OUR STORY
In 2022, CAPE joined forces with Janet Yang Productions to form the Julia S. Gouw Short Film Challenge to provide short film production grants to four filmmakers in an effort to support Asian and Pacific Islander Women and Non-Binary filmmakers and their stories. The grant is supported and named after philanthropist Julia S. Gouw with additional support from Asian Women Leadership in Philanthropy Fund, Sandra Choi, Cindy Huang, Luyi Khasi, Jessy Li, Priscilla Lim, Jean Shim, Monica Suryapranata, Toni Wang, and Gillian Yu.
Four grantees are provided with a grant of $25K USD each as well as additional resources to make their short film possible. In addition, the grantees will be offered unparalleled networking opportunities with Emmy Award- and Golden Globe-winning Hollywood producer Janet Yang and the CAPE network as well as access to high-level industry professionals including agents, managers, producers and studio executives and more!
OUR 2025 GRANTEES
CAMI KWAN
“Paper Daughter”
CAMERON KWAN (she/they) is a Chinese American director specializing in stop motion animation. She draws on her experience growing up queer and mixed-race to create stories for young audiences that explore emotions, relationships, identity and culture. She loves stories where the abstracts of emotion and identity are made manifest through magical realism. (Bonus points for historical reimagining!) Kwan began her career on the Emmy-winning preschool series Tumble Leaf before joining forces with her business partners to found their independent animation studio Apartment D, where she collaborates with brands such as Monster High, American Girl and Sanrio to create stop motion animated series.
PAPER DAUGHTER (Animation) | A young Chinese woman grapples with the guilt of using the identity of a deceased girl to immigrate to the United States via Angel Island in 1926.
NADINE (MISONG) JIN
“Silent Voices”
NADINE (MISONG) JIN (she/her) is a New York-based filmmaker from South Korea. Her work explores questions of identity, the aesthetics of melancholy, and the ruination of the self. Her visual strength lies in images with stillness, charged with tension and mystery. After studying English literature and film directing at SKKU, she is currently an MFA Film candidate at Columbia University. Recently, she was selected for the 2024 Pedro Costa Creators Lab in Mexico, and her film Juk won a Grand Prize at the DGA student awards.
SILENT VOICES (Live-Action) | In Queens, New York, a Korean immigrant family of four leads separate lives, each enduring moments of defeat in their daily lives. As they navigate the complexities of survival and disconnection, they each hide their emotional wounds from one another.
RACHEL LEYCO
“Milk & Honey”
RACHEL LEYCO (she/her) is an award-winning queer Filipino American filmmaker, actress, and content creator. She founded Empowerhouse, a company fostering creativity and community among storytellers. A student Emmy winner for The Sub Club, her work has screened at Outfest, BFI Flare, and more. Her feature script Violet, Violet was Runner-Up in the 2020 Script Pipeline Competition. She co-wrote Re-Live: A Tale of an American Island Cheerleader, a 2022 GLAAD LIST x BLACK LIST selection. Passionate about Filipino and queer stories, Rachel infuses magical realism into everyday moments, bringing historically underrepresented narratives to the forefront of mainstream media.
RACHEL LEYCO (Live-Action) | A young Filipina nurse immigrates to the USA alone in the 1990s with a hope to secure the promise of the American Dream and bring along her daughter she left behind but adjusting to the foreign land proves to be more difficult than she imagined.
SUHASHINI KRISHNAN
“Two Questions and a Wish”
SUHASHINI KRISHNAN (she/her) is a filmmaker whose work has been recognized by the Academy Nicholl Fellowship, Slamdance, Santa Barbara and Tasveer Film Festivals, among several others. Her works have been developed at various studios and production companies including Sad Unicorn and Di Bonaventura, and she is currently in development on her feature directorial debut, GENERATIONALS. Suhashini is a 2023 Black List Resident and 2023 Women in Film Fellow. She resides in California with her husband and two chaotic, disobedient dogs.
TWO QUESTIONS AND A WISH (Live-Action) | Yama, the Hindu god of the Dead, ferries people across the mortal plane to their final destination, but when she picks up a mysterious passenger, her night takes a turn.
