Congratulations to the winning films for our 6th annual APFF!
Audience Award
Joss Lotuses to Grandma
Stefie Gan ‘22, director
Jury Award
The Unreachable Star
Sharon Park ’17, director & producer
The USC Asian Pacific Film Fest (APFF) is a collaborative project between students and alumni to highlight Asian Pacific Islander (API) cinema and filmmakers from the University of Southern California. USC APFF seeks to showcase short films that are produced, written, directed and/or starring API Trojans, as well as films that address topics of interest to the API community. The festival also serves to highlight API Trojans in the entertainment industry.
All proceeds from the event will go toward the Jon M. Chu APAA Cinematic Arts Scholarship Fund. This scholarship is awarded to USC School of Cinematic Arts undergraduate students whose creative work demonstrates a commitment to telling stories about the API community.
Host and Jury
Host
Derek Mio ‘o4 is an actor who began modeling and acting in commercials while studying film production at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Soon after earning his BA in 2004, he landed a recurring role on the ABC Family series Greek, as well as guest-starring roles on The Good Wife, House, CSI and Hawaii Five-o. His other credits include the Netflix anthology series Medal of Honor, which was executive produced by Robert Zemeckis 73, and the lead in the second season of AMC’s The Terror. Mio has also performed stand-up at the Improv, The Laugh Factory, The Comedy Store and, most recently, on Zoom.
Jury
Basco Siblings The Basco family have been recognized by the State of California, City of Artesia and Cerritos, and named ‘The First Filipino Entertainment Family’ by the City of Los Angeles. They star together in The Fabulous Filipino Brothers now on Hulu.
Arianna Basco (Lady Basco) is a single mom, curator of words, and believer of dreams. She authored the novella Palms Up. Arianna directed and starred in the short Glimmer with Rosario Dawson; co-wrote and starred in The Fabulous Filipino Brothers; produced and starred in the upcoming My First Horror Film; and is in post-production for Heartstorm as a co-producer, co-writer, and lead. Arianna also founded the arts organization Palms Up Academy.
Darion Basco co-produced, co-wrote and starred in The Fabulous Filipino Brothers. He was proud to play Filipino labor hero, Larry Itliong, in Cesar Chavez and will be in
Francis Dela Torre’s East of Western with his brothers for release later this year.
Derek Basco is the eldest of The Fabulous Filipino Brothers. He has been acting for over 30 years and can be seen in Disney+’s Obi Wan Kenobi series as the new saloon owner on Tatooine. He is also known for portraying Detective Keno on Paramount+’s
Mayor of Kingstown.
Dionysio Basco is a long time vet of the entertainment industry. He was a series regular on NBC’s City Guys and can seen as Poppy’s father in AppleTV+’s Mythic Quest. Dionysio co-produced, co-wrote and starred in The Fabulous Filipino Brothers.
Past Winners
2017 Asian Pacific Film Festival Photo Gallery
Thomas Percy Kim
2022 Jury Award – Director/Writer, BUSAN, 1999
An expecting Korean-American woman returns to her mother’s rustic home. They bathe and scrub each other, searching for reconnection and redemption.
Bruce Chiu
2022 Audience Award – Director/Writer, Imperfectly complete
Lucy has been taking care of Owen, a blind guitarist she has admired for years. When Owen is about to get his vision back, Lucy faces the struggle of whether to reveal her true identity to Owen.
Tiffany Lin
2021 Jury Award – Director, Carrie Fisher is Dead
A young boy acquires a goldfish named Carrie Fisher. Then she dies.
Kevin Ung
2021 Audience Award – Director, Refrigerate After Opening
A man who is down on his luck, find a second shot at a life when he buys himself a magical refrigerator.
Shange “Z” Zhang
2020 Jury Award – Director/Producer, The Five Minutes
A businessman in mourning uses a special telephone booth to have a final conversation with his recently deceased wife in the afterlife.
Omar Al Dakheel
2020 Audience Award – Writer/Director, Ablution
Waleed washes his disabled father Khaled five times a day for Muslim prayer. But when Waleed’s sexuality is revealed, both father and son are torn between religion, duty and self.
Bruce Chiu
2019 Jury Award – Director, Sunset Sunrise
Owing to the self-condemnation of not being a good mother, Lily, a traditional Chinese woman struggles to come to terms with her son’s sexuality as her attempt to “change” him ultimately backfires.
Kalyan Sura
2019 Audience Award – Writer/Director/VFX Supervisor, The Lie Game
A desperate computer scientist struggling to fund her anti-depression AI application faces her toughest challenge yet.
Eleanor Cho
2017 Audience Award – Director, Joseon’s Bride
Joseon’s Bride is a period piece following a young Korean bride who is trying to immigrate to America to escape from the dangers of Japanese colonialism.
Isaac Deol
2017 Jury Award – Writer/Director, Warm Sweets
Long, the son of Chinese immigrant Linda must decide whether to fulfill his own dreams and move away for college or stay in South Los Angeles and take over his Mother’s bakery.