Description
The Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF)
In 1978 ACV organized the Asian American Film Festival, the first in the U.S., a three-day program of 46 films and videos at the Henry Street Settlement on New York’s Lower Eastside. Later screening venues included New York University (1979-1984), Rosemary Theatre (1985-1995), The French Institute (1996-2001), Asia Society(2002-2008), Chelsea Clearview Cinema, School of Visual Arts, Quad Cinema and Museum of Chinese in America (2009-present). AAIFF satellite venues include Queens Museum, Cinema Arts Centre, Huntington, Brooklyn Heights Cinema, SUNY Stonybrook, Flushing Town Hall, Maysles Institute, Clearview Bergenfield 5, and Queen Library Flushing Branch.
AAIFF has provided the U.S. premieres of acclaimed film directors including Wayne Wang, Mira Nair, and Marilou Diaz-Abaya, and Ang Lee.
Over the years ACV’s curatorial vision was shaped by its programmers including Daryl Chin, Larry Chua, Somi Roi, Rajendra Roy, Norman Wang, Casey Lum, Marlina Gonzales, Minnie Hong, Vivian Huang, Roger Garcia, Diana Chiawen Lee, William Phuan, and Martha Tien.
AAIFF has screened films from over twenty countries including: Canada, China (Hong-Kong and mainland), India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Iran, Germany, England, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Cuba, Indonesia, and Bhutan.
AAIFF award categories include Emerging Director Award to a first/second time narrative and documentary feature directors, Excellence in Short Filmmaking Award, For Youth By Youth: One-To-Watch Award and Audience Choice Award-narrative and documentary features.
Since 1987 ACV has awarded the Asian American Media Award to Asian Americans who have contributed significantly to Asian American media.Previous recipients are: Wayne Wang (1987), Loni Dong (1988), Christine Choy (1989), James Yee (1990), Steven Okazaki (1991), Mira Nair (1992), Ang Lee (1993), Joan Chen (1994), Kayo Hatta and Freida Lee Mock (1995), Russell Wong (1996), Jessica Yu and Arthur Dong (1997), Michelle Yeoh (1998), Sammo Hung (1999), Andy Lau (2000), Tamlyn Tomita (2001), Marilou Diaz-Abaya (2002), and Jet Li and Maggie Cheung (2005).
The annual National Festival Tour was launched in 1982 providing the seed-stock for many of the Asian American festivals including Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, and Vancouver that have emerged in subsequent years around the country. ACV has also accomplished much to open exchange and introduce audiences to works from Asia and the Asian Diaspora. At the peak of its funding and program activity in addition to the annual AAIFF and the National Festival Tour, year-round activities included Videoscape, Children’s Film Festival and other exhibitions in film and video, media-production services for independent artists and producers in New York, publications including the quarterly media arts journal CineVue, a print and media archive, and a range of training workshops.
