California Teen's Documentary on the World War II-Era Korean "Comfort Women" Wins Jury Prize at the 2022 Austin Film Festival

As a high school filmmaker, Ian Kim has merged documentary and stop-motion animation to present powerful stories about historical issues and injustices. His latest film, "My Sisters In The Stars: The Story of Lee Yong-soo," tells the story of one of the 11 remaining known survivors of the World War II-era Japanese Comfort Women system of sexual slavery, a war crime the Japanese Government has continued to suppress for decades.

Entering its 30th year, the Austin Film Festival & Writers Conference (AFF) is the premier film festival recognizing writers’ contributions to film, television, and new media. The 2022 winners were selected by an acclaimed panel of industry judges, including James V. Hart (Hook, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Contact), Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel, Pokémon Detective Pikachu), Tripper Clancy (Stuber, I Am Not Okay With This, Die Hart), and Kelly Edwards (Our Kind of People). As an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences qualifier, the Jury Award winners for the Narrative Short, Documentary Short, and Animated Short categories are eligible to be nominated for an Academy Award®.

Ian Kim, a 17-year-old junior at the Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, CA, accepted the Youth Jury Award for his animated documentary short, "My Sisters In The Stars: The Story of Lee Yong-soo," at the Austin Club in front of an audience of distinguished filmmakers and producers, including Dede Gardner, Darren Aronofsky, and Stephen Merchant.

"I am honored and grateful to receive this award on behalf of Grandma Lee and everyone who worked on this film for the past 18 months," said Kim. "My goal with this project is to bring Grandma Lee's life story and activism to a worldwide audience, and I am extremely encouraged and excited to see where her story will go next."

Born in Daegu, Korea in 1928 under Japanese occupation, Lee Yong-soo was taken away from her home at the age of 14 by the Imperial Japanese Army and forced into sexual slavery on the front lines of the Pacific Theater during World War II. She is now one of 11 remaining known “comfort women” survivors in Korea out of a system that claimed the lives of more than 200,000 women and girls, known as "Comfort Women," from Japanese-occupied territories throughout Asia from 1932 to 1945. Lee Yong-soo continues to fight for justice for a crime the Japanese government continues to deny and suppress.