NEW DELHI: The film Chu And Blossom won two significant awards at the 37th Asian American International Film Festival in New York this week.

It received Audience Award as wellas the Emerging Director Awards for Charles Chu and Gavin Kelly.

The awards were presented by AAIFF programme manager Lesley Yiping Qin, honouring the best in Asian American filmmaking and emerging directors.

The screening of The Penny Farthing followed the ceremony. 

The closing night presentation How To Fight In Six Inch Heels by Ham Tran and a question and answer session with producer Timothy Linh.

The Special Jury Prize went to The Rice Bomber directed by Cho Li while the documentary award went to Tenzin Tsetan Choklay for Bringing Tibet Home.

The Best Short was Sutures by Tiffanie Hsu and the One to Watch Award went to Animals, directed by Stefanos Tai (Shorts, For Youth By Youth)

The Screenplay Competition Finalists were Eugene Park for Michael's Story. Jisen John Ho for The Tragedy of Ziad and Aysel, and Carol Lee Hall for Donaldina.

This year’s jurors were ‘Lunchbox’ fame Ritesh Batra (shorts), J.P. Chan (shorts), Clarissa de los Reyes (screenplay), Christopher Fiore (screenplay), Eric Lau (feature), Claus Mueller (feature), Brandon Ruckdashel (feature), Michael Sandoval (screenplay) and Tong Shen (shorts).

The Asian American International Film Festival founded by Asian Cinevision, Inc. (ACV) in 1987, is a national media arts organisation that annually presents independent cinema by Asian and Asian Americans, panel discussions, special events, screenplay competition readings, gala receptions and after parties. ACV staff members include John C. Woo, Lesley Yiping Qin, Sophia Giddens, Judy Lei and Jason Chu.