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Asian Americans in Hollywood gathered to honor their own at the 18th annual Unforgettable Gala this weekend at Beverly Hills, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
Put on by Character Media (formerly Kore Asian Media ), a who’s who of Asian American entertainers featured in 2019 came together to celebrate the icons in the industry.
Awkwafina won the best actor/actress award for The Farewell, the film’s Lulu Wang won in the director category and its entire cast received the Vanguard Award.
“It’s almost rebirth time,” said Tzi Ma who played Awkwafina’s father in The Farewell. “We’re not stuck with all the flash and the special effects. To be able to tell a story with no thrills and just people talking, and 80 percent in a foreign language, something’s going on.”
Other winners, according to Deadline, included Nico Santos for NBC’s Superstore, Charles Melton as breakout star for The Sun is Also a Star, Maya Erskine as breakout star in TV for Hulu’s Pen 15, Ali Wong for comic performance in Netflix’ Always Be My Maybe, and Bobby Hundreds as digital influencer.
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The entire cast of Fresh Off the Boat won the Legacy Award which wraps up its sixth and final season February 21.
“It seems to have inspired other people to tell their stories, one story can’t represent a whole,” Constance Wu of Fresh Off the Boat said to The Hollywood Reporter. Wu said she felt a mixture of sadness that the show was ending, but also happiness that it inspired other stories to be told.
Writer Adele Lim who won for Crazy Rich Asians last year reminded people what the night is all about.
“We have all these stories that we’ve been sitting on and burying because we’ve been told over decades that it’s not gonna sell. We’ve seen over the few years that it’s simply not true. That’s a bigger truism we can take to the bank.”
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