#FIRSTLOOK: TORONTO REEL ASIAN 2026 PITCH! LIVE FINALE FINALISTS

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (Reel Asian), Canada’s largest pan-Asian film festival, today announces the five finalists for its 2026 Pitch! Live Finale competition. Celebrating 20 years of championing emerging filmmakers, Pitch! returns as the closing event of the festival’s milestone 30th edition, bringing audiences together to cheer on the next generation of Asian Canadian and Asian diasporic storytellers.

The five festival filmmakers will pitch their short film projects to a live jury and audience, with one winner receiving a prize package designed to help bring their film to life. The package includes a $5000 cash award, in-kind studio services and the opportunity to screen the completed film at the 31st edition of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival in 2027.

This year’s event will be hosted by Award-winning comedian and actor Andrew Phung (Run the Burbs, Kim’s Convenience), also a frequent guest artist, collaborator and supporter of Reel Asian. Andrew will again contribute to the Andrew Phung Jury Prize for Second Chances, a $1000 award to support a new filmmaker and fresh perspectives.

“It’s an honour to be back at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival to support the festival’s 30th anniversary and 20 years of Pitch!. Pitch! is such a meaningful platform to find new voices, and I can’t wait to see what this year’s finalists bring to the stage,” says Andrew Phung.

The Pitch! shortlist was selected by a jury composed of Reel Asian Board Member and Producer Michael Fukushima, filmmaker Prajj Rajj (Butter Chicken To Go) and Reel Asian Industry Coordinator, Chantal Leong.

Industry experts Zarrar Kahn, filmmaker of In Flames and Sara Jade Alfaro-Dehghani, filmmaker of Hair!, mentored the five finalists as they prepared to present their projects.

2026 PITCH FINALISTS

Project: Cerys and Cade Make A Curse

Sal Eigh
Born and raised in downtown Toronto, filmmaker Sal Eigh’s works explore the whimsically mundane moments of growing up. Gritty and pretty are two sides of the same coin in her universe. Her debut narrative short premiered at Korean Film Festival Canada in Montreal in 2022. Set in a skatepark, it showcases Sal’s interest in the lives of East Asian diaspora in urban spaces. A second short film furthers her world-building, centred around a trio of Korean protagonists in a fictional high school circa 1980. In 2023, Sal co-founded Productions Mauvais Oeil with her partner and collaborator Jonathan Degousée.

Jonathan Degousée
Jonathan is a French-born Canadian indie filmmaker. Through bold writing and striking visuals, his films explore modern existential dread and decaying urban landscapes. His debut short, Rats (2013), screened at festivals and markets in Toronto, Montréal, Atlanta, New York City and Clermont-Ferrand. Bad Dreams (2026) is his second short film.

Project: READ 2 FILTH

Nikita Zhang
An alum of the BIPOC TV & Film Writers Lab, Nikita aspires to bring honest queer and immigrant stories to screen. Her scripts have been selected to read at Writing The Scene in Rainbow and TIFF Next Wave. Currently, she’s developing a CBC Short Documentary on the phasing out of TTC tokens.

Roanna DeGuzman
Roanna is a lover, writer, and small faker when it comes to big truths. She is currently trying to find flow in her unravelling, hopefully she’ll gain some common sense!

Project: ABHAVA

Kalpit Patel
Toronto-based South Asian writer-director-producer telling stories most people avoid, where immigrant family silence, mental health stigma, and queer desire collide. His films explore the cost of living truthfully.

Project: Riflery

Ellie Tripp
A queer, Toronto and New York based filmmaker with a focus on documentary. They are currently finishing their BFA at NYU Tisch.

Project: Loving Living Things

Ellen Yuna Ahn
Toronto-based Korean-Canadian filmmaker trained in theatre directing at Central Saint Martins and participated in Reel Asian’s 2024 Unsung Voices Cohort. Her directing explores themes of faith, aging, and human connection.

This year’s Pitch! Live Jury comprises filmmaker and journalist Saman Malik, Impact Producer Chrisann Hessing and Filmmaker Marushka Almeida.

The 30th anniversary of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival runs from November 11 to 21, 2026, with selected feature films and all shorts available online across Canada from November 16 to 29, 2026. Reel Asian’s milestone edition celebrates three decades of contemporary cinema and work from Asian, Asian diasporic, and Asian Canadian filmmakers and artists.

Pitch! Live Finale Prize Packages

About Reel Asian
Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival is Canada’s largest pan-Asian film festival and a year-round cultural organization dedicated to championing Asian, Asian diasporic, and Asian Canadian artists and storytellers. Founded in Toronto in 1997, Reel Asian® presents film screenings, industry programs, educational initiatives, and community events that support emerging and established creators from Canada and around the world. This year, Reel Asian celebrates its 30th anniversary in-person from November 11–21 in downtown Toronto and online November 16–29 across Canada. Reel Asian is generously supported by Telefilm Canada, Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, the Province of Ontario, Canadian Heritage, Ontario Creates, the City of Toronto, and the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund.

#FIRSTLOOK: TORONTO REEL ASIAN INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL 2026 PROGRAMMING ANNOUNCEMENT

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (Reel Asian), Canada’s largest pan-Asian film festival, today announced its 2026 programming lineup, marking the festival’s 30th Anniversary. Running from November 11 to 21, 2026, with selected feature films and all shorts available online across Canada from November 16 to 29, 2026, Reel Asian’s milestone edition celebrates three decades of contemporary cinema and work from Asian, Asian diasporic, and Asian Canadian filmmakers and artists.

The 2026 lineup features 15 feature films and 42 short films, showcasing unique contemporary stories from Canada and around the world. The festival offers attendees 10 exciting days of galas, screenings, forums and workshops.

Opening this year’s festival is Ba’s Book, the latest film by Vietnamese-Canadian director Ashley Duong, who transforms her father’s memoir into an intimate cinematic portrait. Ba’s Book won the Documentary Magazine Award at the 2026 Cannes Docs, and recently had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The Centrepiece Gala presents Sunburn, the Best Canadian Film winner at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. A vibrant ode to Toronto, Sunburn unfolds on the hottest day of the year, when the popsicles are dripping, the pimples are popping, and the power is out. Best friends Vince and Shay head out into their neighbourhood in search of shade, encountering family, friends, and crushes along the way.

Other local filmmaker highlights include the 2001 charming documentary Film Club from the newly introduced Anniversary Screening programme, The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony, from three-time Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and journalist Habiba Nosheen; the coming-of-age drama The Bryce Lee Story, fresh from the Vancouver International Film Festival; Strong Son, the feature debut by Winnipeg’s Ian Bawa, a former Reel Asian participant who expanded his short film into a feature; and An Incomplete Calendar, the final documentary in Sanaz Sohrabi’s essay trilogy.

This year, Reel Asian has partnered with the Kaohsiung Film Festival to bring a diverse range of perspectives from Taiwan to Toronto. Views from the Pier is a selection of four shorts that explores wistful, ambivalent and restless connections across generations, reflecting on the many ways to navigate this thing called life.

The Shorts programme also features five other distinct categories: Parts & Labour, capturing stories of power and the forces shaping our cities; Alphabet Soup, where playfulness ventures beyond the bounds of imagination; What Blooms, What Lingers, a curious exploration of the tender spaces where cravings become intimacy; Advanced Lessons in Second Guessing, reconciling with your version of reality and the world in front of you; Spoiled, Rotten, Sour, giving voice to those who feel suffocated, unheard and vengeful; and returning for its 15th year is Unsung Voices, spotlighting six emerging Canadian filmmakers, each presenting a film they created this past summer under the guidance of Reel Asian.

Wee Asian brings its 10th edition to Toronto, creating a welcome space for all ages and generations to experience the festival together. The free drop-in programming offers relaxed film screenings, storytelling, arts and crafts, and plenty of time for rest or play.

“As we mark 30 years of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, we are reflecting on how the festival has grown and evolved alongside the Pan-Asian community of storytellers, filmmakers and audiences we have connected with,” said Deanna Wong, Executive Director of Reel Asian. “This milestone is an opportunity to honour the many voices that have shaped our history while embracing new ideas, perspectives and creating possibilities that will carry the festival forward for many generations to come.”

Julie Roy, Executive Director and CEO of Telefilm added, “Festivals such as Reel Asian hold a vital place in the global film ecosystem. As spaces for discovery and dialogue, they put films at the heart of the conversation and spark collective reflection, contributing to the vitality and reach of cinema from here and around the world.”

In celebration of Reel Asian’s 30th Anniversary, the expanded RA:X programme is the festival’s most ambitious yet. This year’s programme brings together a collection of VR films spanning from documentaries to experimental, including the Toronto premiere of The Book of Distance and Sense of Nowhere, which premiered at the 2025 Venice International FIlm Festival. Festivalgoers can also explore the RARARA Internet Cafe, a space to browse a curated selection of artist books, magazines, and zines while enjoying a delicious tea. At the Orbit Artists Residency Installations, visitors can experience the completed works of artists and researchers who were invited to rework archival film and materials transforming them into fully realised artist installations. Rounding out the RA:X programme is the Tricennium Reel Forever: Artist Talk presented by Philip Leonard Ocampo, who will take audiences through the design process of the limited edition 30th anniversary Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival Trading Cards.

Continuing in bringing audiences to the forefront of new technologies and developments in the screen industry is the Reel Ideas conference. This year’s panel highlights include First Read: Fresh Voices in TV hosted by Vivian Lin, Showrunner and Co-Creator of Crew Girl; Vertical Series: Finding Your Audience Where They Are, exploring how creators can connect with audiences through vertical storytelling; and a panel inspired by the Disability Screen Office’s newly launched Reframing Access: A Best Practices Guide on Disability Inclusion in Canada’s Screen Industry. This conversation will examine how filmmakers can establish inclusive accessibility practices across all stages of production and beyond.

Reel Asian closes its 30th edition with the annual Pitch! Competition, where audiences can join the fun and cheer on this year’s finalists. The event will be hosted by comedian and actor Andrew Phung (Run the Burbs, Kim’s Convenience), also a longtime friend, participant, and supporter of Reel Asian.

​Reel Asian acknowledges the generous support of Canada Media Fund, principal funder of the expanded RA:X program and Reel Asian’s TV Writing Program, whose participants will take part in First Read: Fresh Voices in TV. The Orbit Artists Residency Installations is made possible with the support of Canada Council for the Arts’ Public Outreach grant.

Please see Reel Asian’s programming highlights below. For the full Festival programme and schedule, please visit reelasian.com or view the Programme Guide here.

FEATURES
[*] indicates expected attendance

BA’S BOOK (OPENING NIGHT GALA)
Dir. Ashley Duong* | Canada 2026 | 103 min. | English, Vietnamese | GA
Filmmaker Ashley Duong had always wondered about her father’s story of escaping Vietnam and then the revolution in Iran, eventually finding his way to Canada. Unable to get answers, she made multiple trips to Vietnam, until to her surprise her father sent her an entire memoir of his experiences, forming the book Dear Da Lê. Duong responded to the book with more questions — and this remarkable documentary, Ba’s Book.

