AAPI Heritage Month: Oscar Pioneers

In honor of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we list the trailblazing Asian and Pacific Islander talents throughout Oscar history, highlighting the winners and nominees of each category. The films are dated by year of release in the United States.
 
Best Picture:
Winners:
2019: Parasite – Bong Joon-Ho & Kwak Sin-ae
2020: Nomadland – Chloé Zhao
 
Nominees:
1986: A Room with a View – Ismail Merchant
1989: Born on the Fourth of July – A. Kitman Ho
1991: JFK – A. Kitman Ho
1992: Howards End – Ismail Merchant
1993: The Remains of the Day – Ismail Merchant
1996: Jerry Maguire – Richard Sakai
2019: Jojo Rabbit – Taika Waititi & Chelsea Winstanley  
2000: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – ang Lee, William Kong & Hsu Li-kong
2012: Life of Pi – Ang Lee
 
Best Director:
Winners:
2005: Ang Lee – Brokeback Mountain
2012: Ang Lee – Life of Pi
2019: Bong Joon-Ho – Parasite
2020: Chloé Zhao – Nomadland
 
Nominees:
1999: M. Night Shyamalan – The Sixth Sense
2000: Ang Lee – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2020: Lee Isaac Chung – Minari
 
Best Actor:
Winners:
1956: Yul Brynner (Mongols) – The King and I
1982: Ben Kingsley – Gandhi
 
Nominees:
2003: Ben Kingsley – House of Sand and Fog
2020: Riz Ahmed – Sound of Metal
2020: Steven Yeun – Minari
 
Best Actress:
Nominated:
1935: Merle Oberson (Sri Lanka) – The Dark Angel
2003: Keisha Castle-Hughes – Whale Rider 
 
Best Supporting Actor:
Nominees:
1957: Sessue Hayakawa – The Bridge on the River Kwai
1966: Mako Iwamatsu – The Sand Pebbles
1984: Having S Ngor – The Killing Fields
1984: Pat Morita – The Karate Kid
1991: Ben Kingsley – Bugsy
2001: Ben Kingsley – Sexy Beast
2004: Ken Watanabe – The Last Samurai
2016: Dev Patel – Lion
 
Best Supporting Actress:
Winners:
1957: Miyoshi Umeki – Sayonara 
1966: Jocelyne La Grande – Hawaii 
2020: Youn Yuh-jung – Minari
 
Nominees:
1985: Meg Tilly – Agnes of God
1994: Jennifer Tilly – Bullets over Broadway
2006: Rinko Kikuchi – Babel
2010: Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit
 
Best Original Screenplay:
Winners:
2019: Parasite – Bong Joon-Ho & Kwak Sin-ae
 
Nominees:
1986: My Beautiful Launderette – Hanif Kureishi
1999: The Sixth Sense – M. Night Shyamalan
2006: Letters from Iwo Jima – Iris Yamashita
2017: The Big Sick – Kumail Nanjiani
2020: Minari – Lee Isaac Chung
 
Best Adapted Screenplay:
Winner:
Jojo Rabbit – Taika Waititi
Nominee:
Nomadland – Chloé Zhao
 
Best Cinematography:
Winners: 
1955: James Wong Howe – The Rose Tattoo
1963: James Wong Howe – Hud 
 
Nominees:
1938: James Wong Howe – Algiers
1940: James Wong Howe – Abe Lincoln in Illinois
1942: James Wong Howe – Kings Row
1943: James Wong Howe – Air Force
1943: James Wong Howe – The North Star 
1958: James Wong Howe – The Old Man and the Sea
1966: James Wong Howe – Seconds
1975: James Wong Howe – Funny Lady 
2010: Matthew Libatique – Black Swan
2018: Matthew Libatique – A Star is Born 
 
Best Film Editing:
Winners:
1977: Richard Chew – Star Wars 
2014: Tom Cross – Whiplash 
 
Nominees:
1975: Richard Chew – One Flew Over the Coco’s Nest
1999: Tariq Anwar – American Beauty
2010: Tariq Anwar – The King’s Speech
2016: Tom Cross – Lala Land
2019: Yang Jin-mo – Parasite 
2020: Chloé Zhao – Nomadland 
 
Best International Film:
Winners:
1951: Rashomon – Akira Kurosawa
1954: Gates of Hell – Teinosuke Kinugasa 
1955: Samurai, The Legend of Musashi – Hiroshi Inagaki 
2000: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – Ang Lee
2008: Departures – Yojiro Takita
2011: A Separation – Asghar Farhadi
2019: Parasite – Bong Joon-ho
 
Nominees: 
1956: Harp of Burma – Kon Ichikawa
1957: Mother India – Mehboob Khan
1961: Immortal Love – Keisuke Kinoshita
1963: Twin Sisters of Kyoto – Noburu Nakamura
1964: Woman in the Dunes – Hiroshi Teshigahara
1965: Kwaidan – Masaki Kobayashi
1967: Portrait of Chieko – Noboru Nakamura
1971: Dodes’ka-den – Akira Kurosawa
1975: Sandakan No.8 – Kei Kumai
1980: Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior) – Akira Kurosawa
1981: Muddy River – Kohei Oguri
1988: Salaam Bombay! – Mira Nair
1990: Jo Dou – Zhang Yimou & Yang Fengliang
1991: Raise the Red Lantern – Zhang Yimou
1993: Farewell My Concubine – Chen Kaige
1993: The Scent of Green Papaya – Tran Anh Hung
1993: The Wedding Banquet – Ang Lee
1995: Eat Drink Man Woman – Ang Lee
2001: Laggan – Ashutosh Gowariker
2002: Hero – Zhang Yimou
2003: The Twilight Samurai – Yoji Yamada
2013: The Missing Picture – Rithy Panh
2018: Shoplifters – Hirokazu Kore-eda
2020: Better Days – Derek Tsang
 
