By Jana Monji
The year 2024 has been a good year Asian Americans in film and television and going into awards season, there have already been some Asian Americans winning major categories. The big question is: Will California-born director Jon M. Chu be nominated for a Best Director Oscar for Wicked in 2025?
Chu received a nomination from the Critics Choice Awards, but not the Golden Globes. Chu was among the Asian Americans who have already collected awards but the first directors to win awards this season were for documentaries.
At the 9th Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards on November 10, Vietnamese American director Bao Nguyen’s documentary The Greatest Night in Pop was up for four awards. The film about the composing, arranging and strategic planning behind the fundraising pop song, We Are the World won Best Historical Documentary Feature.
The Netflix film was also nominated for three Prime Time Creative Arts Emmy Awards including Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program. The film is also nominated for a Grammy Award (Best Music Film) (2 February 2025).
Detroit-born Korean American Sue Kim’s US documentary film The Last of the Sea Women also picked up the Best Science/Nature Documentary and the Best Cinematography awards (Eunsoo Cho, Justin Turkowski and Iris Ng) for Apple TV+ at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards.
The film is about the decline of the haenyeo, a community of women who dive in the ocean at Jeju (South Korea) to collect seafood to feed their communities. The film premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and was awarded the NETPAC Prize.
The film also won the AAPI Cinema & Television documentary award at the third annual Critics Choice Awards Celebration of AAPI Cinema & Television ( November 12).
At the Hollywood Creative Alliance awards on December 8 held at the Taglyan Complex in Los Angeles, Jon M. Chu won Best Director for Wicked, and Wicked went on to pick up a Best Picture and Best Actress (Cynthia Erivo) and Best Supporting Actress (Ariana Grande). Wicked had also been nominated for Best Cast Ensemble, but lost to Saturday Night.
Dev Patel’s directorial debut, Monkey Man, won Best Action or Science Fiction Feature for his revenge action film that he also starred in. In the film, Patel’s character, the “Kid,” is orphaned and earns money by wrestling in the ring wearing a rubber monkey mask. Monkey Man had also been nominated for Best First Feature Film but lost to Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour.
In January, the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards also have Asian American nominees.
The Golden Globe Awards ceremony is scheduled for this Sunday, January 5. Wicked is nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Cinematic and Box Office Achievement and Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, but Chu isn’t nominated for best director. Asian Indian Payal Kapadia is for her All We Imagine is Light. Kapadia’s film is also nominated for Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language.
Moana 2 out of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures is nominated for Best Motion Picture – Animated.
Television series up for Golden Globes include Prime Video’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Hulu’s Shōgun, and Netflix’s Squid Game for Best Television Series – Drama. From Shōgun, Anna Sawai is nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series – Drama; Hiroyuki Sanada, for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Series – Drama and Tadanobu Asano for Best Supporting.
Shōgun won 18 Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards earlier this year and became the first Japanese-language series to win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series
Squid Game (Season 1) was the first non-English television series to receive and win Primetime Emmy Awards and won six out of 14 in 2022. The first season also received three Golden Globe nominations.
For Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television, Ali Wong and Ramy Youssef are both nominated for their respective shows.
Wicked has 11 nominations for the Critics Choice Awards which will be held on January 12. That includes Best Picture and Best Director. The Payal Kapadia written and directed drama out of India, All We Imagine as Light won the Grand Prix at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in May and is nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.
Didi has one nomination for Best Young Actor/Actress: Isaac Wang.
For television shows, Hulu’s Shōgun is nominated for six awards including Best Drama series, Best Actor (Hiroyuki Sanada), Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Tadanobu Asano and Takehiro Hira) and Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Moeka Hoshi). The Apple TV+ series Pachinko has two nominations, including Best Foreign Language Series and Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for Anna Sawai who is also nominated for Best Actress in a Drama Series for Shōgun.
However, the adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Sympathizer, only received one nomination: Robert Downey Jr. None of the actors of Asian descent received nominations.
Other CCA nominations are Prime Video’s Citadel: Honey Bunny (India) and Netflix’s Squid Game (South Korea) for Best Foreign Language Series .
Two Asian Americans are nominated for Best Comedy Special: Ali Wong: Single Lady (Netflix) and Egyptian American Ramy Youssef: More Feelings (HBO/Max).
Two Asian American-led series that came out too late for some award nominations were the US remake of an Australian 2011 dark rom-com Laid and the adaptation of Charles Yu’s 2020 novel Interior Chinatown. Interior Chinatown premiered on Hulu on 19 November 2024. The series follows a police procedural background character named Willis Wu (Jimmy O. Yang) who slowly works his way up from Generic Asian Man to Tech Guy to Kung Fu Guy and the family secrets he learns along the way.
Laid stars Stephanie Hsu as a 33-year-old party planner in Seattle who realizes that all of her former sex partners are dying. Developed by Nahnatchka Khan and Sally Bradford McKenna, the series premiered on the Peacock on 19 December 2024, just in time to confront your holiday dating woes. Khan created and was the executive producer of Fresh Off the Boat and Young Rock.
Interior Chinatown was created by Yu, and Yu, Taika Waititi and Dan Lin are among the executive producers. The series star, comedian Jimmy O. Yang, did win a Breakthrough Actor for Television Award at the Critics Choice Awards AAPI Celebration of Cinema & Television.
There are still nominations that haven’t been announced yet. The 2025 Directors Guild of America Awards won’t announce feature film, documentary and television nominations until January 7. The DGA Awards Ceremony is February 8. The Screen Actors Guild Awards announces nominations on January 8 and the ceremony will take place on February 23. The Academy Award nominations won’t be announced until February 10. The 97th Academy Awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, March 2.
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