Hollywood’s Asian stars welcome ‘long overdue’ breakthrough at Oscars

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Actors Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Jamie Lee Curtis and James Hong pose with the award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture during the 29th Screen Actors Guild Awards on on Feb. 26, 2023. (AFP)
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Updated 11 March 2023
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Hollywood’s Asian stars welcome ‘long overdue’ breakthrough at Oscars

  • Malaysian “Everything Everywhere” star Michelle Yeoh is only the second Asian best actress nominee in 95 years of Oscars history, with a strong chance of becoming the first winner Sunday
  • Only four Asian actors have ever won Oscars. Only Ben Kingsley, whose father was Indian, has been nominated more than once. And there has never been a year in which more than one Asian actor won

HOLLYWOOD, US: From Oscars favorites “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “RRR” to an unprecedented four acting nominations, Asian representation in Hollywood has finally achieved a remarkable and overdue breakthrough this year, industry insiders say.
Among many records tumbling this awards season, Malaysian “Everything Everywhere” star Michelle Yeoh is only the second Asian best actress nominee in 95 years of Oscars history, with a strong chance of becoming the first winner Sunday.
Only four Asian actors have ever won Oscars. That is the same number nominated this year alone, including Yeoh’s co-stars Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu, and Hong Chau of “The Whale.”
Then there is India’s all-singing, all-dancing “RRR,” heavily tipped to win best original song, and Nobel literature laureate Kazuo Ishiguro’s nominated screenplay for “Living.”




This image released by A24 shows Michelle Yeoh in a scene from "Everything Everywhere All at Once." (Allyson Riggs/A24 via AP)

Behind the camera, best picture frontrunner “Everything Everywhere” — a $100 million box office hit with 11 Oscar nominations — has an Asian co-director, Daniel Kwan, and an Asian producer, Jonathan Wang.
“There’s something really beautiful about being able to show that if you put people in these roles, people will go see it,” Wang told AFP.
“Why is it only white characters who go on the fun adventures, but Asian and Black characters and Latino characters have to experience the suffering?
“It’s time to flip that on its head. And people are going to run to the box office.”
It is all a far cry from Hollywood’s past.

At the recent Screen Actors Guild awards, James Hong, the 94-year-old veteran who appears in “Everything Everywhere,” reflected on how white actors with “their eyes taped up” once played leading Asian roles because producers thought “the Asians are not good enough and they are not box office.”
“But look at us now,” he said, to a huge ovation.

Back in 1965, Hong co-founded the East West Players, a Los Angeles theater group created to boost the visibility of Asian American actors and issues.
The company has welcomed this year’s diverse Oscar nominations, which artistic director Snehal Desai says are “much appreciated and long overdue.”
“These are artists who have been doing this work for decades. We are glad for the visibility and recognition, but it really should not have taken this long,” he said.
Vietnam-born Quan, a major child star in the 1980s with “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies,” all but abandoned acting for decades due to a lack of roles.
“Quan’s story of his prolonged absence from the industry in particular strikes a resonant chord for our community, as we continue to fight for more opportunities and quality representation,” the group said in a statement.




Ke Huy Quan and Ariana Debose arrive to the OMEGA Cocktail Reception and Dinner Celebrating The Academy Awards on March 9, 2023 in Los Angeles. (Getty Images/AFP)

Kristina Wong, an actor and comedian currently appearing in a one-woman show co-produced by East West Players, said she had been driven to write her own productions because it was the only way to see “weird” immigrant stories told.
“It is either this, or sit around and audition for bubble gum commercials,” she told AFP.
“I’ve done that life. And it sucks. It’s not fulfilling creatively.”
There is still “a lack of opportunities in general,” said Wong.
But with her “Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord” a Pulitzer drama finalist, and “Everything Everywhere” racking up awards and box office receipts, “I think we’re ready” for new stories, she said.
“We’ve been seeing the same tired old stories about... this white guy action hero, going ‘I’m going to fix this with a gun.’“
“It’s made me excited, thinking maybe there’s an audience ready to be challenged.”