Duong and her reluctant father venture to Vietnam to meet with family to re-enact and challenge scenes from his memoir, revealing past joys and scars while giving voice to those he left behind. These are essential intergenerational conversations, approached with tenderness, humour, and care, but also rigorous determination. Not merely a family travelogue, Ba’s Book inventively uses film as a form to reimagine the lives of family members from multiple perspectives, to give windows to the past, and to find peace for the future. Ba’s Book stands alongside other great Canadian documentaries like Stories We Tell (2012), but for people from the diaspora, whose families have been ruptured and displaced by war. It is an extraordinary achievement in family and filmmaking.
WED, NOV 11 AT 7:30PM, HOT DOCS TED ROGERS CINEMA

HEARING (Thính Giác)
Dir. Bảo Lê | Vietnam, Singapore, Norway, France, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia, Thailand, Taiwan 2026 | 128 min. | Vietnamese | PG
In an exquisite pairing of sight and sound, Bảo Lê lures us into his sophomore feature, where vibrations define the existential rhythm of a rural Vietnamese outpost. Ninh, a mechanic who installs decibel meters across public and private spaces, is trapped in his own personal silence, caring for his ailing mother while estranged from his wife and children.

Integrating an impressionistic soundscape and a non-linear, liminal arrangement of multi-timeline vignettes, Hearing explores the profound, immeasurable qualities of emotional isolation and the quiet buildup of human resentment. Sharing the same cinematic DNA as the distinct tradition of Southeast Asian slow cinema, the film will transport audiences into a contemplative experience where memory and reality share a porous divide, and the distinctions among our senses begin to dissolve.
THURS, NOV 12 AT 7:45PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4

THE BANQUET (잔치)
Dir. Gloria Ui Young Kim* | Canada 2026 | 105 min. | English, Korean | PG
Sunny Park’s world is … complicated. A single mom and successful ad executive, she discovers her life partner — who is also her boss — is cheating on her, and leaves both him and her job. WIth more time on her hands, Sunny is challenged by her hyper-critical mother to take over the cooking for her family’s upcoming Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) celebration — and the family restaurant. Meanwhile, the chef next door is starting to show interest and her boss wants her back, much to the chagrin of daughter Trinity (Joy Lho, in her feature debut). Faced with the choice between a life of stability or new challenges, what will she do?

Gloria Ui Young Kim follows up her debut feature with another strong-female-centred film in The Banquet. Longtime Reel Asian alum Kim has produced a charming, culturally specific take on the traditional rom-com. The cast is anchored by an assured Vicki Kim, who shows great comedic timing in her first starring role, and the scene-stealing Park Hye-jin (Netflix’s Squid Game) as her mother, with strong support from Erniel Baez and Nicole Stamp.
FRI, NOV 13 AT 5:15PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 3

10S ACROSS THE BORDERS
Dir. Sze-Wei Chan | Philippines, Singapore 2026 | 100 min. | English, Mandarin, Thai, Malay, Tagalog, Norwegian | PG
An intimate and joyful documentary profiling the emerging ballroom scene across Southeast Asia, 10s Across the Borders captures what it means to come from a long lineage of LGBTQ+ trailblazers, and how to carry the torch onto untested grounds. Part documentary, part dance film, the electrifying performances and arresting visuals will appeal to ballroom fans’ wide embrace of dance, fashion, and performance.

Born from Black and Latino trans and queer communities in New York in the 1970s, the ballroom scene has grown internationally and has become a safe place for chosen family and radical self-expression. Hailing from legendary houses, Xyza Pinklady Mizrahi (Philippines), Aurora Sun Labeija (Thailand), and Teddy Neverland Oricci (Malaysia) provide us with an inner look on what it takes to carve out a space for their community amidst a world of transphobia and homophobia, while honouring the history that has paved the path for them to do so.
FRI, NOV 13 AT 8:15PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 3

FILM CLUB (ANNIVERSARY SCREENING)
Dir. Cyrus Sundar Singh* | Canada 2001 | 44 min. | English | GA
In 1971, Canada became the first country in the world to recognize multiculturalism as official government policy. In that context, 11-year-old Cyrus Sundar Singh joined an after-school film club whose members all happened to be the children of immigrants. While learning to love film, they also grappled with their identities — were they Chinese, Indian, or Italian? Were they Canadian? Together, they made a short film that explored these ideas and more.

In this charming and deeply nostalgic 2001 documentary, Sundar Singh reunites his classmates to talk about their experiences growing up in a multicultural Toronto neighbourhood — the everyday racism and bullying and the struggles at home, and how the club gave them a sense of belonging that their country did not yet offer.

Now, on the 25th anniversary of the release of Film Club, we revisit those questions: How far have we as Canadian society come?
SAT, NOV 14 AT 10:00AM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4

MUYI (Muyi, la légende du village des femmes)
Dir. Julien Chheng | France 2026 | 90 min. | French | PG

Myths can often bring us closer to certain truths, to grasp the in/tangible and make meaning out of the in/explicable. With a strong belief in mythmaking to process realities, director Julien Chheng and co-writer Sujuan Xu transport us into the lush and exhaustive world of Muyi, a spunky girl who is raised in a secluded village on a mountaintop where men are forbidden. After witnessing the performance of The Handsome General by a travelling opera troupe, Muyi sets off on an epic journey accompanied by a motley crew of companions and an evocative original score by Amin Goudarzi.

There is no simple brushstroke when it comes to Muyi, an independent production that took nearly 10 years to complete and an impressive feat within the animation world. Just as Muyi is compelled by the Handsome General, we are compelled by her character, companions, and the myths about her world, which are intentionally grounded within real people, traditions, customs, and lived experiences. Ultimately, Muyi becomes a myth for self-acceptance to dream, hold on to, and retell.
SAT, NOV 14 AT 10:00AM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 3

BRUNCH WITH A DEPRESSED ZOMBIE (우울한 좀비와 브런치)
Dir. Kim Eun-young* | South Korea 2026 | 105 min. | Korean | PG
Sun-woo and Byung-jin, a couple in their 30s, move to Byung-jin’s hometown in the countryside, hoping it will help Sun-woo’s depression. But a zombie virus disrupts their plans — and Sun-woo gets infected. The two must find a way to evade conspiracy theorists who are trying to expose what they believe are the local government’s efforts to hide the town’s outbreak.

While the premise sounds like a boilerplate zombie thriller, Brunch with a Depressed Zombie flips the genre through a gentle examination of loving relationships. The film asks: How do we care for our loved ones through great life changes? Can we still love them in the same way? Can that care be carried out through an entire community? This love story shows how our answers to these questions make for better lives, no matter the challenges.
SAT, NOV 14 AT 12:15PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 3

STRONG SON
Dir. Ian Bawa* | Canada 2026 | 85 min. | English, Punjabi | PG
Ian Bawa expands his short of the same name into his feature debut, continuing a body of work that explores family, masculinity, and mental health. At its centre is Harvinder “Harvey” Singh (Mandeep Sodhi), a former bodybuilder now caring for his aging father. Early on, his father tells him he needs to grow his legs — a seemingly simple piece of advice that carries the weight of a lifetime of ideas about what it means to be a strong man.

But what is strength? Building big legs? Or finding the courage to ask out your work crush? As Harvinder confronts the fears that have held him back, he takes new risks, from discovering a passion for pro wrestling to seeking mental health support. With warmth and humour, Bawa brings us closer to Harvinder and the complicated bond between father and son, offering a moving portrait of two men learning that strength can also mean vulnerability, change, and letting others in.
SAT, NOV 14 AT 3:30PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 3

PINBALL
Dir. Naveen Chaubal* | USA 2026 | 86 min. | English, Arabic | GA
Yosef, 19, and his family are building a new life in the United States, catalyzed by the country’s 2003 invasion of Iraq and shaped by years of displacement in Egypt before finally settling in Louisville, Kentucky. Now in college but disillusioned by his options, Yosef stands at a quiet crossroads. Spirited yet untethered, he is caught in the friction of a fractured, first-generation identity, longing to anchor himself to his roots while navigating a world that demands he forget them. While his parents encourage a path that promises security over fulfillment, his younger sister, Azra, returns to Egypt and discovers a liberating sense of belonging, giving Yosef new perspective.

Through a palpable trust built with Yosef and his community, Naveen Chaubal’s intimate and observant approach offers a timely and contemplative narrative, exploring the cultural dissonance and intergenerational gaps felt by young Arab Americans today. Powerfully dismantling traditional, sanitized assimilation narratives, Chaubal honours a rising generation that refuses to accept the loss of culture and heritage as the price of the American dream.
SAT, NOV 14 AT 5:15PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4

THE BRYCE LEE STORY
Dir. Arnold Lim* | Canada 2026 | 87 min. | English, Mandarin | PG
It’s the 1990s, and Bryce and Mei Lee’s parents have sent them from Hong Kong to Vancouver Island to stay with their uncle and work at his Chinese restaurant. To pass the time, they make home movies with a video camera their dad sent with them. But 13-year-old Bryce wants to level up, make some new friends, and — most importantly — get super popular through filmmaking. The quickest way to do that? Tell everyone he knows Bruce Lee.

As Bryce develops a kung fu film that helps him ascend in popularity, his lies compound as he obsesses over finishing, while alienating his sister and uncle. Arnold Lim’s second feature, The Bryce Lee Story, is a classic coming-of-age film told with charm and wit and featuring a talented young cast. A film about filmmaking, it shows the collateral damage of chasing the dream of fame as well as the cost of lying to others — and one’s self.
SAT, NOV 14 AT 6:00PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 3

NO GOOD MEN
Dir. Shahrbanoo Sadat | Germany, France, Norway, Denmark, Afghanistan 2026 | 103 min. | Dari, Pashto | PG
As the sole camerawoman at Kabul’s state television network, Naru navigates a daily battleground of misogyny just to hold her rightful place. Trapped in a bitter separation from an unfaithful, abusive husband and unable to demand a divorce without sacrificing custody of her young son, she is hardened by these realities and her worldview is absolute: There are no good men left. That’s until, on the precipice of the August 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Naru is thrust upon the front lines of the news department and paired with Qodrat, a married reporter whose disarming kindness and quiet empathy begin to fracture her cynicism.

Directed by and starring Shahrbanoo Sadat in a remarkable dual role, No Good Men is a distinctly woman-centred narrative, masterfully balancing realism with a deeply poetic, romantic drama exploring relationships in a patriarchal society. What emerges is a nuanced, emotionally resonant portrait of imperfect people finding an inexplicable connection as their country’s trajectory is altered forever.
SAT, NOV 14 AT 8:45PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 3

THE GYMNASTS OF FISHERMAN COLONY
Dir. Habiba Nosheen* | Canada, Pakistan 2026 | 92 min. | Urdu, English, Bengali | GA
Nestled in the lively, bustling neighbourhood of Karachi’s Machar Colony (also known as Fisherman Colony) is a school for girls, where they learn to read, write, and — on their own insistence — learn gymnastics. Born into an undocumented community and systemically barred from formal work and basic human rights, these spirited young athletes carve out their own spaces for joy and freedom in every awe-inspiring flip, twist, and tumble.

