Year of the Cat directed by Tony Nguyen walked away with the Audience Award at the 43rd CAAMFest.
Slumlord Millionaire, directed by Steph Ching & Ellen Martinez won the Documentary Competition and Mongrels, directed by Jerome Yoo won the Narrative Competition Award.
CAAMFest took place May 8-11, 2025, opening with Third Act, a documentary by Tadashi Nakamura about his father Bob Nakamura; and closed with a sold out showing of Great Performance’s Yellow Face, a Tony-nominated Broadway play that follows a fictionalized version of playwright David Henry Hwang, as he joins Asian American protesters speaking out against the casting of a white actor as the Eurasian lead of Miss Saigon – a real-life controversy in the 1990s – only to find that when it comes time for him to cast his next play, he makes the same mistake by casting a white actor as his lead, thinking he is multiracial Asian.
The festival brought the community together to showcase and celebrate stories from Asian America and beyond. “All of us coming together like this, it makes hope all the more possible,” says CAAM Executive Director Don Young. “Even at this time when the arts and public media are under threat of funding cuts, the audience at CAAMFest is proof that people care about the stories from Asian America.”
CAAMFEST 2025 Award Winners
CAAMFEST 2025 Ready, Set, Pitch! Winner
Winner: Manish Khanal for his project Sukha
Jury Statement: “First off, we the jury would like to acknowledge the tremendous performances by all three pitch participants; they made it incredibly hard for us to make a decision. They are all stars on the rise and deserve the funding they need to make their poignant films a reality.
We selected the pitch that commanded our attention with an impressive precision in clarity and with undeniable passion for their project, and participants involved. This film is both personal and universal, as it shines a much needed light on immigrant communities and explores what happens after one achieves the American Dream. What then? We were especially impressed how this project beautifully explores aging with dignity and desire.
This film is a perfect reflection of the type of bold work CAAM supports and exhibits and because of its abundance of heart and love, it’s the ideal story we need in the tumultuous times we live in. It is our (lasting) pleasure to announce we have selected the Sukha by Manish Khanal.”
InspirASIAN Award
Undergraduate Winner: On My Road to Dharma, directed by Yihuan Zhang
A documentary follows De Hong, a monk who has been teaching meditation in prisons in California for ten years, and explores what motivates him to practice in such a way.
Graduate Winner: A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers, directed by Birdy Wei-ting Hung
Taiwan, 1980s. A hot summer day, watermelon juice, and teenage girl Ming’s sexual awakening with her celluloid fantasies. Shot on 16mm.
CAAMFEST 2025 Audience Award
Audience Award Winner: Year of the Cat, directed by Tony Nguyen
Year of the Cat follows filmmaker Tony Nguyen on an extraordinary quest to solve the mystery of his father, lost in the chaos of the Fall of Saigon 50 years ago. Crafted as an investigative home movie, this intensely raw documentary weaves together moments of humor and heartache, offering an intimate look at how the children of refugees are shaped by war and loss. As Tony delves into his family’s history, the film reveals the emotional lengths we go to in confronting the ghosts of the past—and the possibility of healing as we reclaim and transform our futures. This is a CAAM-funded film.
CAAMFest 2025 Documentary Competition
Documentary Feature Winner: Slumlord Millionaire, directed by Steph Ching & Ellen Martinez
In New York City’s most quickly gentrifying neighborhoods, a group of fearless residents, activists, and nonprofit attorneys fight corrupt landlords for the basic human right to a home. This film follows the story of the Bravo family who have endured leaks, mold, infestations and harassment and been in a legal battle with their landlord for 15 years; Janina Davis, a former supermodel who is reclaiming her Brooklyn brownstone after a deed theft scam; Mr. Chen, a resident of Manhattan Chinatown who fears the construction of four luxury towers might destroy his historic community; and Moumita Ahmed whose Queens City Council race was viciously targeted by billionaire real estate developers. All four stories are interwoven throughout the film, clearly exposing how interconnected systems give power to the real estate industry and contribute to the human toll of gentrification.
CAAMFest 2025 Narrative Competition
Narrative Feature Winner: Mongrels, directed by Jerome Yoo
In the summer of 1991, a Canadian prairie town finds itself plagued by an unsettling rise in the population of feral dogs. In desperate need for a remedy, Gwang-Sun Lee, a former Korean hunter, is enlisted by the affluent farmer, Scott Larson, to confront this burgeoning “rodent” problem. Gwang-Sun, or ‘Sonny,’ carries the heavy burden of his wife’s recent passing. Despite this torment, he works daily to assimilate and move on alongside his dutiful son Ha-Joon and naive daughter Hana. However, beneath the surface, tragedy runs deep within the family. The Lees paint a personal portrait of their fractured lives, all desperately grappling with their own mourning trials, and tribulations.