Here is some great news! Joy Hopwood’s (Rhapsody of Love, The Script of Life, Get a Life, alright!) film The Gift That Gives has recently won an award at the 2024 Universal Film Festival held in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Gift That Gives is one of a number of Asian Australian romcom films created by Hopwood. Its premise is about:

Callum, an author, meets Kate and her friend Linda while promoting his book. Kate is smitten, but Callum falls for Linda. At Linda’s shop, they discover anonymous love letters, propelling them on a quest to uncover the writers’ identities.

The film has an awesome star studded cast including Takaya Honda who plays Callum Mori (Neighbours, The Family Law, Playschool), Lily Brown Griffiths (Yesterday’s Girl, Risen) as Kate Sedgeman, HaiHa Le (Hungry Ghosts, Back to the Rafters, Hardball) as Linda Young, Damien Sato (Echo 8, Last King of the Cross, Innocent Killer) as Austin Mori, Maria Tran (Last King of the Cross, Echo 8, Tracer) as Erin Huynh, Susan Ling Young (The Office, Hungry Ghosts, Reckoning) as Mary Mori, Andy Trieu (SBS Pop Asia) as Byron Lee, Genevieve Craig (Home and Away, Chikas, Everything in Between) as Libby Lui and Takashi Hara (Operation Kung Flu, Echo 8, Obsidian) as Adam Akira.

That was an intense mouthful, and these are the main and supporting cast among others in the film. A special mention needs to be made about Lex Marinos (Kingswood Country, The Slap) who played Lawrence Drakos in the film – unfortunately, he has since passed away and Hopwood has mentioned to Being Asian Australian that The Gift That Gives is dedicated to him and his memory.

Anyways, the film screened at this years Universal Film Festival and took the Best Actor award for Brown Griffiths performance. This is an awesome feat and congratulations to Hopwood, cast and crew for this win! Being Asian Australian Chief Editor and Founder Erin Wen Ai Chew accepted the award on the film’s behalf at the festival.

Also thanks to the team behind the Universal Film Festival for ensuring that all films nominated and won awards were diverse and authentic!

It was such a wonderful film festival to attend. The leadership and the team behind the festival ensured all filmmakers and representatives were well taken care of, and it is definitely a worthwhile festival to attend, Chew stated.

The Gift that Gives will be released in the US and Canada on December 3! It had its limited release earlier this year in Australia, but we will let you know of any more releases to come!