Entering the sixth year of HBO Max’s celebrated Asian Pacific American Visionaries Short Film Competition, we unveiled the program’s refreshed look-and-feel through two experiential activations in the key markets of Los Angeles and New York City.

The main objectives of HBO Max’s Asian Pacific American (APA) Visionaries campaign were to continue developing the platform’s Asian Pacific American storytellers, drive awareness/engagement of the competition, and encourage APA filmmakers to submit their stories.

In celebration of HBO Max’s annual Asian Pacific American Visionaries Short Film Competition, we created a multi-city event series that celebrated the finalists and overarching Asian American Pacific Islander community. The multi-tactic campaign was created to speak directly to target audiences and encourage Asian Pacific American filmmakers to tell their stories and submit to the competition.

The experiential series incorporated and highlighted several cultural themes and elements extending beyond the film industry to celebrate the APA filmmaker community through food, music, brand partnerships and entertainment, while showcasing the award-winning films and exceptional talent displayed through the annual competition.

We wanted to enhance the perception of the HBO Max Asian Pacific American Visionaries Short Film Competition as a premiere program for filmmakers and create touchpoints with subgroups that may be underrepresented in previous targeting, such as Southeast Asians, South Asians, Pacific Islanders, millennials, and Gen Zers with a passion for media and entertainment - particularly filmmaking. We also wanted to fortify the alumni/community network of previous winning Visionaries and provide them with industry visibility and opportunities.

By leveraging previous winners, network talent and influencers in the space, the event series would look to celebrate the 2022 winning filmmakers and create authentic and meaningful connections within the Asian Pacific American film community, thus positively impacting the next generation of filmmakers and furthering more representation throughout the industry and encouraging submissions about the APA experience to the competition.

The HBO Max Asian Pacific American Visionaries event series started in LA with a premiere of the winning short films and reception at NeueHouse. Guests were transported into a night market experience inspired by countries in Asia.

As Amrit (DJ) provided music throughout the night, guests enjoyed bites served by local AAPI-owned restaurants curated in partnership with Chefs Stopping AAPI Hate, an organization that brings together the culinary world to support AAPI social justice causes.

Guests played night market-inspired games where giveaways included AAPI-owned brands. Singer Audrey Mika ended the night with an engaging performance.

The celebrations continued in NYC with a screening of the winning short films and night-market themed reception at Chelsea Factory. AAPI-owned restaurants were curated in partnership with Heart of Dinner, which combats food insecurity and isolation within NYC’s elderly AAPI community.

Rapper Bohan Phoenix played an energetic set while Joyce Wrice closed out the experience.

The celebratory event series was a huge success in establishing and fostering the APA filmmaking community by providing opportunities for growth and increased representation throughout the larger industry. By activating in the large markets of NYC and LA, HBO Max was able to further extend its reach, subsequently garnering more attention to the Asian Pacific American Visionaries Short Film Competition initiative, leading to more applicants and community building.

Over 428 guests attended the LA APA Visionaries premiere screenings of the 3 winning short films and reception (including Nicole Kang, Leenda Dong and Sukki Menon). The event garnered 253+ social posts totaling over 4.88MM social media impressions and 15.8K engagements.

In NYC, over 185 guests attended the screening and reception event (including Jennifer Mika, Kang Hee Kim, Jainil Mehta and Eugenie Grey). The event garnered a total of 253+ social posts, generating 2.09MM impressions and 99K engagements.