Embedding herself in their world, three-time Emmy Award-winning director Habiba Nosheen’s empathetic lens captures the triumphs, setbacks, and heartwarming sisterhood of these athletes as they train for the National Women’s Gymnastics Championship. Given the rare agency to articulate their lives, the girls share dreams and aspirations that often clash with their seemingly predestined realities. An emotionally captivating portrait of coming of age, friendship, and the power of letting young girls dream, The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony will have you cheering for every poised handstand and thrilling leap these girls accomplish.
SUN, NOV 15 AT 4:15PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 2

SUNBURN (CENTREPIECE GALA)
Dir. Serville Poblete* | Canada 2026 | 82 min. | English | PG
It’s the hottest day of the year. The popsicles are dripping, the pimples are popping, and the power is out. Best friends Vince and Shay wander outside, looking for shade in their Toronto St. James Town neighbourhood. Family, friends, and crushes are all outside, too. The vibes are immaculate.

Taking a classic “day-in-the-life” form, we are treated to vignettes and conversations that on their surface seem ordinary but build to reveal each young character’s anxiety about the clash between their carefree present and uncertain future.

Joining the (recent) tradition of shining a light on underseen pockets of Toronto, Serville Poblete’s Sunburn is a reverent ode to his vibrant neighbourhood and a breezy tribute to those days you wish would never end, tinged with the wistful knowledge that they always will.
SUN, NOV 15 AT 7:00PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 2

STRAWBERRY FIELDS (ANNIVERSARY SCREENING)
Dir. Rea Tajiri | USA 1997 | 90 min. | English | 14A
It’s the turbulent 1970s in Chicago, and Irene is burning — burning to get out of town, burning bridges along the way. Haunted by the death of her sister, haunted by the family secrets her parents won’t share, Irene and her naive boyfriend Luke skip town on a journey to San Francisco, meeting the alluring, militant Japanese American activists Aura and Mark along the way. As Irene explores her past, she changes course in order to reveal the truth of her family — and to set it ablaze.

Directed by renowned American filmmaker Rea Tajiri and co-written by award-winning Canadian author Kerri Sakamoto, Strawberry Fields is a daring dive into the traumas of the Sansei generation. Through a brave exploration of the cynical post-’60s era combined with bold flourishes from archival images, this narrative feature film is as daring today as it was 30 years ago in 1997, when it had its Canadian premiere at the first Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival.
TUES, NOV 17 AT 7:30PM, INNIS TOWN HALL

AN INCOMPLETE CALENDAR
Dir. Sanaz Sohrabi | Canada, Iran, Turkey, Venezuela 2026 | 77 min. | Arabic, English, Farsi, Spanish | GA
In a striking finale to her documentary essay trilogy, director Sanaz Sohrabi continues her exploration of resource extraction across Iran and West Asia with An Incomplete Calendar. Using a remarkable wealth of archival material seamlessly woven into a creative, scrapbook-style tapestry, the film centres on a rare and surprising artifact: the vinyl record of Rhymes and Songs for OPEC, or the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, recorded by the Concert Choir of the Central University of Venezuela to commemorate OPEC’s 20th anniversary.

Interweaving rarely seen news clippings, expert testimony, and her own astute narrative voice, Sohrabi masterfully unpacks a complex history with gripping accessibility. Contrasting nations that viewed oil strictly as a market commodity against those that sought to use it as political leverage for Palestinian liberation struggles and pan-Arab solidarity movements, An Incomplete Calendar is told with singular creative vision, standing as a timeless record of seismic political shifts and providing an essential historical blueprint to understanding the fractured geopolitics of our world today.
WED, NOV 18 AT 7:00PM, INNIS TOWN HALL

GOD SKIN (หมัดเทวา ท้าเดิมพัน)
Dir. Paween Purijitpanya | Thailand 2026 | 126 min. | Thai | 14A
Win is a struggling gig worker whose mom is sick — and the hospital bills are about to force them out of their home. By chance, an old schoolmate gives Win the opportunity to make a quick buck by fighting in an underground MMA venue. But to his surprise, his high school sweetheart Praewa works there as a hostess. Together, Win and Praewa come to terms with the harsh reality that their bodies are their only way out of debt.

And this isn’t just any fight night. Combatants are inked with tattoo nanobots (a.k.a. “god skin”) that give them unreal power-ups according to the betting audience’s whims. As Win bruises his way through the ranks, will he and Praewa get a storybook ending?

God Skin features the hallmarks of the best maximalist action movies: bone-crunching action (from the team behind 2003’s Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior); fantastical, video-game-like set pieces; and pointed social critique about control and greed, with winking nods to the tropes of the genre all along the way. Noice!
THURS, NOV 19 AT 7:00PM, INNIS TOWN HALL

SHORTS

This year’s Shorts programming includes:

PARTS & LABOUR: Consider the rhythms of labour: in the home, at the workplace, and on the streets. These films capture the stories of those who power our cities and ask, “How do we better meet each other where we are at?
THURS, NOV 12 AT 5:30PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4

ALPHABET SOUP: One day, you choose to look beyond the stadium show and find yourself in the cracks of the stage. There, you encounter charm, playfulness, and invention beyond imagination. Do you venture in?
FRI, NOV 13 AT 6:00PM AT TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4

WHAT BLOOMS, WHAT LINGERS: We are all guided by desires — some physical, some emotional, some impossible to name. These films explore the tender spaces where craving becomes intimacy, curiosity becomes discovery, and desire leaves a trace.
FRI, NOV 13 AT 8:45PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4

VIEWS FROM THE PIER: TAIWAN SHORTS: We present a collection of short films from the Kaohsiung Film Festival. These shorts present a diverse set of perspectives from Taiwan — wistful, ambivalent, and restless connections across generations of people trying to get through this thing called life.
SAT, NOV 14 AT 12:00PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4

ADVANCED LESSONS IN SECOND GUESSING: Perhaps it’s time to reconcile your version of reality with the world that’s in front of you. It may be more distant than you’d care to admit.
SAT, NOV 14 AT 2:45PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4

SPOILED, ROTTEN, SOUR: Under suspicious circumstances, you wonder if the entities around you are withholding your full autonomy. Do you fight back?
SAT, NOV 14 AT 8:00PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4

UNSUNG VOICES 15: This past summer, six emerging filmmakers embarked on a months-long filmmaking workshop. We’re proud to present their world premieres here in the 15th edition of Reel Asian’s filmmaking programme.
SUN, NOV 15 AT 1PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 2

RA:X
In the spirit of Reel Asian’s 30th anniversary, the extended reality (XR) programme this year is both a retrospective celebrating the breadth of work in immersive media and an opening for playful explorations of how established and emerging artists are exercising their right to speak their truth into reality.

EXPANDED DIS/CLOSURES KEYNOTE: ANA SERRANO
Ana Serrano, president and vice-chancellor of OCAD University, is the recipient of Reel Asian’s 2026 Fire Horse Award honouring trailblazers of the Asian Canadian media arts community.

An award-winning producer, visionary leader, and innovator in Canada’s arts and creative industries, she has continually pushed boundaries in media while expanding opportunities for artists across the country. A Reel Asian alumna as a producer on innovative projects such as live cinema/theatre musical Prison Dancer (RA’12) and VR experience Yumi and Boom (RA’17) and countless other internationally recognized projects, Serrano has produced work that bridges creativity, technology, and cultural leadership, shaping new ways in which stories are made, shared, and experienced.

Join Serrano in opening our Expanded Dis/Closures exhibition and conference with this keynote address discussing ever-changing media and the role of creators in the challenges of our time.
FRI, NOV 13 AT 5:00PM, VENUE TBC; SARI-SARI RECEPTION AT 7:00PM, OCAD UNIVERSITY – OPEN SPACE GALLERY

VR PROJECTS
Expanded Dis/Closures probes what constitutes truth and reality — and on whose terms. Taking reality as a continuum that is always in the making, this programme explores themes of reiteration, revisiting, and return in media formats including 360-degree cinema and docufiction, VR theatre, and interactive and multiplayer XR.

EXPANDED DIS/CLOSURES – XR SUMMIT
Reel Asian’s XR Summit is a space for dialogue between emerging and established artists and studios, professionals from the industry, media scholars, and the wider communities who will connect and explore the state of the creative industries and the market trends leading innovation within the domains of XR and spatial media, both globally and locally.
MON, NOV 16, 10:00AM–7:00PM | OCAD UNIVERSITY – SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES

RARARA INTERNET CAFE
The RARARA Internet Cafe is your chill and lounge space during the festival season! Hop into our computer booths to peruse the digital archive, spend some down time between screenings at our library, see the artist installations, or engage in our many activities, from the trading-card post to the communal stop-motion activity.
MON-FRI: 11:00AM–7:00PM, SAT-SUN: 10:00AM–7:00PM | THE GLASS ROOM AT 401 RICHMOND BUILDING

ORBIT ARTIST RESIDENCY INSTALLATIONS
The Orbit Artist Residency was a three-month programme inviting artists and researchers to engage with the film festival archive. Residents were free to take any direction they wanted with the material, and they produced short dispatches of works-in-process, reflections, and artwork. They further developed these in the early fall into fully formed artist installations. Come visit the RARARA Internet Cafe to see their completed works!

30TH ANNIVERSARY TRADING CARDS: TRICENNIUM REEL FOREVER
For the festival’s 30th anniversary, RARARA commissioned Toronto artist Philip Leonard Ocampo to design a deck of 30 collectible trading cards inspired by the festival archive. The deck features 30 unique designs, one for each year of festival history. It also features a special rare-pull holographic card, designed by Jeffrey Kam. Card packs of four can be purchased and traded at the RARARA Internet Cafe throughout the festival.

WEE ASIAN
Turning 10 this year, Wee Asian cultivates a place for all ages and generations to experience the festival together. Come and join our free drop-in programming, featuring relaxed film screenings, storytelling, arts and crafts, and time for play or rest!

More information on activities can be found at reelasian.com/weeasian.

This year’s Wee Asian short film lineup includes:

NANU!
India | 2025 | Directed by Ansh Sirohi

BASE TRANQUILITY
Canada | 1970 | Directed by Keith Lock and James Anderson

FLY
Canada | 2024 | Directed by Luo Li

I FLY WHEN NO ONE’S WATCHING
Japan | 2026 | Directed by Hana Takubo

WANDA & MILES
Canada | 2027| Directed by Lesley Loksi Chan

A PRAIRIE STORY
Canada | 2026 | Anne Koizumi

YOUR LITTLE KAIJU
Canada | 2026 Mari Beatriz Nicole Ramizo

REEL IDEAS
Reel Ideas brings storytellers, artists, and industry voices together to share how the work gets made, the risks that push stories forward, and the ideas that challenge what audiences expect. Discover new work, meet the people shaping what comes next, connect with future collaborators, and take home the skills and insight to bring your own vision to life.

