History

Upon Jonathan Laxamana’s passing in December 2022, Jonathan’s brother, Joe, and many close friends and family wished to establish a fund to help the next generation of film students and creators pursue his same passion for film.  After an initial scholarship granted in Jonathan’s name at Addison Trail High School in Addison, IL in Spring 2023, the group searched for a way to truly connect the fund to Jonathan’s passion.  In Fall 2023, we launched an endowment fund at the University of Illinois within the College of Media.  The Jonathan Laxamana Endowment Fund will provide an annual scholarship to a Media & Cinema Studies student.  Plans also include supporting the annual University of Illinois Student Film Festival.  As Jonathan, his brother, and many of his lifelong friends are alumni of the University of Illinois, and more notably where Jonathan first discovered his passion for film, the endowment is a great memorial and connection to Jonathan and his alma mater.

The Jonathan Laxamana Emerging Filmmaker Award for AAPI Emerging Filmmakers, administered by the Foundation for Asian American Independent Media (FAAIM), will award two short film submissions to The Asian American Showcase in Chicago with a $500 award each. One award will be granted each to a submission in the Documentary Short Film and Narrative Short Film categories. Award winners will be determined by a panel of jurors, and awards will be publicly presented at The Asian American Showcase, held at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago from May 17-26, 2024.

 Award winners must meet the following criteria:

• The filmmaker(s) must identify as Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and/or Pacific Islander (AANHPI).

• The film must be set in North America (the United States, Canada, or Mexico).

• The film must be selected and screened at The 2024 Asian American Showcase.

• The filmmaker(s) must identify as emerging or early-career. (Please note: FAAIM understands these career stage categories are always in flux, and therefore does not impart a strict definition for them. We generally understand an emerging or early-career filmmaker to be someone who has completed, or is in the process of completing, two or fewer feature films. However, we invite filmmakers to self-identify using their best judgment. Final determination is made by FAAIM staff and jurors.)

• The film must focus on an AANHPI central character, community, or experience.

• The total runtime of the film must not exceed 45 minutes.

• The film must have a release date on or after January 1, 2023.

We are excited and proud to now partner with The Asian American Showcase to launch the Jonathan Laxamana Emerging Filmmaker Award to memorialize Jonathan’s work within the Chicago film festival arena with focus on AAPI cinema. In 2006, Jonathan created the Chicago Filipino Film Festival and led all activities of producing, promoting, and putting on the festival for over ten years.  Jonathan then went on to contribute significantly to the Asian American Showcase for several years.  As with the endowment at the University of Illinois, the Jonathan Laxamana Emerging Filmmaker Award is something that Jonathan would be proud to sponsor, representing his love for film and vision to help emerging film creators in the AAPI communities.

Christina C. Nguyen

Christina C. Nguyen is a filmmaker and expanded cinema artist exploring the periphery of human perception and experience. Her interest in systems results in the use of specific forms and structures to interface between the digital and analog methods of data and vision. She is from San Francisco, California, earned her MFA in Film and Video at the California Institute of the Arts, and currently teaches at Northwestern University in Radio/Television/Film. Her films are distributed by Canyon Cinema.

Anuradha Rana

Anuradha Rana is an independent filmmaker and educator who has produced and directed award-winning films internationally. Her recent documentary, Musher, played at over 60 festivals worldwide.  Her work has been supported by Kartemquin Films, Tribeca Film Network, PBS, DOC NYC, IDA, CIFF, IL Arts Council, DCASE, CAAM, American Institute for Indian Studies, and Depaul Humanities Center.

Meet The Jury

James Choi

James Choi teaches film at DePaul University’s School of Cinematic Arts and is a prolific, award-winning filmmaker with over a decade of film industry experience in Los Angeles having worked in representation, production and digital media.

James has a long history of collaborating and supporting young directors on their debut feature films. He has produced two award-winning feature films from first-time directors that premiered at South by Southwest. James has also been involved in helping students produce their first feature films through Indie Studio, which he founded in 2017 through DePaul University School of Cinematic Arts. Indie Studio is an initiative that provides financing and support to students at DePaul who are interested in directing and producing independent feature films.

Tim Hugh

For the past 24 years Tim Hugh has been the Festival Director for Asian American Showcase hosted by the Foundation for Asian American Independent Media (FAAIM). As the director, Tim has kept the mission statement alive in the DIY spirit that the founders (Sooyoung Park, William Shin, Ben Kim) envisioned. As a volunteer staffed festival Tim, like everyone else involved loves bringing the films to the big screen and introducing the audience to the new Asian American work.

Larry Versola

Together with Jonathan Laxamana, Larry Versola created the Chicago Filipino American Film Festival (CFAFF) in 2001, and served as its Festival Administrator until 2010. A unique festival that specialized in Filipino and Filipino/American films, CFAFF was influential in identifying and promoting talented filmmakers, and showcasing their works to a wider audience.  Inspired by Jonathan and his experience with CFAFF, Larry gave up practicing corporate law and founded 41EIGHTYSEVEN, a Chicago-based location services / production company. During the pandemic, he was an adjunct at Columbia's Cinema & Television Arts school, where he created and taught Columbia's first dedicated class about Location Scouting and Location Management.