Calling all Asian or Pacific Islander American filmmakers looking for a platform to showcase their work: HBO’s APA Visionaries short film competition is back for its second year, and accepting entries.
The competition invites filmmakers to “create works that explore themes of home … to address such timely issues as belonging, identity and culture through the lens of the APA experience,” according to the network.
Last year’s winners — Dinh Thai (“Monday”), Tiffany Hsu (“Wonderland”) and Jinyi Shao (“Toenail”), chosen out of more than 350 entries — premiered their shorts at the Los Angeles Pacific Film Festival in April. This competition’s three winners will do the same in 2018, see their work on HBO and win cash prizes.
“HBO Visionaries is about empowering aspiring APA filmmakers as well as their communities,” HBO’s VP of Multicultural Marketing Jackie Gagne said in a statement. “We’re looking for highly personal films that also reveal universal truths.”
Submitted films must run 8 to 12 minutes, be directed by a person of Asian or Pacific Islander descent who resides in the U.S. and be shot in or subtitled in English.
The deadline for entries is Nov. 1.
For more information on the competition, visit hbovisionaries.com.
Watch this year’s Visionaries ambassador, Leonardo Nam of HBO’s “Westworld,” introduce the competition below:
