FESTIVAL JURORS
The San Diego Asian Film Festival is a competitive film festival aiming to celebrate achievements in Asian American cinema. An independent jury of filmmakers, curators, critics, academics, and other professionals is chosen to view films and select winners in the following categories: narrative feature, documentary feature, narrative short, documentary short, and experimental short. Additionally, the jury selects a Grand Jury winner and an optional Special Jury mention.
For the ninth year, SDAFF also hosts a competition for international short films. This competition highlights some of the most innovative work produced in Asia and encompasses narrative, experimental, and documentary forms. The 2025 SDAFF Award Winners will be announced at this year’s SDAFF Awards Gala.
The 2025 SDAFF Asian American Competition Jury
Del Holton
Del Holton is a writer and programmer based in New York, with roots in the US South. They are currently a pre-doctoral fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and are pursuing a PhD in Art History at Stanford University. Most recently, they programmed CAAMFest 2025 with the Center for Asian American Media in San Francisco. Their writing appears in Film Quarterly, Screen Slate, Flash Art, Elephant Magazine, XTRA, Frontiers, and the Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art.
Chris Jesu Lee
Chris Jesu Lee is a writer (and lawyer) in New York City. He has been published in Current Affairs, The Cleveland Review of Books, The Believer, and The Metropolitan Review. His other literary and cultural essays can be found on his Substack entitled Salieri Redemption.
Celeste Wong
Celeste Wong is a lifelong film and performing arts enthusiast based in Oakland. She has worked in programming for various film festivals nationwide, including Tribeca, Palm Springs ShortFest, Atlanta Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, and San Francisco DocFest.
The 2025 SDAFF International Short Film Jury
Oggs Cruz
A corporate lawyer by profession, Oggs Cruz has contributed articles and reviews to print publications such as Businessworld, The Philippine Star, Rogue Magazine, Nang Magazine, and the Philippine Free Press. He formerly reviewed films for Rappler. He has also written articles for various film books, including The Philippine New Wave. He was selected to take part in the Berlinale Talent Press and was part of several selection committees of various film festivals, including Cinemalaya, Cinema One, and Quezon City Film Festival. He has also served as part of the jury for the Jogjakarta International Film Festival, QCinema International Film Festival, and Bangkok Short and Video Festival.
Sean Gilman
Sean Gilman is a film critic based in Tacoma, Washington. A reformed podcaster and founder and editor of Seattle Screen Scene, for the past decade he has written extensively about East Asian film for the MUBI Notebook, InReview Online, the Criterion Current, and various other sites, including his own, The Chinese Cinema. Additionally, he has produced supplements for physical media releases from the Criterion Collection, Radiance Films, Kino Lorber, Vinegar Syndrome, and Chameleon Films.
Chanel Kong
Chanel Kong is Curator of Moving Image at Hong Kong’s M+ Museum. Previous exhibitions include Hong Kong Here and Beyond, Shanshui: Echoes and Signals, and Apichatpong Weereasethakul: Primitive. Chanel organizes the year-round screening programmes at the M+ Cinema and the Grand Stair, and annual events such as the ASEAN Film Festival and the Asian Avant-Garde Film Festival. As part of the collections development, she is helping to build the Asian Avant-Garde Film Collection and oversees the M+ Restored project. Prior to M+, Chanel worked in Asia, Europe, and the US at various film festivals, media archives, and cultural organizations.