2025 FINALISTS
Kimberly Truong (she/her) | Kimberly Truong is a Vietnamese-American writer, filmmaker, and audio-storyteller. Growing up in Florida, she discovered a love for the arts through community theatre, and after moving to Los Angeles, found her confidence to start writing through the improv and sketch comedy community. Her part-sweet, part-spooky short film, THE RIDE (writer, executive producer) recently premiered on Film Shortage and was an Official Selection of the 2023 Viet Film Fest. Her fiction audio series, BABALU (showrunner, writer) will be making its season one debut this year. Kim’s also a storyteller for brands and has crafted social media strategies for a variety of tech companies.
Desdemona Chiang (she/her) | Desdemona Chiang is a Taiwan-born director/writer working for the stage and screen, developing stories about unique intergenerational immigrant experiences. She is an alumnus of the Sundance Episodic Program, Film Independent’s Episodic Lab, The Orchard Project, The Writers Lab, and the WeScreenplay Diverse Voices Lab. She is directing her first full-length feature, SOMETHING ABOUT THE TIDE (finalist, Tribeca/AT&T Untold Stories), and made her episodic directing debut in February 2025 on FIRE COUNTRY (CBS/Paramount). Affiliations/Awards: Princess Grace Award. Sundance Institute Asian American Fellowship. AFI DWW+. WIF Directing Fellow. MFA: University of Washington. Learn more at desdemona.org.
Devanshi Patel (she/her) | In a conservative Indian house, Devanshi was raised on a heavy dose of Bollywood and the satire of Monty Python and Married With Children. This inevitable confusion of identity plus her creativity and sensitivity that made her the black sheep of her left-brained, analytical family, propelled her stand up comedy career. She slept in subways while traveling between her finance job and performing 20-25 shows a week. She was fortunate to perform with comedy greats like Patrice O’Neal and Bill Burr. Wanting to expound on other POVs, Devanshi pivoted into TV writing, and was accepted into the FOX Writers Program with her very first pilot. She later staffed on TBS’s GROUND FLOOR and a landed a coveted spot in the prestigious ABC Writing Program, where she staffed on BLACKISH. She has written on GOD FRIENDED ME, THE NEIGHBORHOOD and a secret M. Night Shyamalan project that she can't talk about or she'll turn into an alien. She has also sold pilots to CBS, the CW, ABC, Paramount, and Disney+. Fun fact: She ran the Big Sur marathon with a triple-injured left leg and ended it completely healed. KT Tape makes her believe there has to be a God.
Shea Formanes (she/they) | The eldest child of a Filipina immigrant and a first-generation Filipino-American, Shea Formanes is a Seattle-based writer/filmmaker from New York City. Passionate about the intersection between sci-fi, fantasy and drama, Shea tells genre-bending stories about complicated families from BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities, who heal from trauma through trust. She wrote/directed the romantic coming-of-age shortfilm, The Kettle, the sci-fi/drama stage play, Bahay Kubo, and her award-winning debut feature film, I Watched Her Grow. Shea is a Dean's Medal nominee and English Honors graduate from the University of Washington. She is currently working on her next shortfilm, her second feature film, as well as her first novel. Learn more at sheaformanes.myportfolio.com.
MEET OUR 2025 JURY
AVERIE JOY MAIKALIMA O MAKUA HUFFINE
Producer
HUMBLE SANDWICH PRODUCTIONS
CHARLENE LEE
Casting Director
CKCL Casting
DANTRAM NGUYEN
EVP, Co-Head of Production and Development
SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES
HAVANA ROSE LIU
Actor
BOTTOMS, LURKER
KALIKOLEHUA HURLEY
Manager, Cultural; Head of Cultural Trust
WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS
KATHY LE BACKES
VP, RISE
The Walt Disney Company
MAIKIKO JAMES
Deputy Director
WOMEN IN FILM
MAUREEN BHAROOCHA
Director & Writer
DELI BOYS; THE PRANK
TATI GABRIELLE
Actor, Producer & Advocate
HBO’s THE LAST OF US
In addition, for the final round of the Julia S. Gouw Short Film Challenge, finalists were required to direct a short visual piece with a minimalist 4-lin script provided by MOANA 2 Director and Screenwriter DANA LEDOUX MILLER.
