2021 Asian World Film Festival

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) received the Angel Benefactor Award from the Asian World Film Festival (AWFF) in the festival’s closing night gala held November 11, 2021 at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. HFPA President Helen Hoehne and member Lena Basse, who served as the president of the jury for the short film category at the AWFF, accepted the award on behalf of the Association.

Four HFPA members – Lena Basse, Yukiko Nakajima, Janet Nepales and Ruben Nepales – answered that question and discussed related matters, including recent reforms to the Association, in a panel discussion presented by the Asian World Film Festival (AWFF) in conjunction with its November festival program. Rick Ambros, a media and entertainment consultant and producer, moderated the forum, part of AWFF’s series of panel discussions,  held in person at the Landmark Theatres in Los Angeles.

It’s that time of the year, when Hollywood pays renewed attention to Asian cinema thanks to the Asian World Film Festival, now celebrating its 7th edition and steadily growing thanks to the tireless efforts of West African-born, Lebanon and France-educated Georges N. Chamchoum, the Festival's Executive and Program Director.

The HFPA met Oliver Stone in Nursultan, Kazakhstan, and later at the Rome Film Fest in October to talk about his involvement in the new documentary Qazaq: History of the Golden Man, which is now showing at the Asian World Film Festival in Los Angeles. The film, available both as a feature-length version and as a six-hour series, is written, directed and produced by Igor Lopatonok, and Stone figures as the interviewer of Kazakhstan's former President, considered the founder of the country, Nursultan Nazarbayev, the larger-than-life and controversial subject of this intriguing project with the music score composed by Golden Globe nominee Carlo Siliotto.