BA’S BOOK: ARTIST TALK WITH ASHLEY DUONG
Ashley Duong’s Ba’s Book, Reel Asian’s opening night film, begins with her father’s memoir and unfolds with the process of recreating her family’s history of war, displacement, and migration from Vietnam. Moving between documentary, staged scenes, and intimate moments with her family, Duong uses filmmaking itself to uncover memories and guide emotion. She will unpack the creative choices behind the film — from form and performance to image and editing — and how each became a way of making space for her family while finding authenticity in the process of telling their story.
THURS, NOV 12 AT 2:00PM | 401 COMMONS LOBBY

VERTICAL SERIES: FINDING YOUR AUDIENCE WHERE THEY ARE
Rent A Plus-One, one of the first vertical series to receive funding from the Canadian government, offers a case study in what happens when filmmakers build for a vertical frame. Its creators unpack their journey from traditional web series to vertical, exploring what changes when you write, block, direct, and produce for the format, from creative choices to budgets and shooting schedules. The session examines how filmmakers can use verticals to work within limited resources, reach audiences online, and open new pathways to financing and distribution.
MON, NOV 16 AT 6:30 PM | 401 COMMONS LOBBY

REFRAMING ACCESS: A CONVERSATION ON EQUITY, INCLUSION AND ACCESSIBILITY
Drawing on the Disability Screen Office’s newly launched Reframing Access: A Best Practices Guide on Disability Inclusion in Canada’s Screen Industry, this conversation will explore how filmmakers can establish inclusive accessibility practices across all stages of production and beyond. Participants will work through practical strategies for identifying and removing barriers, creating more inclusive working environments, and implementing more equitable practices across the screen-based sector.
TUES, NOV 17 AT 6:30PM | 401 COMMONS LOBBY

BUILDING THE IMAGE: A CAREER IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
How do cinematographers build sustainable careers while developing their craft across different formats, genres, and production models? This all-cinematographer conversation explores the paths that led them to television and film, and how they continue to build their craft and sustain themselves through commercials, smaller productions, shorts, and gig work while making the leap to larger-scale productions.

The discussion will also examine the cinematographer’s relationship with the director, including how creative dynamics shift between independent film and television, and how fluidity and trust between the two can shape a safe, efficient, and collaborative production.
WED, NOV 18 AT 6:30PM | 401 COMMONS LOBBY

FIRST READ: FRESH VOICES IN TV
Writers from Reel Asian’s TV Writing Program bring their original series to the table for a live reading of selected scenes, presented in collaboration with ACTRA Toronto. Professional actors bring the characters and stories to life, followed by a reception with the writers, performers, and industry guests.

Sara Jade Alfaro-Dehghani
TV Project Title: The Olde Guard
Logline: In the cutthroat world of Niagara Falls dinner theatre, an aging king facing obsolescence and his ambitious young replacement forge an unlikely alliance in their fight for survival, exposing the darkly ridiculous power struggles behind Canada’s most beloved fantasy franchise.

Srutika Sabu
TV Project Title: Peaked
Logline: The ghost of a girlboss tech executive fails to haunt her husband and childhood rival as they make a legacy-defining documentary about recovering her corpse from Mount Everest. But the down-on-her luck cinematographer who can see her has a question: Why is she still fighting for the man who left her on a mountain?

Jaskaran Singh
TV Project Title: There Are No Heroes
Logline: The son of a drunk and abusive Indian psychic goes back in time to kill his father, and must come to terms with his superhuman abilities. When he discovers others have transformed their childhood trauma into extraordinary powers, he must protect them from a world determined to destroy what it doesn’t understand.

Claudine Yip
TV Project Title: Eternal Affairs
Logline: When a woman unexpectedly dies the day before her 29th birthday, she’s in for the shock of her afterlife when her ashes are sold into a ghost marriage with a dead man she’s never met. To escape the arrangement, she strikes a deal with the Grim Reaper, only to grow closer to her new husband while unravelling the truth behind their entangled pasts.

Mayumi Yoshida
TV Project Title: Homestaying
Logline: With the arrival of new homestay Ayana, a group of misfit immigrants in East Vancouver form an unlikely family and deal with their dreams, relationships, and identity as they try to find a place to belong in their home away from home.
THURS, NOV 19 AT 7:30PM | IT’S OK* STUDIOS

CUED UP: MUSIC VIDEO PANEL & PARTY
Music videos can turn a song into a visual world, giving us new ways to experience the music we listen to — whether we’re watching with friends at a party or alone at 2 a.m. when we can’t fall asleep. What draws us in and what makes a music video stay with us? Hear from directors, producers, and creatives working across music and visual media about building worlds around songs, collaborating with artists, and finding new ways to connect music and image while navigating tight budgets and production schedules.
FRI, NOV 20 AT 7:30PM | IT’S OK* STUDIOS

PITCH!
Celebrating 20 years of Reel Asian’s pitch competition, five finalist filmmakers will take the stage to pitch their projects to a live jury and audience. One will win a prize package designed to help bring their short film to life, including a cash award, in-kind studio packages, and the opportunity to screen the completed film at the 31st edition of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival.
SAT, NOV 21 AT 7:00PM | BATHURST STREET THEATRE

About Reel Asian
Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival is Canada’s largest pan-Asian film festival and a year-round cultural organization dedicated to championing Asian, Asian diasporic, and Asian Canadian artists and storytellers. Founded in Toronto in 1997, Reel Asian® presents film screenings, industry programs, educational initiatives, and community events that support emerging and established creators from Canada and around the world. This year, Reel Asian celebrates its 30th anniversary in-person from November 11–21 in downtown Toronto and online November 16–29 across Canada. Reel Asian is generously supported by Telefilm Canada, Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, the Province of Ontario, Canadian Heritage, Ontario Creates, the City of Toronto, and the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund.

#FIRSTLOOK: 2025 REEL ASIAN WINNERS ANNOUNCED

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (Reel Asian), Canada’s largest pan-Asian film festival, is pleased to announce that Montréal, ma belle directed by Xiaodan He has won the RBC Best Canadian Film Award at the 2025 Festival. Also, I Am A Flower directed by Ariel Victor Arthanto was awarded the Wattpad WEBTOON Studios Best Short Film Award. The Reel Asian Awards will be celebrated with an Awards brunch on Sunday, November 9, bringing together filmmakers, jury, and industry partners in attendance. The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival has begun and runs until November 15 and online from November 10 – 23, 2025. For more details, visit reelasian.com.

“As we approach Reel Asian’s 30th year, we’re inspired by the incredible quality and creativity of the submissions we continue to receive,” said Deanna Wong, Executive Director of Reel Asian. “The unprecedented number of entries reflect the festival’s continued growth and impact on Asian cinema globally. Congratulations to all the award winners whose artistry continues to raise the bar.”

The 2025 Features Jury includes Elizabeth Wijaya, Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Studies and the Cinema Studies Institute at the University of Toronto and producer of Mongrel (Directors’ Fortnight, Caméra d’Or Special Mention, Cannes 2024), Viet and Nam (Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2024) and Taste (Special Jury Award, Berlinale 2021); Lucius Dechausay, Executive in Charge of Production at CBC Documentaries and an award-winning director, producer, and editor; and filmmaker Zarrar Kahn, whose debut feature, In Flames, won the John Dunning Best Debut Feature at the Canadian Screen Awards and represented Pakistan at the 2024 Academy Awards®.

The 2024 Shorts Jury includes writer, programmer and cultural worker Winnie Wang; director, producer, editor, and Diaspora Film Festival programmer Ksan Lee (Miracle on Jongno Street); and 2021 Reel Asian’s So You Think You Can Pitch? winner and award-winning filmmaker Nedda Sarshar (Unibrow).

Reel Asian continues its commitment to supporting diverse voices with the annual Fire Horse Award, recognising an Asian Canadian in the media arts or screen-based industries who have dedicated their energy and talents to breaking down barriers, uplifting Asian Canadian communities, and sparking cultural change. Past Award recipients include Keith Lock, Mary Stephen, Paul Wong and Ali Kazimi. Reel Asian is currently accepting nominations for next year’s Fire Horse Award recipient. More details can be found here.

The 29th Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival will wrap up its in-person events with the annual So You Think You Can Pitch? Live Finale on Saturday, November 15, hosted by Rakhee Morzaria (Run the Burbs, Dinner with Friends). Five emerging filmmaking teams will go head-to-head, presenting their short film ideas to a panel of distinguished jurors for a prize package to help bring their project to life. This exciting finale celebrates the innovative and creative stories that define the future of Asian Canadian cinema.

The festival will continue to screen select films online until November 23, extending access to audiences across Canada.

Full list of Reel Asian award winners for the 29th edition:

RBC Best Canadian Feature Film Award
MONTRÉAL, MA BELLE by Xiaodan He

Xiaodan He’s sophomore offering is a deeply-felt portrait of womanhood, family and identity. Joan Chen is nothing short of a revelation as Feng, a character imbued with delicate power. The film is a window into contemporary Montreal, capturing the romance of the city and the rich intersectionality of its citizens. Xiaodan He crafts a tender poem of a film, that aches with a beating passion — for love, for family, and for being true to oneself. The jury is compelled to award the RBC Best Canadian Feature Film Award to Montréal, ma belle.

Dipchand LLP Best Feature Film Award
FUCKTOYS by Annapurna Sriram

This glistening film uses confident and inventive film language to create a hilarious and luscious, alternate but familiar world that is tender and cruel, and irreverent yet deeply critical. It builds beautifully messy vignettes that shine a light on people who are usually made invisible. It pushes cinema forward, reminding the audience of how storytelling can transform and challenge perspectives. The film is a wild, rollicking ride from start to finish, with stellar performances, production design, costumes and cinematography. The multi-hyphenate director establishes themselves as a revolutionary voice, while paying homage to the trailblazing artists who came before them — part John Waters, part Gregg Araki, part something that feels intangibly fresh and exciting. The jury awards Best Feature to Annapurna Sriram’s Fucktoys.

Osler Best First Feature Award
AKASHI by Mayumi Yoshida

In this beautifully crafted film, our protagonist Kana struggles with her sense of duty, place and worthiness of love after leaving those who cared for her to chase her own dreams. She can rest assured that because of her art she holds a fond place in the hearts of the jurors.

With its picturesque cinematography, graceful characterisation and mature storytelling, the jury is happy to award the intimate yet ambitious Akashi with the Osler Award for Best First Feature.

Reel Asian–DOC Institute Best Documentary Award
THERE ARE NO WORDS by Min Sook Lee

At once brave, beautiful, and heartbreaking, there are no answers in this investigation of transgenerational silences intertwined with personal and political histories of migration, violence, and family secrets. This haunting film is a moving ode to living on in the face of grief and difficult inheritances. The jury awards the Reel Asian–DOC Institute Best Documentary Award

Air Canada Short Film or Video Award
KARUPY by Kalainithan Kalaichelvan

MOTEL GRAND-PRÉ by Calvin Liu

HAIR! by Sara Jade Alfaro-Dehghani

BUGSICK by Silverfish Pictures

WE WERE THE SCENERY by Christopher Radcliff

The jury put a great deal of thought into the selection of the five films for this year’s Air Canada Short Film or Video Award. The final selection represents the diversity of talent, vision and form behind all films selected at the festival. From a matriarch’s rebellious stance at a family gathering to an intimate portrayal of a family-run business in eastern Quebec to a ritualistic hair removal merging culture and sisterhood to a sad bug’s healing process after a breakup to a refugee couples venture into film, this selection brings an experience that delivers the heart and truth of the human experience, and the bravery needed to deliver it.

