Oscars 2025: Asian stars and creatives in Oscar-nominated films, from ‘Wicked’ to ‘Emilia Pérez’

Vancouver-born actor and producer Samatha Quan co-produced Anora (2024), a romance about the beleaguered marriage between a young sex worker and the son of a Russian oligarch. It has earned six nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Original Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor.

Malaysian actor Michelle Yeoh, who won Best Actress in 2023 for her role in Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022), participated in the highly popular musical fantasy film Wicked (2024), which scored 10 Oscar nominations in Best Picture, Best Actress (for Cynthia Erivo), Best Supporting Actress (for Ariana Grande), and more this year. Yeoh plays Madame Morrible in the musical adaptation.

Born in California to Chinese immigrant parents, Jon M Chu is credited for his directorial work Wicked (2024). Prior to this, he directed the hit movie Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and the screen adaptation of In The Heights (2021). He is not nominated for best director at this year’s Oscars, however.

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Japanese journalist Itō Shiori, who focuses on gender equality and human rights issues in her work, is nominated for Documentary Feature Film for Black Box Diaries (2024), which investigates her own sexual assault. The documentary sheds light on the antiquated judicial and societal frameworks in Japan.

Japanese filmmakers Daisuke Nishio and Takashi Washio’s Magic Candies (2024) has entered the Animated Short Film category this year. The CGI animated work portrays a boy’s ability to hear the thoughts of people, dogs and even objects around him after eating magical candies.

Directed by Indian American director Smriti Mundhra, I Am Ready, Warden (2024) runs in the Documentary Short Films category this year. Mundhra’s father was also a filmmaker. Her parents rented a single screen in Culver City, Los Angeles and became the first exhibitors of Bollywood films in the US before Mundhra was born. Mundhra was raised between Mumbai and Los Angeles and is known for the 2019 short documentary film St Louis Superman and Netflix’s Indian Matchmaking (2020) and Never Have I Ever (2020).

Anuja (2024), which presents the experience of a nine-year-old girl working in a garment factory in Delhi, India, runs in the Live-Action Short Film category. Its producer Mindy Kaling is also behind the popular series Never Have I Ever (2020).

Filipino actor Liza Lapira and Chinese actor Grace Hu lend their voices to Disgust and Riley’s friend Grace respectively in Pixar’s Inside Out 2 (2024), which is nominated in the Animated Feature Film category.

Chinese American director, writer and producer Aileen Wu had her screen debut in sci-fi horror Alien: Romulus (2024), which received the visual effects nomination this year.

Dichen Lachman, Australian actress and model of partial Tibetan descent, appeared as Korina in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024), which also runs in the visual effects category this year. Prior to this, Lachman starred in Jurassic World Dominion (2022) and the sci-fi series Dollhouse (2009-2010).

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