Announcing the 2019 SDAFF Award Winners

2019 SDAFF Award Winners (L-R): Leslie Tai (Best Documentary Short – MY AMERICAN SURROGATE); Lana Lin  (Best Documentary Feature – THE CANCER JOURNALS, REVISITED); Daniel Chew (Best Narrative Short – FIRST); Andrew Ahn (Best Narrative Feature – DRIVEWAYS; James Sweeney (Grand Jury Award – STRAIGHT UP)

The 20th San Diego Asian Film Festival (SDAFF) announced the winners of its Asian American competition categories at the SDAFF Awards Gala held on Saturday, November 9, 2019. Top honors went to STRAIGHT UP for Grand Jury Award, DRIVEWAYS for Best Narrative Feature, and THE CANCER JOURNALS, REVISITED for Best Documentary Feature. Winners were selected by an independent jury of filmmakers, curators, critics, academics, and other professionals.

Awards were distributed in the following feature film categories:
Grand Jury, Narrative Feature, Documentary Feature, George C. Lin Emerging Filmmaker, and Special Jury Mention.

Awards were also given in the short film categories:
Narrative, Documentary, Animation.

See below for the full list of winners.

ASIAN AMERICAN COMPETITION JURY AWARDS

GRAND JURY AWARD
James Sweeney’s STRAIGHT UP

BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
Andrew Ahn’s DRIVEWAYS

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Lana Lin’s THE CANCER JOURNALS, REVISITED

BEST NARRATIVE SHORT
Micaela Durand & Daniel Chew’s FIRST

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Leslie Tai’s MY AMERICAN SURROGATE

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Danski Tang’s UMBILICAL 

INTERNATIONAL SHORT
Nao Yoshigai’s GRAND BOUQUET

SPECIAL JURY MENTION (chosen from any category)
Nadia Shihab’s JADDOLAND

 

AWARDS SELECTED BY THE SAN DIEGO ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL

GEORGE C. LIN EMERGING FILMMAKER AWARD
Miko Revereza’s NO DATA PLAN

AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER
Diane Paragas’ YELLOW ROSE