Best Makeup and Hairstyling:
Winners:
2017: Kazu Hiro – Darkest Hour
2019: Kazu Hiro – Bombshell 
 
Nominees:
2006: Kazu Hiro – Click
2007: Kazu Hiro – Norbit 
 
Best Production Design:
Winner:
2017: Paul Denham Austerberry – The Shape of Water 
 
Nominations:
1936: Eddie Imazu – The Great Ziegfeld 
1956: Albert Nozaki – The Ten Commandments 
1969: George B. Chan – Gaily, Gaily
2008: James J. Murakami – Changeling 
2019: Lee Ha-jun & Cho Won-woo – Parasite 
 
Best Original Score: None
 
Best Original Song:
Winners:
2008: “Jai Ho” by Gulzar A. R. Rahman – Slumdog Millionaire 
2013: “Let It Go” by Robert Lopez – Frozen 
2017: “Remember Me” by Robert Lopez – Coco 
2020: “Fight for You” by H.E.R. – Judas and the Black Messiah 
 
Nominees:
2000: “A Love Before Time” by Tan Dun – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2012: “Pi’s Lullaby” by Bombay Jayashri – Life of Pi 
2013: “The Moon Song” by Karen O – Her 
2019: “Into the Unknown” by Robert Lopez – Frozen II
2020: “Husavik” by Sawan Kotecha – Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
 
Best Sound:
1999: Ren Klyce – Fight Club
2008: Ren Klyce – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2010: Ren Klyce – The Social Network
2011: Ren Klyce – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
2017: Ren Klyce – Star Wars: The Last Jedi
2020: Ren Klyce – Mank
2020: Ren Klyce – Soul 
 
Best Visual Effects:
Winners:
1992: Doug Chiang – Death Becomes Her
 
Nominees:
1977: Greg Jein – Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1979: Greg Jein – 1941 
1993: Ariel Velasco Shaw – The Nightmare Before Christmas
1999: Jerome Chen – Stuart Little 
 
Best Documentary Feature:
Winners:
1994: Maya Lin: A Strong Clean Vision – Freida Lee Mock
2010: Inside Job – Audrey Marrs
2015: Amy – Asif Kapadia
2018: Free Solo – Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin
Nominees:
1985: Unfinished Business – Steven Okazaki
1988: Who Killed Vincent Chin? – Renee Tajima-Peña
2014: Virunga – Joanna Natasegara
2018: Minding the Gap – Bing Liu & Diane Moy Quon
2018: Hale County This Morning, This Evening – Su Kim
2019: Edge of Democracy – Joanna Natasegara
 
Best Animated Feature:
Winner:
2002: Spirited Away – Hayao Miyazaki
 
Nominees:
2005: Hayao Miyazaki – Howl’s Moving Castle 
2011: Kung fu Panda 2 – Jennifer Yuh Nelson
2013: The Wind Rises – Hayao Miyazaki & Toshio Suzuki
2014: The Tale of the Princess Kaguya – Isao Takahata & Yoshiaki Nishimura
2015: Anomalisa – Rose Tran
2015: When Marie Was There – Yoshiaki Nishimura & Hiromasa Yonebayashi
2016: The Red Turtle – Toshio Suzuki
2017: The Boss Baby – Ramsey Naito
2018: Mirai – Mamoru Hosoda & Yuichiro Saito
2019: Klaus – Jinko Gotoh
 
Best Documentary Short Subject:
Winners:
1990: Steven Okazaki – Days of Waiting: The Life & Arts of Estelle Ishigo 
1996: Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien – Jessica Yu
1998: The Personals: Improvisations on Romance in the Golden Years – Keiko Ibi
2011: Saving Face – Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
2015: A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness – Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
2016: The White Helmets – Joanna Natasegara
 
Nominees:
1982: To Live or Let Die – Freida Lee Mock
1983: Sewing Woman – Arthur Dong
1984: The Children of Sooning Ching Ling – Paul T.K. Lin
1988: Family Gathering – Lise Yasui
1990: Rose Kennedy: A Life to Remember – Freida Lee Mock
1995: Never Give Up: The 20th Century Odyssey of Herbert Zipper – Freida Lee Mock
1998: Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square – Shui-Bo Wang
2001: Sing! – Freida Lee Mock
2005: The Mushroom Club – Steven Okazaki
2008: The Conscience of Nhem En – Steven Okazaki
2019: St. Louis Superman – Smriti Mundhra & Sami Khan
 
Best Animated Short Film:
Winners:
2010: The Lost Thing – Shaun Tan
2018: Bao – Domee Shi 
 
Nominees:
1968: The Magic Pear Tree – Jimmy T. Murakami
2011: Adam and Dog – Minkyu Lee
2014: The Dam Keeper – Robert Kondo
2015: Sanjay’s Super Team – Sanjay Patel
2017: Negative Space – Ru Kuwahata
2018: Weekends – Trevor Jimenez
2018: One Small Step – Bobby Pontillas
2019: Sister – Siqi Song
 
Best Live Action Short Film:
Winners:
1977: I’ll Find a Way – Youki Yoshida
1997: Visas and Virtue – Chris Tashima
 
Nominees:
1982: The Silence – Michael Toshiyuki Uno
2004: Two Cars, One Night – Taika Waititi
2005: Out Time is Up – Pia Clemente
2013: The Voorman Problem – Baldwin Li
 
Academy Honorary Award:
1989: Akira Kurosawa
1991: Satyajit Ray
2014: Hayao Miyazaki
2016: Jackie Chan
 
Non-Competitive Awards:
2004: The Gordon E. Sawyer Award – Takou Miyagishima