Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Coen Brothers’ western epic True Grit, an adaptation of the 1968 novel of the same name. The film stars Oscar nominees Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Josh Brolin. However, at the center of the film is then-13 year old Hailee Steinfeld. She plays Mattie Ross, the strong-willed daughter of a man murdered by a notorious outlaw (Brolin). She then hires Rooster Cogburn (Bridges) to hunt down the outlaw. Steinfeld’s performance received critical acclaim at the time and she became the ninth youngest nominee ever for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars. She was 14 years and 45 days of age at the time of nominations.
Another remarkable record is that she became the first actor of known Filipino descent to be nominated for an acting category at the Oscars (her maternal grandfather Ricardo Domasin was half-Filipino), a fact that was given media attention in the Philippines at the time. She is part of a small group of nine Oscar nominees who are of Filipino descent. Here are the rest...
Paul Denham Austerberry
Best Production Design - The Shape of Water (2017) *WIN*
This Canadian production designer of English-Filipino descent won his first Oscar nomination in Guillermo del Toro’s Best Picture-winning romantic fantasy The Shape of Water, together with Shane Vieau and Jeff Melvin. His other works include The Three Musketeers (2011), The Liberator (2013, Venezuela’s official submission to the 87th Oscars), and It Chapter Two (2019).
Pia Clemente
Best Live Action Short Film - Our Time is Up (2005)
A graduate of Barnard College and AFI Conservatory, Clemente is a producer who has worked on the short Christmas in New York (winner of Gold - Dramatic at the 1997 Student Academy Awards), The Debut (the first Filipino American film to be shown in American cinemas), and Our Time is Up where she received an Oscar nomination.
Ronnie del Carmen
Best Original Screenplay - Inside Out (2015)
Aside from Steinfeld, the only other nominee for a 'big eight' category. This animation artist comes from Cavite, Philippines (same province as myself). After spending most of his career in Pixar projects, he finally served as co-director and is credited for Inside Out's original story. While not recognized in the film’s Animated Feature win, he was nominated here due to his writing credit. He was also credited as part of the Senior Creative Team of Coco (2017), Incredibles 2 (2018), and Toy Story 4 (2019).
Trevor Jimenez
Best Animated Short Film - Weekends (2018)
The first of two nominees of Filipino descent in this category in the same year, Jimenez is a Canadian-born animator who was nominated for his 15-minute dialogue free, hand painted short film. He also worked as a story artist on Finding Dory, Rio, The Lorax, and Coco. Jimenez’s maternal grandfather is Privado Jimenez, the first ambassador of the Philippines to Canada.
Matthew Libatique
Best Cinematography - Black Swan (2010)
Best Cinematography - A Star is Born (2018)
This American-born cinematographer of French-Filipino is only the third Asian cinematographer to be nominated for an Oscar. He is known for his collaborations with fellow AFI alumnus Darren Aronofsky, leading to 2010’s Black Swan where his work received widespread acclaim and was nominated at BFCA, BAFTA, and ASC. He won the Independent Spirit Award and LAFCA for that film. His second nomination is for Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut A Star is Born where he also netted nominations at BFCA and ASC. This year he shot Cathy Yan’s Birds of Prey and Ryan Murphy’s The Prom.
Robert Lopez
Best Original Song - Frozen (for “Let It Go”) (2013) *WIN*
Best Original Song - Coco (for “Remember Me”) (2017) *WIN*
Best Original Song - Frozen II (for “Into the Unknown”) (2019)
This acclaimed songwriter is a multiple record-holder: he is the youngest person to win the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) and the fastest to do so well. He's also the first Asian to EGOT and, as of the time of writing, the only person to double EGOT. He won both of his Oscars in collaboration with his wife, fellow songwriter Kristen Anderson-Lopez, for massive Disney hits. His paternal grandfather is Filipino while his paternal grandmother was half-Filipino.
