What a beautiful blur… an espresso fueled fever dream. So so honored to premiere Lucky Lu at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.
Merci Julien and the entire @quinzaine_des_cineastes team for making this week unforgettable for all of us.
Merci @global_constellation@wme@kmbo.films for championing the film.
Merci @giorgioarmani for the fit.
And to the cast and crew (and the 50+ that showed up)- you already know how I feel 🥹 Can’t wait to celebrate proper with everybody soon…
🏆 WRITER 🏆
The Writer Award recognizes a storyteller whose work meaningfully expands representation and deepens the cultural conversation through bold, intentional craft.
Lloyd Lee Choi broke through with Same Old, a quietly devastating short film that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and TIFF.
Following that breakthrough, Choi wrote and directed Lucky Lu, a feature that expands his exploration of identity and belonging with dark humor and sharp insight into community, resilience, and generational hope. Together, these works carve out space for stories of Asian diasporic life that are rarely centered in mainstream cinema.
For more information on the 2026 #UNFO Awards, visit unforgettableawards.com
From a short film at Cannes to an Indie Spirit nomination — Lucky Lu is a full-circle moment years in the making. Gold House is proud to have supported Lloyd Lee Choi across fellowships, production, and beyond.
đź‘Ź Film Independent voters: voting ends Feb 3.
Lucky Lu is slowly rolling out in theaters in 2026. First up is France, opening TODAY! It’s retitled “Les Lumière de New York” for just France. Friends over there, go see our film on the big screen in beautiful 16mm @kodak_shootfilm 🫶
For the entire @luckylufilm production, we were running away from constant bad weather (that would ruin continuity). On the last day of filming, we moved up call time to 4am to sneak in as much shooting time as possible before a giant afternoon snowstorm. We kept shooting and shooting, and the snow kept delaying, hour by hour. And we snuck in a full day, getting all our final shots. Minutes after we called wrap, snowflakes started falling. This video was a couple hours later, a magical moment of this beautiful city saying “you’re done now”. A surreal 2025 memory, among many others.
Thrilled by our Spirit Award noms for Best Lead Actor and Best Director!
Thank you @filmindependent and congrats to all the nominees who are keeping the indie spirit alive 🙌
Thank you @goldenhorsefilmfestival . What a week!
Couldn’t think of a better way to close out the @luckylufilm festival tour for 2025. Truly grateful to all the festival programmers and crews who screened our film and took care of us this year.
I flew to Taipei last August to meet Chang Chen. Three months later he’s on set in NYC, and three months after wrap, we’re premiering in Cannes. A year and three months since that first meeting, I’m back in Taipei buzzing as he accepts his award for Best Lead Actor. Teared up as @charleshumenry walked up for Best Original Score and found myself hugging Ang Lee for Best New Director. Will miss traveling with @nybongiovi@teezy319@norm_li and the rest of the LL fam. A whirlwind year…
Looking forward to sharing Lucky Lu with everyone in 2026 🚲
Lloyd Lee Choi's LUCKY LU follows the journey of Lu, a food delivery driver whose bike is stolen hours before his family arrives in the U.S. The film beautifully depicts the struggles and hopes of immigrants in the U.S., and explores sacrifice, survival, and immigrant resilience.
His first feature film, Choi created this work as an expansion of his own family’s history of emigrating from Korea to Canada. LUCKY LU premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, and is based on Choi's 2022 short SAME OLD, which premiered at Cannes and New York Film Festival and won honors at Toronto International Film Festival and Raindance.
Presented by the Vilcek Foundation, LUCKY LU will premiere at @hiffhawaii as part of the Vilcek Foundation supported #NewAmericanPerspectives program, which spotlights immigrant filmmakers.
Catch LUCKY LU at HIFF on Sunday, October 19th followed by a Q&A with Choi, and for an encore screening on Monday, October 20th.
🎟️ Visit the link in the bio to read more about Choi!
📸 Image 1: Still from LUCKY LU; Image 2: Headshot courtesy of Anna Stewart
LUCKY LU takes home The Young Talent Award at Filmfest Hamburg!
The prize honors the Best Debut Feature. Huge congratulations to Lloyd Lee Choi and his crew for this film, and to the Global Contellation team!
#filmfesthamburg #filmfestival #luckylu #awards #festivalseason
5 Golden Horse Awards nominations for Lucky Lu!
Chang Chen for Best Lead Actor
@lloydleechoi for Best New Director & Best Adapted Screenplay
@norm_li for Best Cinematography
@charleshumenry for Best Original Score
We’re truly honored. Congrats to all the other nominees!
See you in Taiwan in November 🚲
Busan ❤️
An incredible experience showing Lucky Lu to Korean audiences. I’ve never waved so much and I think we should all do it more. Can’t wait to be back!
@busanfilmfest
