​Vietnamese-American actress gets lifetime achievement award at US film festival

The 84-year-old received the Snow Leopard Lifetime Achievement Award, the festival's highest accolade, at an event in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The AWFF wrote in a Facebook post that the actress "is being honored for her distinguished film career and humanitarian and philanthropic achievements."

She wrote in turn, "I'm very honored and humbled to receive this award."

Kieu Chinh (R) with her Snow Leopard Lifetime Achievement Award and Georges Jojo Chamchoum, executive director of AWFF at the 6th Annual Asian World Film Festival in Los Angeles, the U.S. Photo courtesy of Kieu Chinh's Facebook.

After migrating with her family to southern Vietnam in 1954, the Hanoi-born Chinh rose to fame, starring in many hit movies.

She moved to the U.S. after the Vietnam War and appeared in Hollywood movies such as "A Yank in Vietnam" in 1964, "Operation C.I.A." in 1965, "The Children of An Lac" in 1980, "The Letter" in 1982, and "The Girl Who Spelled Freedom" in 1986.

But she is best known for her role as Suyuan Woo in the 1993 film ‘The Joy Luck Club’ as a mother who had to abandon her children during wartime.

She has received many accolades, including an Emmy Award in 1996 and a lifetime achievement award from the Vietnamese International Film Festival in 2003.

Festival organizers also conferred the Snow Leopard Outstanding Cinematic Achievement Award to Hong Kong-American actor Tzi Ma and the Snow Leopard Rising Star Award to Indian film actor Adarsh Gourav.

The AWFF is an annual festival that brings a broad selection of Asian cinema to the U.S.