Wattpad WEBTOON Studios Best Short Film Award
I AM A FLOWER by Ariel Victor Arthanto

This film presents a profound story of self-affirmation and the embracement of others, showing a compelling narrative of both conflict and reconciliation. Above all, this film serves as a crucial political message calling for respect for diversity in an era of rising far-right extremism. For recreating these essential virtues with such bold and lucid strokes, we proudly present the Wattpad WEBTOON Studios Best Short Film Award to director Ariel Victor Arthanto for I am a Flower.

SAMANSA Short Film Award
THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS by Elham Ehsas

This year’s SAMANSA Short Film Award recognises There Will Come Soft Rains as the winner for its tender yet unwavering depiction of the looming threat of climate change that haunts both the living and even the dead; the great lengths our protagonist takes to protect her beloved father from rising sea levels and ensure posterity is a powerful testament to love amidst a sinking world.

Directors Guild of Canada–Ontario and WIFT+ Toronto Film Award
SAME TIME NEXT YEAR? by Anushay Sheikh

In their debut fiction work, Anushay Sheikh brilliantly crafts a world shared by two former lovers through words that are spoken and unspoken, gazes that are returned and unreturned, and touches that must be deferred to an uncertain future. Within the affordances and limitations of the short film format, Sheikh shows great promise as a director who locates cultural specificity, conveys emotional depth, and above all, understands that what is on screen is equally important as what is left off-screen. For these reasons, we are pleased to grant Same Time Next Year? the DGC Ontario & WIFT+ Toronto Film Award.

Armstrong Acting Studios Outstanding Performer in a Canadian Short Film
SUMATHY BALARAM for Karupy

It is the jury’s pleasure to name the Armstrong Acting Studios Outstanding Performer in a Canadian Short Film Award to Sumathy Balaram for her portrayal of the main character, Karupy. The jury was beyond impressed by her subtle and restrained performance that conveyed the rage simmering beneath her character’s stoicism. Her remarkable chemistry with the ensemble, as well as the commanding presence she brings to solitary moments on screen, make her performance unforgettable. As the manipulative matriarch at the story’s core, Balaram delivers a portrayal that is somehow chilling, hilarious and deeply human—an extraordinary achievement that left us in awe.

Michael Fukushima AnimAsian Award
THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOVE by Jin

It is not easy to recreate personal stories through film. Yet, this short film fiercely reconstructs inner struggles and competing identities – all with a hand drawn touch. In doing so, the director freely expresses the vitality of their identities and affirms the complexities of selfhood. We highly commend the director’s artistic courage by presenting this year’s Michael Fukushima AnimAsian Award to director Jin for Thank You For Your Love.

Canadian Society of Cinematographers Best Cinematography Award
Winner of Best Cinematography: Calvin Liu for MOTEL GRAND PRÉ

With evocative, emotional and patient cinematography, Motel Grand-Pré’s images served the narrative in every way, making it the jury’s unanimous choice for this award. This short documentary is told with immersive compositions and lighting that support its subject matter with remarkable restraint. Liu perfectly pairs his imagery with the storyline to set a mood and tell a story without being self-conscious. An inspiring film, from a strong auteur-driven voice – Liu is a filmmaker to keep an eye on!

Special Mention: Rita Tse for SERENE HUES

A visually stunning, experimental film that provoked discussion and questioned the definition of cinematography. The analog techniques used and unexpected images created were visually transcendent, resulting in a captivating and meditative final piece that defies typical boundaries of cinematic expression.

So You Think You Can Pitch? Awards:

The 2025 Pitch Jury will announce the winner of the Silver Prize Award and Gold Prize Award during the live event on November 15 from 7:00pm ET. The Pitch Jury includes producer Eman Pathan, filmmaker Meelad Moaphi and filmmaker Yung Chang.

Audience Choice Film Awards

The winners of the Blue Ant Media Audience Choice Feature Award and the Audience Choice Short Film Award, sponsored by BFL Canada and Sutton Entertainment will be determined on Sunday November 23.

Click here for a list of 2025 Reel Asian Award Winners and for more information on the Festival, visit reelasian.com.

Reel Asian celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2026 and is generously supported by Telefilm Canada, Canada Media Fund, Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Province of Ontario, and Government of Canada.

About Reel Asian
The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (Reel Asian) is a unique showcase of contemporary Asian cinema and work from the Asian diaspora. As Canada’s largest pan-Asian film festival, Reel Asian® provides a public forum for Asian media artists and their work, and fuels the growing appreciation for Asian cinema in Canada. This year’s festival runs November 5–15, 2025 all over downtown Toronto and online across Canada, Nov 10–23, showcasing special projects featuring prominent artists, content creators, up-and-coming filmmakers and will also include the “Reel Ideas” program for creative minds in the industry to connect online. Works presented at Reel Asian include films, videos, and presentations by artists in Canada, the U.S., Asia and all over the world. Reel Asian celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2026.

#FIRSTLOOK: 29TH TORONTO REEL ASIAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAMMING ANNOUNCED

The 29th Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (Reel Asian), Canada’s largest pan-Asian film festival, announced its 2025 programming lineup today. Opening this year’s festival is Space Cadet, directed and scored by Canada’s own Kid Koala, based on his graphic novel of the same name. Fresh off its North American premiere at TIFF, the film launches an exciting edition of Reel Asian, which runs from November 5 to 15, 2025. Selected feature films and all shorts will also be available online across Canada from November 10 to 23, 2025. Reel Asian celebrates contemporary Asian cinema, uniting cultures and connecting communities through the power of storytelling.

The 2025 lineup spotlights 17 film features and 45 short films, showcasing diverse voices and stories from Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Norway, Pakistan, the Philippines, Romania, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam.

Homegrown highlights include: Finch & Midland by Timothy Yeung, which follows four families who immigrated from Hong Kong in Scarborough, Montréal, ma belle starring Joan Chen (Didi, The Home Song Stories) explores the complexities and conflicts of being a middle-aged Chinese mother in Montreal, and There Are No Words, by award-winning returning filmmaker Min Sook Lee (Migrant Dreams, The Real Inglorious Bastards), is a brave mediation on grief, loss, memory and longing.

The Centrepiece Gala presents the Toronto premiere of Akashi, the romantic debut feature by Vancouver-based actor, writer and director Mayumi Yoshida. The festival will also host a Special Singalong Presentation of Netflix’s global hit K-Pop Demon Hunters, followed by a meet and greet with creator and director Maggie Kang and co-director Chris Appelhans.

This year, Reel Asian has partnered with the Inside Out Film Festival, which is celebrating 35 years, to present Let’s Do The Time Warp Again!, a bold lineup of animated shorts that push boundaries and reimagine 2SLGBTQ+ storytelling. The Shorts programme also includes the categories: the rebellious Charged Up, the heartfelt Family Style, the imaginative Otherworlds, the curious Unquenchable and Unsung Voices 14 featuring six emerging Canadian filmmakers who took part in a months-long filmmaking workshop with Reel Asian this past summer. Wee Asian returns offering free drop-in programming and activities for all ages, accompanied by storytelling, arts and play bringing generations together.

The official festival commissioned animation Muse by Janet Mac will be on view at Sankofa Square, playing on rotation from October 9 to November 23. Janet Mac will also take part in an artist talk ahead of the festival opening.

“We are incredibly proud of this year’s lineup, which reflects the richness and diversity of voices from emerging talent to returning and established filmmakers,” said Deanna Wong, Executive Director of Reel Asian. “As we approach our 30th anniversary, Reel Asian continues to be more than just a film festival. It is a space for community, dialogue and discovery where audiences can connect through screenings, workshops, panels and conversations that celebrate Asian storytelling in all its forms”.

Festivalgoers can participate in immersive workshops and panel discussions, including the RA:X multi-day symposium, featuring the Sari-Sari Xchange, which explores how XR and emerging media can shape creative practices. The Reel Ideas programme offers audiences a behind-the-scenes look through a special masterclass on the workplace comedy 18 to 35 presented by creator Rahul Chaturvedi (Producer, Bollywed; Writer, Late Bloomer); an in-depth conversation with director Kid Koala and Head of Story and Production Design Lillian Chan about their new animated feature Space Cadet; an artist talk with filmmaker Ian Tuason and OCAD President Ana Serrano on the journey of The Undertone – from its origins to securing a major distribution deal with A24. To close the festival, audiences are invited to join the fun and cheer on the finalists in the annual live So You Think You Can Pitch? competition, hosted by Rakhee Morzaria (Run the Burbs, Dinner with Friends).

Please see Reel Asian’s programming highlights below. For the full Festival programme and schedule, please visit reelasian.com or view the Programme Guide here.

FEATURES
[*] indicates expected attendance

SPACE CADET (Opening Night)
Dir. Kid Koala* | Canada 2025 | 86 min. | No Dialogue | GA
Ever since astronaut-in-training Celeste was a child, Robot has served as a surrogate parent while her mother explored the galaxy. When Celeste starts a months-long mission after graduation, the pair must explore the unknowns of life without each other.

On her mission, Celeste stumbles upon a clue to her mother’s disappearance. Back on Earth, without Celeste to take care of, Robot’s mission goes from straightforward to existential. Separately but together, the two explore their purpose — inside and beyond the stars.

World-renowned scratch DJ and artist Kid Koala adapts his graphic novel of the same name into a dream cinema project. Working with a long list of collaborators from his extensive career (including songs by Karen O and Digable Planets’ Ladybug Mecca), Kid Koala evokes classic movies of the silent film era by using no dialogue and only beautiful images and sound driven by his original scratch soundtrack.

An independent, animated film adventure 14 years in the making, Space Cadet is a true accomplishment of gritty determination and soaring creativity. It is a beautiful testament to dreaming of possibilities while grounded with love.
WED, NOV 5 AT 7:30PM, HOT DOCS CINEMA
RELAXED SCREENING: SAT, NOV 8 AT 10AM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 3

MY UNCLE JENS
Dir. Brwa Vahabpour | Norway, Romania 2025 | 98 min. | Kurdish, Norwegian with English subtitles | PG
Akam’s comfortable routine as a literature teacher in Oslo is disrupted by an uncle he’s never met, Khdr, who overstays his welcome on an unannounced visit from Iranian Kurdistan. Familial obligations take hold as Akam offers his uncle a space to stay in the cramped room of his shared co-op flat. Overlooking the unspoken rules of life in the West, Khdr becomes more comfortable than his nephew would like in shared spaces and while interacting with his roommates. The tense stay grows even more strained when Akam learns authorities are after Khdr, and that his uncle may not be who he says he is.

