Celine Parreñas Shimizu, dean of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and distinguished professor of film, television and digital media, has received the 2026 Outstanding Contribution award in media, performance, and visual studies from the Association for Asian American Studies for her book “The Movies of Racial Childhoods.” The honor — the top prize in the category — will be presented at the AAAS annual conference, April 2–4, 2026, in Honolulu, with the awards ceremony held the evening of April 4.
In the jury citation, written by the jury headed by Professor Shalini Shankar of Northwestern, the book is described as a “beautifully written and powerfully argued” study of how Asian and Asian American children appear on screen, positioning contemporary cinema as an archive of personhood shaped by identification, alienation and belonging. The citation also highlights the work’s distinctive blend of rigorous film theory and personal narrative, noting how it brings grief, care and new analytical approaches into conversation with questions of race, sexuality and coming-of-age.
Shimizu has spoken candidly about the loss of her son, Lakas, an experience that grounds the narrative and intellectual origins of the book. In reflecting on the project, she described a period after his death when she found it impossible to read, write or screen films — the very things she had loved and devoted her life to for so many years. She later returned to cinema as a way to think through possibility, care and the inner lives of young people.
“I wrote this book as both scholarship and elegy — asking what cinema reveals about what Asian and Asian American young people experience, and what it means for them to emerge into their own autonomy and agency,” Shimizu said, adding that she hopes the recognition affirms both the grief and intellectual work as acts of creativity.
A UCLA alumna of the School of Theater, Film and Television, Shimizu said the award arrives at a moment of renewed creative momentum and reflects her sense that UCLA is the home for her next chapter as a scholar, filmmaker and leader. She expressed optimism that her strongest scholarship and filmmaking are still ahead, shaped by the collaborative and expansive environment of the university.