Costume designer Shirley Kurata, nominated for an Oscar for the movie "Everything Everywhere All at Once," poses for AFP in her store on March 2, 2023 in Los Angeles. (AFP)

Still, Asian success at the Oscars has remained limited to a tiny group.
Just 23 Asian actors’ performances have ever been nominated, representing a mere 1.2 percent of all nominations, according to a New York Times study.
Only Ben Kingsley, whose father was Indian, has been nominated more than once. And there has never been a year in which more than one Asian actor won.
Could this be the year representation goes beyond a few, specific individuals?
South Korea-born Joel Kim Booster, who wrote and starred in gay rom com “Fire Island,” said having his work championed by two Asian executives at Disney-owned Searchlight had “really pushed this project through and made sure that it was going to get made.”
“For a long time, there was this pull-the-ladder-up-behind-me mentality” among many minorities who found success in Hollywood, he told AFP.
“There was a scarcity... a mentality of ‘there’s only room for one of us at the table and that’s going to be me.’
“I think that has dissipated in a big way.”


REVIEW: ‘Ironheart’ — compelling hero let down by shoddy storytelling

Updated 03 July 2025
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REVIEW: ‘Ironheart’ — compelling hero let down by shoddy storytelling

  • New Marvel series doesn’t play to its greatest strengths

LONDON: For a studio so adept at world-changing bombast, Marvel has enjoyed a surprising amount of success with shows working on a smaller scale, with lower stakes, about characters and the places they actually live: “Ms Marvel” and “Daredevil: Born Again,” for example, have fared better than, say, the globe-trotting mess that was “Secret Invasion.”

So while genius inventor Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) was introduced during the ocean-spanning events of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” we really get to know her and her Iron Man-esque suit in “Ironheart,” which sees her return home to Chicago. Without the backing of the Wakandans, or the money of someone like Tony Stark, Riri falls in with a slightly more nefarious crowd in order to make money and keep her suit running. Soon enough she’s pulling off jobs for the shady Hood (Anthony Ramos) and his gang, all while dealing with her overprotective mother, trying to find a way to use her inventions for good, and processing the grief of losing her best friend Natalie in a drive-by shooting.

It's quite a bleak story arc for a Marvel hero — Riri makes some questionable choices and some surprisingly selfish ones too. This could have been mined a little more, perhaps, were “Ironheart” not more concerned with racing through the story at breakneck speed. The six-episode run means there’s not much time for character development — a crying shame when there are hints of some fascinating backstories. It also means, sadly, that not much time or money was given to effects. Some of the CGI is shonky in the extreme, while the armor suit Riri has so lovingly crafted is often relegated to little more than a means by which to arrive. Thorne makes for a charismatic lead, and the supporting cast is great (Alden Ehrenreich’s black market tech dealer Joe especially). The plot, however, feels heavy and cumbersome: shoehorned exposition and one-note villains.

The great stuff here is the little stuff. Riri and Natalie’s relationship, a few snatched glimpses of their life in Chicago, Joe’s backstory — all of these deserve more airtime. Without that attention to detail, “Ironheart” feels flimsy. Fun, but ultimately unsatisfying.


Ghiya Rushidat’s album ‘Chasing Dopamine’ seeks to help listeners with ADHD

Updated 01 July 2025
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Ghiya Rushidat’s album ‘Chasing Dopamine’ seeks to help listeners with ADHD

RIYADH: As the awareness around neurodiversity spreads, composer and pianist Ghiya Rushidat and cognitive scientist and author Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman have co-created a genre-defying musical experience tailored specifically for people with ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Symptoms of ADHD include inattention (not being able to keep focus), hyperactivity (excess movement that is not fitting to the setting) and impulsivity (hasty acts that occur in the moment without thought).

The upcoming collaborative album, “Chasing Dopamine,” blends neuroscience, ambient soundscapes and special composition into a powerful auditory journey designed to enhance focus, emotional regulation and mental clarity.

The album cover for the upcoming meditation album. (Supplied)

“What I’m really hoping is that when people listen to this, whether they have ADHD or not, that they not only feel compassion for themselves, but they also are able to achieve their goals, or at least feel better about their day-to-day life,” Saudi Arabia-born, Jordan-raised composer Rushidat told Arab News.

