Jeong, Ji Yeon Lee and Gun Sik Park (Documentary Short, Youth Vision)

MOMMY GOODBYE, directed by Hongzhi Liu (Short, Youth Vision)

Screenplay Competition Finalist

LESLIE LYSHKOV for The Abolitionists