chinese dumplings win an Oscar

from EATER today:
During last night’s Oscars telecast, first-time director Domee Shi and her producing partner Becky Neiman-Cobb took the stage to collect a gold statuette for their terrific short film Bao, about an empty-nester mom who makes a dumpling that springs to life. In her excellent, succinct acceptance speech, Shi remarked, “To all the nerdy girls who hide behind their sketchbooks, don’t be afraid to tell your stories to the world.”

Last summer, the filmmaker told Eater that Bao “was loosely inspired by my own life growing up as an only child to my two Chinese parents.” During production of the short film, Shi invited her mom to the Pixar headquarters in Emeryville, California, to show the animators how to make dumplings (find the director’s illustrated recipe here). As Vox notes, Shi is the first woman of color to win the Best Animated Short Film category, and the first woman to direct a Pixar short.

I loved this film, shown before Incredibles 2. Bao is a story of culture, food and family.
As a parent, the empty-nest theme was moving.