Bobby Pontillas
Best Animated Short Film - One Small Step (2018)
The second nominee in this category in 2018, Pontillas is a American-born animator nominated for his seven-minute short, his debut as a writer and director. He has worked as an animator, credited and otherwise, on films like Rio, Wreck-It-Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, and Moana. His mother hails from the province of Camarines Sur, Philippines.
Ariel Velasco-Shaw
Best Visual Effects - The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
We end this list with the trailblazer. Velasco-Shaw was the first person of Filipino descent to be nominated in any category. He was honored for his work on Tim Burton’s celebrated animated film (animated films are rare in this category). He has also worked on other films like Contact (1997), Final Destination (2000), 300 (2006), and The Conjuring 2 (2016).
Here are some Filipino/Filipino-American actors. Who do you think will follow in Hailee Steinfeld's Oscar-nominated footsteps?
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Lou Diamond Phillips (Oscar-nominated Stand and Deliver, La Bamba)
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Darren Criss (Globe, Emmy, and SAG winner, TV’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace)
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Vanessa Hudgens (Spring Breakers, High School Musical series)
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Dave Bautista (Avengers series, Blade Runner 2049, Dune)
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Bruno Mars (Rio 2 - Original Song Oscar in the future, maybe?)
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Nico Santos (Crazy Rich Asians, TV’s Superstore)
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Manny Jacinto (Bad Times at the El Royale, TV’s The Good Place)
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Jon Jon Briones (TV’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Ratched)
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Conrad Ricamora (Over the Moon, TV’s How to Get Away with Murder)
Random Oscar notes:
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The Philippines has been submitting for International Feature Film since the category’s inception in 1956, but the country has yet to be nominated. It's the only country out of the eight countries in the award's inaugural year (Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Philippines, Spain, Sweden) that has never won the Oscar.
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2013 saw three submissions to the then-Foreign Language Film category focusing on Filipino characters: Singapore’s Ilo Ilo, United Kingdom’s Metro Manila, and the Philippines’ Transit. Interestingly, the British submission was shot in the Philippines while the Philippine submission was shot in Israel.
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Filipina singer Lea Salonga, the first woman of Asian descent to win a Tony, was the singing voice of Jasmine in Aladdin (1992). Her track “A Whole New World”, together with Brad Kane, won the Oscar for Best Original Song that year. She was also the songing voice of the titular role in Mulan. She recently appeared in Yellow Rose, a musical drama about a Filipino teenager in Texas.
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Political tensions between the United States and Vietnam forced filmmakers to shoot their films about the war in the Philippines. Some of those films received Oscar recognition include Apocalypse Now (8 nominations, 2 wins), Platoon (8 noms, 4 wins including Picture), and Born on the Fourth of July (8 noms, 2 wins).
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The current political climate and human rights violations in the country led to a slew of documentaries that have received Oscar buzz: Lauren Greenfield’s The Kingmaker (about a former dictator’s wife), On the President’s Orders (about the current drug war), and the shortlisted documentary short The Nightcrawlers (about photojournalists who cover said drug war).
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Ramona S. Díaz, one of the few Filipino-American voting members of the Academy, released a documentary this year titled A Thousand Cuts, about Maria Ressa, a journalist who defied pressures of the current administration who was found guilty of cyberlibel last June. The film is one of the top contenders for this year’s Documentary Feature race.
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If eligible for this year, another Filipino-American might be nominated for Best Animated Short Film: animator Bobby Alcid Rubio directed Float, a Pixar short about Filipino characters!
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Filipino animators working at Pixar are often called “Pixnoys” (portmanteau for Pixar Pinoys). They include Oscar nominees del Carmen, Jimenez, as well as Rubio, Paul Abadilla (set designer for Oscar-nominated Incredibles 2), and Nelson Bohol (who added the “bahay kubo”/nipa hut, a Filipino cultural icon, in the Oscar-winning Finding Nemo).
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Rita Moreno shot her scenes for 1963’s Cry of Battle in the Philippines around the time she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for West Side Story. Filipino fashion designer Pitoy Moreno designer her famous dress when she accepted her Oscar that year. She revived the same dress when she presented Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards in 2018.