Set to release this summer, the album is anticipated to be the first in a series tackling different neurotypes, including OCD and autism.

The tracks will feature guided spoken word by Dr. Kaufman, layered with original music composed by Rushidat. Each track is tailored for different ADHD states: Hyperfocus, feeling emotional overwhelmed, low dopamine, task initiation, creativity, and grounding.

“It’s more of a storytelling kind of track for each topic, rather than just one basic music track that doesn’t change or do anything. That’s more stimulating to the ADHD brain, and that just doesn’t allow you to get distracted during the meditation, but rather just be focused, because you don’t really know what to expect afterwards,” Rushidat said.

“The album, the seven tracks, take you through that process (of) overcoming brain fog, and then overcoming procrastination, and then how to ground yourself and how to feel good about yourself and not beat yourself up because you’re not getting enough things done.”

After her late ADHD diagnosis, Rushidat found that none of the existing meditation albums were compatible with her brain’s wiring. “I couldn’t sit still for five minutes or focus on my breathing at all,” she said. She decided to create her own affirmations that worked for her, prompting her interest in creating a collaborative album with Dr. Kaufman.

“ADHD comes with challenges as well as gifts. If we can help quiet the ADHD mind just enough to get into a creative flow state; there is no limit to what people with ADHD can achieve,” Kaufman said.

Considering his cutting-edge research in creativity, neurodivergence and positive psychology, and Rushidat’s award-winning background in music composition, the work aims to be a science-informed, musically immersive tool for the ADHD community.

“Of course, you don’t expect people to just heal from this. As cliche as it sounds, but ADHD is a superpower because there are so many advantages to it. Once you figure out and realize that this is what you have, then you just navigate through life with that diagnosis,” Rushidat said.

Kaufman is a professor of psychology at Columbia University and director of the Center for Human Potential.  He has written for The Atlantic, Scientific American, Psychology Today, and Harvard Business Review, and he is the author and editor of 11 books. Rushidat is a Grammy, BAFTA and Emmy voting member and has scored films, games and performed at Carnegie Hall. She works between Los Angeles, Dubai and Riyadh.


US revokes Bob Vylan’s visas over Glastonbury chant

Updated 01 July 2025
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US revokes Bob Vylan’s visas over Glastonbury chant

DUBAI: The US has revoked entry visas for members of British punk-rap duo Bob Vylan following their Glastonbury Festival set, during which frontman Bobby Vylan led the crowd in a controversial chant against Israel’s military.

Performing on the festival’s West Holts Stage on Saturday, the artist shouted “Free, free Palestine” before encouraging the audience to chant, “Death, death to the IDF (Israel Defense Forces).” Video of the moment quickly spread online, sparking backlash.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Bob Vylan (@bobbyvylan)

On Monday, US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau announced the visa revocation on social media platform X, stating, “Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country.” He confirmed that the State Department had rescinded the band’s US visas due to their “hateful tirade.”

The group was scheduled to begin a US tour in late October, as previously announced on their official Instagram account.

The visa decision comes amid growing scrutiny from US authorities under what they describe as a tougher stance on individuals accused of promoting anti-Semitism or inciting violence. The State Department has recently implemented stricter policies on visa restrictions in such cases.

Bobby Vylan released a video statement on social media on Monday.

"First it was Kneecap, now it's us two," he said.

"Regardless of how it was said, calling for an end to the slaughter of innocents is never wrong. To civilians of Israel, understand this anger is not directed at you, and don't let your government persuade you that a call against an army is a call against the people.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Bob Vylan (@bobbyvylan)

On Tuesday, the band took to Instagram to share an official statement.

“We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people. We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine. A machine whose own soldiers were told to use ‘unnecessary lethal force’ against innocent civilians waiting for aid. A machine that has destroyed much of Gaza,” read a part of the statement.

“We are being targeted for speaking up. We are not the first. We will not be the last. And if you care for the sanctity of human life and freedom of speech, we urge you to speak up, too,” they ended the post.

Meanwhile, UK police are reportedly investigating the incident.

