The autobiographical drama inspired by the Vietnamese-American artist’s extraordinary life captured five major honors in Los Angeles, adding another milestone to a growing international journey.
LOS ANGELES — It was a defining night for Chrysalis.
The autobiographical feature inspired by the life of Vietnamese-American artist Sir Daniel K. Winn emerged as the biggest winner at the 2026 Los Angeles Tribune International Film Festival, taking home five awards during the festival’s closing celebrations at The Culver Theater. (The Los Angeles Tribune)
The film received Best Feature Film, with producers Tien Pham, J. Robert Schulz, Randall J. Slavin, Sir Daniel Winn and Steve Longi recognized for bringing the story to the screen.
The sweep continued with Best Director for J. Robert Schulz, Best Actress for Kieu Chinh, Best Child Actor for Uy Nhan, and Best Orchestral Score for Motion Picture for composer Elia Cmiral. (The Los Angeles Tribune)
For Winn, however, the significance of the evening extended considerably beyond the trophies.
Chrysalis is rooted in his own childhood and the upheaval surrounding his departure from Vietnam in 1975. The film follows the scars of separation, survival and displacement through the story of a boy forced to leave behind the grandmother who had been central to his early life. (The Los Angeles Tribune)
“My story was one to heal and give hope — to show that stories can move people beyond borders,” Winn said following the festival. (The Los Angeles Tribune)
From Fine Art to the Big Screen
The project represents an unusual convergence of Winn’s work across painting, sculpture and cinema.
Long before Chrysalis reached the festival circuit, Winn had built an international career as an artist and sculptor. His artistic philosophy, which he calls Existential Surrealism, explores questions surrounding existence, destiny, transformation and the human condition. (FML Magazine)
Those themes became deeply intertwined with Chrysalis.
Earlier this year, Winn received a Gold Medal from Mondial Art Academia for his bronze-and-Lucite sculpture Chrysalis and a Silver Medal for his oil painting Observation, another work connected with the broader Chrysalis series. (Morningstar)
The sculpture itself pays tribute to Winn’s grandmother, portrayed in the film by veteran Vietnamese-American actress Kieu Chinh. Its imagery centers on metamorphosis and the passage of time — ideas that ultimately became central to the film as well. (FML Magazine)
An International Journey
The Los Angeles recognition arrives after an increasingly international run for the film.
In May, Chrysalis screened at the Cannes Marché du Film. It later competed as an Official Selection at the Da Nang Asian Film Festival, where Kieu Chinh’s participation marked a particularly poignant return to Vietnam after a career spanning nearly seven decades. (The Los Angeles Tribune)
The film has also secured theatrical distribution in Vietnam, where it is scheduled for a nationwide September release. (IMDb)
That trajectory gives the Los Angeles sweep additional significance. A story originating in Winn’s memories of wartime Vietnam has traveled through international cinema before arriving in Southern California, the place where Winn eventually built much of his life and career.
Five Awards, One Story
There is an appealing symmetry to Chrysalis becoming an awards-night standout.
The movie is fundamentally about transformation — a child separated from the world he knew, an immigrant building another life, and an artist eventually returning to memories that remained unresolved for decades.
Winn has described making the film as a deeply personal process. In discussing the recreation of his childhood separation from his grandmother, he has spoken about the production providing a form of catharsis and allowing him, through cinema, to confront a goodbye he never truly had. (The Los Angeles Tribune)
That makes the five awards more than a conventional festival sweep.
Best Feature Film. Best Director. Best Actress. Best Child Actor. Best Orchestral Score.
Together, they recognize the different creative disciplines required to translate one person’s memories into a motion picture.
For Sir Daniel Winn, whose career has already moved across painting, sculpture, philanthropy and now filmmaking, Chrysalis may ultimately represent something even more personal: the moment when the story behind the artist became a work of art itself.
