Chris Tashima, winner of the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film for “Visas and Virtue,” has been elected governor of the Short Films Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, it was recently announced.
He joins the 55-member board representing 19 branches of the Academy. Branches normally are represented by three governors but the Short Films Branch was created last year by splitting what was the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch into two. The new Animation Branch now has two governors and the Short Films Branch will have one, Tashima.
The Short Films Branch originated as the Short Subjects Branch in 1941. It was renamed the Short Films Branch in 1974. Recognizing the growing animation field, it was again renamed in 1995 the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch, which had remained until last year.
“I am thrilled to be able to lead our branch into a new era at the Academy, to really celebrate where all of cinema originated, and where all new filmmakers are born, the short film,” said Tashima.
The Short Film Branch has over 200 members, working in both narrative and nonfiction fields, and will oversee the Live Action Short Film Oscar.
Governors serve for three years, and may serve two terms, followed by a two-year hiatus, after which eligibility renews for up to two additional three-year terms for a lifetime maximum of 12 years.
Tashima will join five other AAPI governors on the board: Lou Diamond Phillips of the Actors Branch, Jinko Gotoh of the Animation Branch, Jean Tsien of the Documentary Branch, Laura C. Kim of the Marketing and Public Relations Branch, and Janet Yang of the Producers Branch, who is the current president of the board.
Tashima directed, co-wrote and starred in “Visas and Virtue” (1997), a historical drama about Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania who saved thousands of Jewish refugees from the Holocaust by issuing visas that allowed them to leave the country before the arrival of the Nazis.
His other directing credits include “Day of Independence” (2003), which explores one Japanese American family’s experience during the World War II incarceration and examines the sacrifices and triumphs of those who endured and survived through perseverance, courage, and the all-American game of baseball.
As an actor, Tashima’s credits include “Strawberry Fields” (1997), “Americanese” (2006), “Model Minority” (2012), “Lil Tokyo Reporter” (2012), “Under the Blood-Red Sun” (2014), “Go For Broke” (2018), “No No Girl” (2022), “Kodama” (2023), “The Blue Jay” (2023), and “Submechanophobia” (2024).