With cleverly timed situational comedy, Brwa Vahabpour’s feature directorial debut puts a finger on the diasporic experience of being sheltered from the challenging realities of life in our ancestral lands. My Uncle Jens playfully depicts situations familiar to first- and second-generation youth in predominantly white societies, examining assimilation and borders with levity and heart.
THURS, NOV 6 AT 6PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4

VILLAGE ROCKSTARS 2
Dir. Rima Das | India 2024 | 98 min. | Assamese with English subtitles | PG
Reuniting with the cast of her highly acclaimed 2017 festival hit, Village Rockstars, Rima Das returns with a standalone sequel centering Dhunu, now a teenager, who lives in a small village in Assam, India, and dreams of becoming a musician. While Dhunu and her friends navigate the vulnerable transition between childhood and adulthood, weighing new responsibilities and priorities, the elders around them face harsher circumstances brought on by predatory land developers and climate change, affecting their livelihoods and sense of community.

The impeccable camerawork of director and cinematographer Das oozes poetic beauty and electric energy at every turn, in this intuitive and lyrical story showcasing the rich and diverse cultural landscape of Assam, where ancient traditions meet contemporary aspirations. Evocative, tender, and deeply human, Village Rockstars 2 solidifies Das as a singular voice in independent Indian cinema, committed to capturing the bittersweetness of life and the understated courage of daily survival with profound authenticity and grace.|
FRI, NOV 7 AT 5:30PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4

BURY US IN A LONE DESERT
Dir. Nguyễn Lê Hoàng Phúc | Vietnam 2025 | 63 min. | Vietnamese | PG
A man’s attempt at burglary goes wrong when he’s overpowered and captured by the apartment’s elderly owner. Things take a turn for the curiouser when it’s revealed there is a human-sized plaster cast in which the old man has encased his dead wife. To win his freedom, the burglar merely has to accompany the owner to the desert to bury him along with his wife.

Macabre, peculiar, and lensed with visual flair in two distinct sections, Nguyễn Lê Hoàng Phúc’s Bury Us In A Lone Desert remarkably peels away at its grisly premise to satisfy our hearts’ need for unique bonds and timeless relationships in unexpected places.
FRI, NOV 7 AT 6PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 3

MONTRÉAL, MA BELLE
Dir. Xiaodan He* | Canada 2025 | 116 min. | French, Mandarin | AA
Feng Xia, 53, lives a modest but decent life in Montreal: She has a house and is married with two children. But she finds herself growing dissatisfied with her loveless marriage and cloistered life of obligation. After taking a conversational French class, Feng Xia finds the city has opened up to her in new ways, including curious dalliances with dating apps. There, she meets Camille, a Quebecois woman who challenges her spiritually and sexually. Their affair awakens Feng Xia’s long-buried desires during a glowing Montreal summer.

The iconic Joan Chen fearlessly takes on the challenging role of Feng Xia, dexterously shifting between timid matron and sensuous explorer. Director Xiaodan He creates no easy answers, though, determined to show the complexities and conflicts of being a middle-aged Chinese mother in Montreal who yearns to break out. For those like Feng Xia who carry the weight of life’s duties, self-discovery can have collateral damage.
FRI, NOV 7 AT 8:15PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 3

NARMADA: A VALLEY RISES
Dir. Ali Kazimi* | Canada 1994 | 87 min. | English, Hindi, Bhilali, Marathi, Gujarati | GA
Director’s Note: Narmada: A Valley Rises launched my career as a documentary filmmaker — but more importantly, it was the film that transformed the way I see the world. Made against all odds, the film stands as a testament of endurance and persistence.

Researching, shooting, and completing this film fundamentally changed my point of view as a socially committed filmmaker. It took me into the heart of a people’s struggle and forced me to reckon with the realities and brutalities of large-scale development projects in India. It taught me that filmmaking can be an act of solidarity, not just observation. And yet it is also a film that could only have been made in Canada, and one that was also informed by my engagement with Indigenous issues as a diasporic filmmaker.
SAT, NOV 8 AT 10:15AM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4

MAKE IT LOOK REAL
Dir. Danial Shah | Pakistan 2024 | 67 min. | Urdu, Pashto, Hazaragi | PG
Situated in a modest retail complex in Quetta, Pakistan, is a small photo studio plastered with framed images of clients posing with women they don’t know, guns they don’t own, and motorcycles they’ve never ridden. “Make it look real” is the instruction given to the photo studio owner, Muhammad Sakhi, who earnestly captures his clients’ desires and ambitions through staged, saturated, and heavily doctored photographs. Conversations between customers and Sakhi reveal that, although the photos may be fake, the desire and delight behind them are very real.

Serving as a portal to imagined realities, each photograph emerges as a reflection on ideas of gender expression, power, and success, revealing the delicate interplay between identity and longing. As documentary director Danial Shah builds an effortless bond with Sakhi, we’re invited into a welcoming space that offers a compelling observation of the empowerment and sense of freedom possible when identities are allowed to be constructed and reworked.
SAT, NOV 8 AT 12:30PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 3

THIRD ACT
Dir. Tadashi Nakamurah* | USA 2025 | 93 min. | English | PG
Robert A. Nakamura a.k.a. Bob is a legend of Asian American media as an educator, activist, and filmmaker. His frequent collaborator, Tadashi Nakamura, or Tad, has always known he wanted to make a film about his dad’s life. But when Bob is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, the urgency to make the film becomes more pronounced.

As Tad digs deeper into the documentary, they process the ghosts of his father’s past — his incarceration during the Second World War, the traumatic catalyst that drove him to success in his career, but also Bob’s depression, personal failings and self hatred, for which only film and community could serve as a salve.

A lovingly honest tribute, Third Act continues Tad’s commitment to community storytelling, this time from the inside out, making this his most personal and challenging film thus far. It is another reminder of the power of our elders and ancestors, that we may move forward, carrying them with us, bravely.
SAT, NOV 8 AT 2:30PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 3

MANOK
Dir. Yu-jin Lee* | Korea 2025 | 122 min. | Korean | PG
Pride celebrations are coming up, and Manok, the feisty owner of a venerable lesbian bar in Seoul, is preparing for the annual party. Except the younger organizers want a new vibe, leaving Manok’s bar on the fringes. Irritated at her obsolescence, Manok closes the bar out of spite and moves back to her rural hometown with a fresh start on her mind. But is that possible in a town run by her ex-husband? If anybody can do it, Manok can.

Featuring an endearing ensemble of country characters led by Mal-bok Yang as Manok, Manok is a chaotic fish-out-of-water comedy with musical numbers, political campaigns, and a little romance. As zany as it sounds, it never strays from its heartfelt journey of redefining oneself through life’s challenges, and of finding (and keeping) friends and lovers along the way.
SAT, NOV 8 AT 3:30PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4

DIAMONDS IN THE SAND
Dir. Janus Victoria* | Philippines, Japan 2024 | 126 min. | Tagalog, Japanese | PG
In Japan’s aging society, kodokushi — the lonely death of the elderly — has become disturbingly common. Divorced salaryman Yoji (Lily Franky) is confronted with this reality when he discovers his neighbour’s decomposing body. The shocking experience forces him to face his solitude, deepened by his own mother’s aging. Seeking escape and connection, he follows a caretaker to Manila, where his choice takes an unexpected turn.

Diamonds in the Sand explores the contrasts between two distinct Asian cultures. While reflecting on the isolation faced by many people in modern society, the film also captures the warmth, vitality, and complexity of family life in the Philippines. Within this vibrant setting, bonds bring both joy and hardship, connection and obligation. This is a bittersweet story of acceptance, the courage and impact of our personal choices, and the search for meaning within oneself and community alike.
SAT, NOV 8 AT 5:15PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 3

FUCKTOYS
Dir. Annapurna Sriram | USA 2025 | 106 min. | English | AA
She’s been cursed. Literally. And she needs $1,000 for the hex-breaking cure. AP (played by director Annapurna Sriram) embarks on a sex worker’s odyssey through pre-millenium Trashtown, U.S.A., where the grass is brown and the cops are kinky. Desperate for a life reset, AP embarks on a scooter-driven adventure with her always-and-forever-tethered ex-lover Danni. Through strip clubs, celebrity mansions, and fortune tellers around every corner, fans of John Waters and 1990s Gregg Araki films will love Sriram’s world-building and her campy, crude, queer take on the buddy film genre.

Fucktoys is a darkly humorous tale about the uphill battle of carving out a new life for oneself and the risks it takes to do it. Sriram’s directorial debut kicks down the door for a new wave of American sexploitation films, while its anarchist spirit is a call to challenge mainstream American filmic conventions.
SAT, NOV 8 AT 8:30PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 3

FINCH & MIDLAND
Dir. Timothy Yeung* | Canada 2025 | 110 min. | English, Cantonese, Mandarin | 14A
Finch and Midland, an intersection in Scarborough, is like many others in the suburbs of Canada’s largest city. But every intersection has a story to tell. Timothy Yeung’s Finch & Midland focuses on four stories from the wave of Hong Kong immigrants who came to Canada in the 1990s hoping for a new life: a former pop singer trying to reconnect with his daughter; a woman caring for her elderly mother while yearning for love; a single mother who works in a massage parlour and dreams of becoming a realtor; and a factory manager confronted with a glass ceiling.

Through strip malls, harsh lights, and dark nights, Finch & Midland reinterprets the stories of the community Yeung grew up in, and stars an impressive ensemble cast led by Anthony Wong Chau‑sang. Yeung’s film is an important addition to the recent movement of local cinematic stories from Scarborough that connect to universal themes.
SUN, NOV 9 AT 3:30PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 2

AKASHI (CENTREPIECE GALA)
Dir. Mayumi Yoshida* | Canada 2025 | 105 min. | English, Japanese with English subtitles | PG
Kana, a struggling visual artist, returns to Japan after years away in Vancouver to attend her beloved grandmother’s funeral. The familiar cadence of family dynamics endure and yet, everything feels different. While in Tokyo, Kana discovers her grandfather had a love of his life outside of his arranged marriage to her grandmother. Meanwhile, Kana reluctantly confronts her own messy romantic past with old flame Hiro to see if the embers of their love still flicker.

Adapted from a play and short film of the same name, powerhouse actor-writer-director Mayumi Yoshida presents an impressively romantic first feature, beautifully lensed across two timelines. Yoshida deftly balances swooning, dreamlike nostalgia with the universal realities of distance, time, and circumstance.
SUN, NOV 9 AT 7:00PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 2

K-POP DEMON HUNTERS
Dir. Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans | USA 2025 | 96 min. | English, Korean | PG
K-pop? Yes, please. Demons? Sure! Hunters? OK, what?

Here’s the story: Rumi, Zoey, and Mira are HUNTR/X, a world-renowned K-pop group who ALSO hunt demons to protect humans from the underworld. But one of them has a secret that could disrupt all they’ve worked for.

The disparate elements of the global sensation K-Pop Demon Hunters don’t seem like they’d work, but they’re what make it perfect. The devil (or demon) is in the details, featuring a specificity that distinguishes it from the crowd through a celebration of Korean culture with its relatable characters, animation motifs, and absolute bangin’ soundtrack.