Their Glastonbury set is the latest in a wave of pro-Palestinian expressions from artists amid Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.


Review: ‘Holes’ is a prime example of quiet, impactful storytelling

Updated 30 June 2025
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Review: ‘Holes’ is a prime example of quiet, impactful storytelling

DHAHRAN: Saudi film “Holes” continues to make its mark with screenings at film festivals around the world. The quietly arresting drama follows Rakan, a man in his mid-40s, as he returns to his hometown to be with his wife, Reem. He struggles to re-enter a society that no longer trusts him — and one that he also does not fit into.

The film starts with a literal clock — which we don’t see — persistently ticking in the otherwise vacant interior of a residence, the loud but constant sound in the midst of silence sets the tone.

With a fiery but contained temper, eyes welling with sadness, we find out that Rakan is prone to fits of rage. He is portrayed as only having a soft spot for his aging mother and his wife, all while dodging men from his past who haunt him.

The film doesn’t linger on the specifics — there are many gaping holes in the story. Instead, it centers on how the weight of reputation, judgment and suffocating silence shapes a person trying to begin again.

It stars Mariam Abdulrahman and Meshal Almutairi and was produced by Ayman Alnaqeeb and Abdulrahman Altikhais.

Abdulmohsen Aldhabaan, the director of “Holes,” is an independent Saudi writer and filmmaker. He co-founded Talashi Films in 2008 and has directed several shorts and a TV series.

Aldhabaan‘s debut feature film, “Last Visit” (2019), gained international recognition, becoming the first Arab film selected for the East of the West Competition at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. It also earned the Jury Award at the Marrakech International Film Festival.

With “Holes,” Aldhabaan continues his signature style of quiet, impactful storytelling marked by restraint and emotional depth.

In “Holes,” Aldhabaan crafts a slow, thoughtful narrative. Rather than relying on heavy dialogue or exposition, the film builds its emotional landscape through atmosphere — solitary walks at night, avoiding tiny puddles in the alleyways, prolonged pauses and distant glances — to explore isolation and inner conflict. The pacing may feel slow to some, but it seems deliberate — offering space for reflection and tension to build.

A persistent image in the film is a literal hole in the wall of Rakan and Reem’s new home. It is never ignored but also never fixed, and that choice is telling. At one point, it gushes water as Reem tries to stuff pretty-colored cloths to stop it — to no avail. It floods their bedroom and the couple tries to contain it together.

The hole becomes a powerful metaphor representing wounds that haven’t healed, things left unresolved, and the parts of a life that remain open to scrutiny or misunderstanding. It defines the space around it — the hole is a character all its own.


Palestinian solidarity takes center stage at Glastonbury

Updated 29 June 2025
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Palestinian solidarity takes center stage at Glastonbury

DUBAI: Glastonbury Festival 2025 is making headlines not just for its music, but for the powerful pro-Palestinian messages echoing across its stages and crowds.

Irish rap group Kneecap drew one of the festival’s largest crowds at the West Holts Stage. Dozens of Palestinian flags flew in the crowd as the show opened with an audio montage of news clips referring to the band’s critics and legal woes.

Mo Chara of Irish rap group Kneecap wearing a keffiyeh at Glastonbury festival. (AFP)

Between high-energy numbers that had fans forming a large mosh pit, the band members — sporting keffiyehs — led the audience in chants of “Free Palestine” and “Free Mo Chara.” They also aimed an expletive-laden chant at UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has said he didn’t think it was “appropriate” for Kneecap to play Glastonbury.

One member wore a T-shirt emblazoned with “We Are All Palestine Action,” referencing the direct-action network that targets arms factories supplying Israel.

Earlier that day, punk duo Bob Vylan also stirred controversy with a performance that included the chant “Death to the IDF.” The statement has prompted a police investigation and sparked a broader debate over the limits of free speech in live performance.

Across the festival, Palestinian flags were visible in every direction — raised by artists, waved in the crowd, and printed on T-shirts and posters. Activist installations, including a projection mapping Gaza’s destruction, drew foot traffic near the Apocalypse Museum area, while several artists circulated an open letter calling for an immediate ceasefire.