PAST GRANTEES
2024 GRANTEES
DIA FRAMPTON
“You Have Arrived”
Website: diamusic.net
JILL SACHS
“Taga”
Website: jillsachs.com
LINDSAY WATSON
“What We Carry”
2023 GRANTEES
DOROTHY XIAO
“Only in This World”
Official website: dorxiao.com
KRISTY CHOI
“You Left Me a Ghost”
Official website: kristy-choi.com
RIPPIN SINDHER
“Flight 182”
Official website: sindherella.com
SHRUTI PAREKH
“Zari”
Official website: shrutiparekh.com
2022 GRANTEES
BANBAN CHENG
“Hearsay”
Official website: chengfilm.com
LIZ SARGENT
“Take Me Home”
Official website: sargentliz.com
RAGINI BHASIN
“Happy Rakhi”
Official website: raginibhasin.com
JANET YANG is an Emmy and Golden Globe-winning Hollywood producer and the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Yang has worked with some of the most formidable filmmakers and talent in the world. She came to prominence through her collaboration with Steven Spielberg on "Empire of the Sun" (Warner Bros). That was followed by a long partnership with multiple Academy Award-winner Oliver Stone—where she served as Executive Producer on the iconic "The Joy Luck Club" (Disney), and as a Producer on the Golden Globe-winning "The People vs. Larry Flynt" (Columbia Pictures). Her most recent credit is as an Executive Producer on the Oscar-nominated animated feature, "Over the Moon." Based on her original story, the film was directed by legendary animator Glen Keane and released on Netflix in 2020.
Among her many other credits are: the Sundance award-winning "Dark Matter" (Universal Pictures) with Meryl Streep; "The Weight of Water" (Lionsgate) directed by Academy Award winner Kathryn Bigelow with Academy Award winner Sean Penn; "Savior" (Lionsgate) with Dennis Quaid; "South Central" (Warner Bros.) d; "High Crimes" (Fox) with Morgan Freeman; a Chinese adaptation of the acclaimed Disney franchise "High School Musical"; cult favorites "Zero Effect," by Jake Kasdan, and "Shanghai Calling" with China Film Group. Yang won an Emmy and Golden Globe Award for the HBO movie "Indictment: The McMartin Trial."
Most recently, Yang was named one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Hollywood” by the Hollywood Reporter, Variety's Power of Women 2023, and was featured on the Forbes 2024 “50 over 50” List.
Yang is a co-founder of GoldHouse, serves on the IMAX China Board, the Forbes APEX VIP Founding Advisory Board, and Asia Society’s Southern California Advisory Board.
Yang is the first Asian American president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and also has a pillar dedicated to her inside the Renzo Piano-designed Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Learn more at janetyang.com.
JULIA S. GOUW is the Chairwoman of Piermont Bank, a commercial bank in New York. She was the former President and Chief Operating Officer of East West Bank.
Gouw was ranked one of the “25 Most Powerful Women in Banking” five times by American Banker magazine and has received the Los Angeles Business Journal’s “Women Making a Difference” award two times in recognition of her achievements and philanthropic contributions.
Gouw was a board member of the Trusteeship, an International Women’s Forum affiliate organization that connects preeminent women in leadership positions across various professional fields.
Gouw currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Pacific Life and VIZIO (NYSE: VZIO). She was appointed as a Commissioner of Ontario International Airport Authority (OIAA) in September 2016. The OIAA provides overall direction for the management, operations, development and marketing of Ontario International Airport in Southern California.
Gouw is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. She was the founding chair of Executive Advisory Board of the UCLA Women’s Health to promote women’s health both in research and medical treatments. She also endowed the UCLA Chair of Mood Disorders Research especially in women in memory of Dr. Lori Altshuler.
Born and raised in Indonesia, Gouw came to the United States in 1978 where she earned her B.S. degree in accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