It’s all the brainchild of creator and co-director Maggie Kang, who grew up in Toronto and attended Sheridan College. And we’re proud to have her join us in a hometown singalong celebration of K-Pop Demon Hunters. So grab your little “Soda Pop” and show them “How It’s Done”, cuz we’re gonna be “Golden”.

MON, NOV 10 AT 7:30PM, HOT DOCS CINEMA

YEAR OF THE CAT
Dir. Tony Nguyen* | USA 2025 | 98 min. | English, Vietnamese | PG
How far would you go to uncover a family history that has been purposefully buried? What are the consequences of resurfacing these stories to fulfil your own?

In an extremely candid documentary, filmmaker Tony Nguyen embarks on a scrappy investigation to reconnect to his father, who was estranged from his family due to the Vietnam War. Challenging family members who don’t want to disturb the dust, Nguyen is determined to find the potential truth, and the value of it. Nguyen’s film is a rollercoaster ride of DIY detective work to uncover family secrets, ultimately questioning the role and power of a filmmaker.

On the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, Year Of The Cat offers a sincere look at piecing together a family story post war, offering a personal reflection of how displacement and trauma gets passed down to a generation who are now parents.
TUES, NOV 11 AT 7:30PM, INNIS TOWN HALL

HUMANS IN THE LOOP
Dir. Aranya Sahay | India 2024 | 72 min. | Hindi, Kurukh | PG
Nehma belongs to the Oraon tribe and lives with her children on the outskirts of Jharkhand, India. Embroiled in a custody battle and a messy divorce, she secures a job at an AI data-labelling centre under the supervision of a stern manager. As we watch her navigate the steep learning curve of her new job and quickly confront the stark realities of biased data, the distortions in the very systems designed to help us become impossible to ignore.

In this remarkably fresh and timely narrative, director Aranya Sahay invites us to consider the volume of marginalized labour and detailed proficiency required to uphold the current growth of AI and our reliance on it. Serving as a cautionary reminder that technology may never replace human wisdom and indigenous knowledge systems, Humans in the Loop is as bold as it is urgent in its depiction of the cracks in widely held perceptions of progress and modernity.
WED, NOV 12 AT 7:30PM, INNIS TOWN HALL

THERE ARE NO WORDS
Dir. Min Sook Lee* | Canada 2024 | 99 min. | English, Korean | PG
In There Are No Words, award-winning filmmaker Min Sook Lee searches for stories of her mother, Song Ji Lee, who died by suicide when Lee was just 12 years old. Through an intimate archive, Lee confronts public, private, and imagined histories in the wake of trauma while negotiating her relationship with her aging father, who met her mother while serving in the Korean Counterintelligence Corps under dictator Park Chung Hee in 1960s Korea. Despite being an unreliable narrator with a history of abuse, Lee’s father is her last direct tie to her mother.

Lee turns the camera on herself to trace her experiences from Toronto to her birthplace in South Korea’s Hwasun County and back, documenting tender efforts to speak her mother into collective memory. There Are No Words is a brave meditation on grief, loss, memory, and longing, reminding us that even when language fails us, there is still so much to say.
THUR, NOV 13 AT 7:30PM, INNIS TOWN HALL

SHORTS

This year’s Shorts programming includes:

LET’S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN!: Through animation’s unique ability to push boundaries and reimagine narratives, this programme reflects the formative dreams that continue to shape Inside Out and Reel Asian. Step into this chaotic but tender journey with us. Featuring three-time Canadian Screen Award winner Vivek Shraya (How to Fail as a Popstar).
THURS, NOV 6 AT 8:30PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4

CHARGED UP: Defiance can loudly turn heads around, or remain subtle and carefully camouflaged. Between these styles, this programme sees longings vary from self-preservation, justice, vengeance, and spectacle.
FRI, NOV 7 AT 8:30PM AT TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4

FAMILY STYLE: We each bring our own style to the table — whether that’s upholding tradition or breaking it, following the rules or bending them. These films explore familial complexity through play, transformation, agency, and hope.
SAT, NOV 8 AT 1PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4

OTHERWORLDS: Enter worlds that feel both impossibly extreme and unsettlingly real. Thrust against the grain, these protagonists take back control of their narrative, despite forces that seek to define them otherwise. Filmmakers include Natalie Murao.
SAT, NOV 8 AT 6:30PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4

UNQUENCHABLE: These films explore desire, both interpersonally and intrapersonally. Between quietly blossoming desires and glowing inner temptations, this collection strides toward you with a sly wink, a shy smile, and a glimmer in its eye.
SAT, NOV 8 AT 9PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 4

UNSUNG VOICES 14: Six emerging filmmakers embarked on a months-long filmmaking workshop this past summer. We’re proud to present their world premieres here in the 14th edition of Reel Asian’s filmmaking program.
SUN, NOV 9 AT 1PM, TIFF LIGHTBOX CINEMA 2

RA:X

RENDER ME IN YOUR WORLDS
Storytelling beyond the screen.Render Me in Your Worlds is a multi-day symposium that highlights the Sari-Sari Xchange and Reel Asian’s shared mission of amplifying Asian representation in the creative emerging media industries. The programme explores how XR, or extended reality, and emergent media can shape relational creative practices based on unique stories, desires, and experiences, rendered as “worlds” within “a world of many worlds.

SARI-SARI XCHANGE “ASSETORY”: 3D ASSETS FOR STORYTELLING AND COMMUNITY
This workshop spotlights the Sari-Sari Xchange Assetory, a storytelling-led virtual asset library prototype created with and for the Asian diaspora. Participants will be asked to bring an object with a personal meaning, which they will learn how to scan and create a 3D reproduction of. They will also be able to share what memories, stories, and histories the object holds and contribute to the SSX Assetory if they wish.
FRI, NOV 7, 2PM–5PM | ASIATIC ITINERARIES RESEARCH CENTRE, OCADU AT 205 RICHMOND

SARI-SARI XCHANGE “ASSETORY” RECEPTION
Celebrate the launch of the Sari-Sari Xchange Assetory, a storytelling-led virtual asset library prototype created with and for the Asian diaspora, and play with mobile resource units designed to facilitate the making and exhibition of XR creative works.
FRI, NOV 14, 6PM–9PM | OPEN SPACE GALLERY, 49 MCCAUL

RE-RENDER LOCAL EMBODIED HISTORIES WITH XR
Three panellists based in China and Hong Kong share their diverse practices in preserving and revitalizing culturally significant sites through emerging media. From augmented reality projects reactivating rural Chinese areas to virtual reality works shaping collective memory, this roundtable opens a dialogue on how emerging media can tell local stories and convey lived experiences.
THURS, NOV 13, 11AM–12:30PM | BACHIR YEREX PRESENTATION SPACE, 401 RICHMOND (HYBRID)

FLOW BETWEEN WORLDS: PRACTISING AND CAPTURING TAI CHI MOVEMENTS
This immersive workshop will introduce the practice of traditional tai chi. Participants will experience its calm, flowing movements under the guidance of Mr. Zuo, a sixth-generation successor of traditional Yang-style tai chi. Participants will then explore Rokoko Vision, an accessible motion capture tool, recording and translating their movements into digital form. By merging ancient Chinese embodied philosophy with cutting-edge technology, participants are invited to move between the physical and virtual realms, transforming meditative practice into dynamic, interactive data.
THURS, NOV 13, 2PM–4PM | BACHIR YEREX PRESENTATION SPACE, 401 RICHMOND

PERFORMING XR WORLDS: MEDIA ARTISTS ON EMBODIMENT, PERFORMATIVITY, AND THE REAL
Explore the XR worldbuilding practices of media artists working at the confluence of body, space, and technology. Learn how their respective modes of knowing and making drive them to create XR worlds and performance experiences that rethink the self, rationality, technology, the dichotomies of the actual/virtual, and what constitutes reality in the digital age. Together, we will speculate on a vision for XR world-making that celebrates unique worldviews, practices, and traditions.
FRI, NOV 14, 3:30PM–5PM | BACHIR YEREX PRESENTATION SPACE, 401 RICHMOND

WEE ASIAN
From sharing meals to counting planes and planting beans, these films lead us through stories of unexpected vulnerability, resilience, and companionship.

With free drop-in programming for all ages and all generations to come together, Wee Asian returns with free relaxed screenings accompanied by storytelling, arts activities, and play! More information on activities at reelasian.com/weeasian.

This year’s Wee Asian short film lineup includes:

BUGSICK – Canada
NIHAL’S GARDEN – Canada
I AM A FLOWER – Germany
SERENE HUES – Canada
FAMILY DINNER (家庭晚餐) – USA
A NIGHT AT THE REST AREA (パーキングエリアの夜) – Japan

REEL IDEAS
Reel Ideas presents a rich programme of conversations, panels, and networking sessions for filmmakers and artists at every stage of their careers. Go behind the scenes of projects like the workplace comedy 18 to 35 and Kid Koala’s animated feature Space Cadet, discovering the craft, creativity, and collaboration that bring these stories to life. Hear from experienced writers, animators, and filmmakers, and gain practical insights for advancing your career and developing your creative practice. Sessions also explore important topics such as accessibility, advocacy, and sustaining a creative practice.

From cheering on finalists in this year’s So You Think You Can Pitch? competition to participating in behind-the-scenes masterclasses, Reel Ideas is a space to connect, learn, and celebrate the many ways our communities create meaningful stories.

IMAA MINI-CONFERENCE
In collaboration with the Independent Media Arts Alliance, Reel Ideas will co-host a three-day mini-conference focused on artist advocacy, fair pay, and building an equitable arts ecosystem.

Tues, Nov 11 – 6:30PM | The Commons @ 401 Richmond
What’s Brewing Panel: A discussion on artist labour conditions and funding challenges, followed by a reception and mingling portion.

Wed, Nov 12 – 11:00AM | The Commons @ 401 Richmond
Fee Schedule & Resource Access Network Workshop: Practical guidance on compensation standards and navigating support systems.

All sessions aim to strengthen the skills and networks of arts administrators and cultural workers, offering tools to navigate an industry with systemic barriers while supporting underrepresented filmmakers.

SPACE CADET: ARTIST TALK WITH KID KOALA AND LILLIAN CHAN
Join us for an in-depth conversation about Space Cadet, a moving animated film that speaks volumes without a single word of dialogue. Director Kid Koala will share how a memory of watching Charlie Chaplin films with his grandmother became the north star that guided this deeply personal story. That early connection to silent cinema — bridging cultural and language barriers — inspired the creation of Space Cadet as a work of solace, imagination, and reflection.

Kid Koala and Lillian Chan, Space Cadet’s head of story and production designer, will discuss the journey from book to film, exploring how to translate vulnerability into craft — through storytelling, visual design, and music — and how to make authenticity come through in every frame. Together, they’ll reflect on how Space Cadet found its voice without dialogue, and how its journey reveals the power of art in connecting past, present, and future.
THURS, NOV 6 AT 2PM | CINECYCLE

IMPACT PRODUCING WITHOUT ACCESS: WHEN CRITICAL FILMS STRUGGLE TO FIND DISTRIBUTION
In partnership with the DOC Institute, Reel Ideas will host a panel as part of the speaker series Truth Matters – Critical Dialogue in a Post-Truth Era, supported by the Toronto Arts Council.

