Steve Mallorca and Khyentse Norbu win ACV Emerging Director Award

Slow Jam King filmmaker Steve Mallorca and Travelers and Magicians Khyentse Norbu win ACV Emerging Director Award in New York

Asian CineVision (ACV) honored New York filmmaker Steve Mallorca and Tibetan Buddhist Lama Khyentse Norbu with the third annual Emerging Director Award for their films Slow Jam King and Travelers and Magicians , at the Orchard Bar during the closing night party of the 27th Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) on July 24th.

"This is the first time in AAIFF history that we have a tie. Slow Jam King and Travelers and Magicians are both amazing films by two extremely talented filmmakers. We are proud to honor them both," said Diana Lee, festival director. The Emerging Director Award is an audience award honoring first or second time feature filmmakers.

The enchanting storytelling of Norbu's Travelers and Magicians features parallel fable-like tales about two men seeking to escape their mundane lives in beautiful Bhutan. Mallorca's coming-of-age comedy Slow Jam King stars Ron Domingo as Jo-Jo, a wannabe gangsta-pimp on a journey to find his true destiny. Disillusioned by college, Jo-Jo drops out to follow his call to the streets as "The Filipino Warrior."

Other nominated directors include Royston Tan (15 ), Yasuaki Nakajima (After the Apocalypse ), Yudai Yamaguchi (Battlefield Baseball ), Tsai Ming-Ching (Butterfly Lovers ), Wake Li (Crack ), Crisaldo Pablo (Doubt ), by Nia diNata (The Gathering ), Narushima Izuru (The Hunter and the Hunted ), Eun-Sook Kim (Ice Rain ), Tomorowo Taguchi (Iden&Tity ), Quark Henares (Keka ), Hak-Soon Kim (Rewind ), Edmond Ho-Cheung Pang (Men Suddenly in Black ), Shunsuke Yamamoto (The Strange Killers ), Shih-Ching Tsou and Sean Baker (Take Out ), and Nikhil Advani (Tomorrow May Never Come ).

Asian CineVision, Inc. (ACV) is a not-for-profit national media arts organization dedicated to the promotion and preservation of Asian and Asian American media expressions. Since 1978, ACV has presented the Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) to showcase cinema by international artists of Asian descent. Programs and services offered by the New York based ACV include film exhibitions, mentoring and educational outreach, training workshops, publications, and a media archive. For more information, visit www.asiancinevision.org.