Herman Yau to Receive Asian Pop-Up Cinema Pinnacle Award!
Herman Yau Lai-To will be the first recipient of the Asian Pop-Up Cinema Pinnacle Award – a career achievement award in recognition of Herman Yau's distinctive voice in Asian cinema.
As part of the celebration of Herman Yau's three decades of prolific career as a film director, actor, cinematographer, scriptwriter, and producer, guests will enjoy a feature presentation of one of his recent celebrated works: IP MAN: THE FINAL FIGHT followed by an on-stage “Conversation With The Director” moderated by Chicago’s own film critic and entertainment writer, Patrick McDonald.
We thank Cathay Pacific Airways for their generous support in flying our honoree Herman Yau to Chicago for Asian Pop-Up Cinema’s end of season festivities.
Located at the beautiful VenueSix10 at 610 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, the Gala evening festivities include:
6:00 - 7:15 PM Cocktail Reception at Landing featuring:
Signature “Pinnacle” cocktail created with sake from “Tozai ‘Snow Maiden’ Junmai Nigori, Kyoto” by mixologist from Vine Connections; Hong Kong style dim sum, prepared by Hing Kee Restaurant from Chicago’s Chinatown. While sipping wine from City Winery, guests can enjoy live performance by Swiss Composer/Guitarist/Bandleader: Samuel Mosching.
7:15 PM seated at the Feinberg Auditorium:
Judy Hsu, Co-Anchor of ABC7 News in the Morning followed by our Emcee, Susan Blumberg-Kason (Author of “Good Chinese Wife”), other distinguished guests from the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, New York and the Chicago Film Office will make their opening remarks.
7:30 PM Presentation of Pinnacle Award to Honoree Herman Yau Lai-To
7:40 - 9:15 PM IP MAN: THE FINAL FIGHT Special Feature presentation
9:15 – 9:45 PM Conversation with the Director:
Moderated by Patrick McDonald, film critic and entertainment writer of Hollywoodchicago.com.
Guests of the Gala will enjoy the inaugural launch of "ACTION....CUT" Film Panel
Tickets are $125 per person. Please click here to buy tickets.
(Net proceeds from this event will benefit Asian Pop-Up Cinema's general operating expenses for its semiannual film festivals planned for the spring and fall of each year.)
Dress Code: Creative Cocktail
Discounted Parking available for VENUE SIX10 guests:
$11 discounted parking for up to 12 hours is available with VENUE SIX10 validation (from the front security desk at VENUE SIX10) at The Essex Inn
(2 blocks south of Venue SIX10).
Additional sponsors and supporters for the second season of Asian Pop-Up Cinema include: Japan Foundation NY, The Thai Trade Center, The Whitehall Hotel, Athena Design Group, Walton J. Newton & Co., AMC Independent, The Wilmette Theatre and many generous individual donors.
ABOUT HONG KONG ECONOMIC AND TRADE OFFICE, NEW YORK
The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, New York is the office of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Regional Government tasked to promote business and cultural links between Hong Kong and the 31 eastern states of the U.S.A. As the world’s freest economy, Hong Kong is a leading international business and financial center, as well as a regional transportation and logistics hub. It is the gateway to China and remains a choice location for international companies to oversee and manage their regional operations. Based in New York, the Office comprises an InvestHK team that provides free consultancy services to American business interested in establishing a presence in Hong Kong. Follow them on Facebook, “Hong Kong Meets America.”
HERMAN YAU LAI-TO was born in Hong Kong in 1961 and holds a Master’s Degree and a PhD in cultural studies from Lingnan University, Hong Kong. Throughout his career, Yau has photographed, produced and directed over 100 films, which include: The Untold Story (1993) and Ebola Syndrome (1996) both regarded as cult classics by many European and American critics; From the Queen to the Chief Executive (2001) was the opening film in the Panorama section of the 51st Berlin International Film Festival and was awarded the Golden Torch Award by the International Catholic Organization for Cinema and Audiovisual.
In 2007, Yau was honored as the Director in Focus by the 31st Hong Kong International Film Festival. That year, he was selected Fanta Master at the 11th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival. In 2014, Ip Man: The Final Fight won the Bronze Prize at the Udine Far East Film Festival, and in 2015, Charlene Choi won the Special Mention Award at the 10th Osaka Asian Film Festival for her role in Sara (2014). The Mobfathers is Yau’s 2nd film released in 2016 after Nessun Dorma, a suspense thriller. Both of these films had their world premieres recently in March at the 40th Edition of Hong Kong International Film Festival. Yau is currently working on two more projects to be completed before end of the year.
PATRICK MCDONALD has been a film critic and entertainment writer for eight years, and currently appears on HollywoodChicago.com and FilmAutonomy.com. He has been chief tour guide for the Chicago Film Tour for seven seasons, and is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association. He has made appearances on behalf of the film tour and general film topics on WGN Radio (semi-regular, Bill & Wendy Show), Fox32 News, WGN-TV Morning News and “190 North” on ABC7 in Chicago. Twitter: @ubercritic
ABOUT SOPHIA’S CHOICE AND ASIAN POP-UP CINEMA
Since its inauguration in September 2015, Asian Pop-Up Cinema has presented 2 North American premieres, 12 Chicago premieres and a total of 18 contemporary Asian titles including films from Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam in 24 showtimes. Artists in attendance at Asian Pop-Up Cinema include: Directors Yuichi Satoh and Yukinori Makabe from Japan; Director Tom Lin Shu-Yu from Taiwan; Pinnacle Award Honoree Herman Yau Lai-To from Hong Kong; and Japanese Cinema specialist Mark Schilling from Tokyo. All films are shown in their original language with English subtitles. Each screening is followed by a Q&A session with a visiting or local Asian specialist, film critic and/or talent from the film. Highly rated, respected associate professor of Cinema + Arts of Columbia College Chicago, Ron Falzone, hosts the post-film Q&A.