This panel will explore how racialized and independent creators bring their films to communities often excluded from mainstream distribution. The conversation will shed light on the barriers to access and the inventive strategies filmmakers use to ensure their stories are seen and heard. Whether you are a filmmaker, producer, or audience member interested in the future of documentary, this event will provide valuable insight into how stories find their way into the world.
TUES, NOV 11 AT 3PM | CINECYCLE

ACCESSIBILITY AND FESTIVALS: RETHINKING HOW WE ENGAGE AUDIENCES AND ARTISTS
Reel Ideas presents a panel featuring leaders from the Disability Screen Office, Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Disability Studies, and the Unify Deaf Film Festival. The discussion will explore how festivals can better support accessibility — from accommodating filmmakers with disabilities and reaching diverse audiences, to guiding creators on inclusive practices like budgeting for captioning. This session will offer practical strategies for making film culture more equitable and inclusive.
TUES, NOV 11 AT 4:30PM | THE COMMONS @ 401 RICHMOND

18 TO 35: BEHIND-THE-SCENES MASTERCLASS
Join us for a special presentation of 18 to 35, a bold new workplace comedy created by Rahul Chaturvedi and executive produced by Andrew Phung. Key collaborators will pull back the curtain on this homegrown production, crafted on a small budget but with big ambitions. They’ll share how the series moved from idea to pitch to screen, highlighting lessons in building a writers’ room, navigating production and post-production, giving attendees an end-to-end crash course on making a series.
WED, NOV 12 AT 6:30PM | CINECYCLE

BUILDING SUSTAINABLE CAREERS IN SCREENWRITING
Reel Asian and the Writers Guild of Canada present a candid conversation on the pathways and pitfalls of building a sustainable career in screenwriting. With Asian Canadian writers at the forefront, this session will explore the realities of navigating writers’ rooms, landing representation, and making sense of the business side of TV and film.

Panellists will reflect on their own journeys — from making an impression to handling notes and rewrites — while demystifying the structures of television writing. Beyond the craft, this discussion will explore strategies for self-promotion, building meaningful industry relationships, and understanding what producers and commissioning editors are really looking for. The conversation will also address larger systemic barriers writers face, and how community and resilience play a vital role in sustaining long-term careers.
WED, NOV 12 AT 2:30PM | CINECYCLE

THE UNDERTONE: ARTIST TALK WITH DIRECTOR IAN TUASON AND OCADU PRESIDENT ANA SERRANO
Filmmaker Ian Tuason’s debut feature The Undertone, recently acquired by A24, transforms the intimacy of caregiving and the eerie power of audio into a chilling, single-location horror story. The film traces its origins from an experimental podcast idea. Drawing on his personal experiences and love of the genre, Tuason crafts a work that balances vulnerability, innovation, and fear.

Tuason will be joined by his former mentor, OCAD University president & vice-chancellor Ana Serrano, to reflect on the creative journey behind The Undertone. Together, they’ll explore the film’s evolution — from its early drafts to its visual and sonic design — while also discussing how collaboration, mentorship, and digital storytelling practices shaped Tuason’s approach. By examining how a deeply personal story can resonate with audiences and attract a major distributor, this session will offer insight into the intersections of craft, risk, and support systems in independent filmmaking.
FRI, NOV 14 AT 7:30PM | OCAD AUDITORIUM MCA 190

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN PITCH?
Join us for the live So You Think You Can Pitch? competition at the 29th Reel Asian Film Festival, where five emerging filmmaking teams will go head-to-head for a prize package to help bring their short films to life. Cheer the finalists on as they pitch their stories to a panel of distinguished jurors — and get a first look at the talented voices shaping the future of Asian Canadian cinema.
SAT, NOV 15 AT 7PM | ANNEX THEATRE

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About Reel Asian
The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (Reel Asian) is a unique showcase of contemporary Asian cinema and work from the Asian diaspora. As Canada’s largest pan-Asian film festival, Reel Asian® provides a public forum for Asian media artists and their work, and fuels the growing appreciation for Asian cinema in Canada. This year’s festival runs November 5–15, 2025 all over downtown Toronto and online across Canada, Nov 10–23, showcasing special projects featuring prominent artists, content creators, up-and-coming filmmakers and will also include the “Reel Ideas” program for creative minds in the industry to connect online. Works presented at Reel Asian include films, videos, and presentations by artists in Canada, the U.S., Asia and all over the world. Reel Asian celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2026 and is generously supported by Telefilm Canada, Canada Media Fund, Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Province of Ontario, and Government of Canada.

#FIRSTLOOK: 2024 REEL ASIAN WINNERS ANNOUNCED

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (Reel Asian), Canada’s premier pan-Asian arts showcase, is pleased to announce that The Mother and the Bear directed by Johnny Ma won the RBC Best Canadian Film Award at the 2024 Festival. Also, WAShhh directed by Mickey Lai was awarded the Wattpad WEBTOON Studios Best Short Film Award. The Reel Asian Awards will be celebrated with an Awards brunch on Saturday, November 16, bringing together filmmakers, jury, and industry partners in attendance. The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival runs until November 24, 2024. To find more details, visit reelasian.com.

“It’s always been a great honour to share these captivating stories with Canadian audiences, and this year is no exception,” said Deanna Wong, Executive Director, Reel Asian. “Reel Asian gives us a platform to celebrate and highlight the rich perspectives of the Asian diaspora here and globally. Congratulations to all the filmmakers and creators involved with Reel Asian this year.”

The 2024 Features Jury includes filmmaker, film programmer and college professor Aisha Jamal, award-winning, multi-disciplinary performing artist, independent producer, and arts leader Alan Wong and documentary filmmaker and impact producer Chrisann Hessing. The 2024 Shorts Jury includes writer, director, and media educator Vince Ha, festival programmer and arts administrator, Lu Linares and vice-president of content at SAMANSA, Yunah Chung.

Reel Asian continues its commitment to supporting diverse voices with the annual Fire Horse Award, recognising an Asian Canadian in the media arts or screen-based industries who have dedicated their energy and talents to breaking down barriers, uplifting Asian Canadian communities, and sparking cultural change. Acclaimed actor and Fire Horse Award contributor Sandra Oh comments on the award’s importance, “This is part of our responsibility, which is to help pave the way and support our artists from the past and our artists into the future. Reel Asian is the place to do it”.

Reel Asian is currently accepting nominations for next year’s Fire Horse Award recipient. More details can be found here.

This year’s festival will conclude with the annual So You Think You Can Pitch? Live Finale on Saturday, November 23, hosted by award-winning actor, host and comedian Andrew Phung (Kim’s Convenience, Run the Burbs, Lucky Star). This lively event features five teams pitching their projects to a distinguished panel of jurors and a live audience, for a chance to win cash and industry prizes to support their film projects.

FULL LIST OF REEL ASIAN AWARD WINNERS FOR THE 28TH EDITION:

RBC Best Canadian Feature Film Award
The Mother and the Bear by Johnny Ma

Johnny Ma’s The Mother and the Bear is this year’s jury selection for the RBC Best Canadian Feature Film Award. A whimsical story of a Korean mother’s moments of revelation as she cares for her comatose daughter Sumi amidst the harsh beauty of a Winnipeg winter, this film was as entertaining to the jury as it was beautiful to look at. The jury was deeply moved by the film’s nuanced exploration of Sumi’s secret and veteran actor Kim Ho-Jung’s compelling portrayal of her mother.

Dipchand LLP Best Feature Film Award
Pierce by Nelicia Low

The jury is proud to recognise Pierce by Nelicia Low, for the Dipchand LLP Best Feature Award for 2024. A first feature by the Singaporean filmmaker, it seamlessly blends technical prowess with a great concept and story, with outstanding nuanced performances by the leads. This tense psychological drama keeps you guessing until the very end, taking the audience on a thrilling ride. The director’s deep knowledge of fencing was evident and she was able to make it very accessible and authentic. Overall, a highly enjoyable movie that is very deserving of this award.

The jury would like to give an Honourable Mention to Layla by Amrou Al-Kadhi. This courageous and bold film about queer identity and belonging showcases strong writing and overall filmmaking. Despite tackling a difficult topic, Layla does so with grace and beauty.

Directors Guild of Canada Best Direction in a Feature Film
His Father’s Son by Meelad Moaphi

The jury is proud to recognize Meelad Moaphi with the DGC’s Best Canadian Director Award for his first feature film, His Father’s Son. A lovely and delicate story about a guarded family secret that comes to light, the film’s sharp writing, consistent pacing, strong editing and great music, made His Father’s Son feel polished and elevated. Strong performances by the cast helped to effectively express this film’s touching message.

The jury also gives an Honourable Mention to Can I Get a Witness? by Ann Marie Fleming for a unique and poignant rumination on life, death and sustainability.

Osler Best First Feature Award
The Glassworker by Usman Riaz

The jury awards the Osler Best First Feature Award to The Glassworker, an ambitious, hand-drawn animated feature that follows Ali, who dreams of becoming a master glassblower in a war-torn land. With its themes of young love, war and following your passions amidst conflict, Ali’s story stayed with the jury long after the film ended. An impressive accomplishment that distinguishes itself within the body of work from a country not typically renowned for its animation.

The jury would also like to recognize Nikah with an Honourable Mention for its poignant and urgent story of Dilber, a young Uyghur woman who feels the pressure to find a husband for a safer future.

Reel Asian Best Documentary Award
ASHIMA by Kenji Tsukamoto

ASHIMA is an intimate family portrait that warmed our hearts. The complex dynamic between Ashima and her father is explored with gentle observation, and their tenacious dedication to achieving greatness is displayed with a powerful tenderness. For its compelling storytelling and reflection on family and fortitude, we are pleased to award the film with the Reel Asian Best Documentary Award.

Air Canada Short Film or Video Award
Me and My Teeth (dir. Anna Quon)
Monsoon Blue (dir. Jay Hiukit Wong and Ellis Kayin Chan)
Lola (dir. Grace Hanna)
Detours Ahead (dir. Esther Cheung)
The Popstar Water Deer and I (dir. Sasha Lee)

The five films honoured with this year’s Air Canada Short Film Award showcase the immense talent emerging in Canadian and global Asian cinema. This selection takes us on a journey through self-discovery, grief, love, and reclamation. From an intimate exploration of reclaiming control over one’s mind and body, a girl’s love for her grandmother defying reality, a self-conscious monsoon ready to let loose, a road trip marked by moments of beauty and pain, to a lonely soul seeking connection through their love for a popstar—these films capture the human experience and the complexities of simply being.

Wattpad WEBTOON Studios Best Short Film Award
WAShhh by Mickey Lai

The jury recognises WAShhh by Mickey Lai as the winner of the Wattpad WEBTOON Studios Best Short Film Award for its unflinching exploration of a little-known practice, highlighting prevailing taboos around womanhood that stand in stark contrast to a so-called ‘modern-day’ society.

Michael Fukushima AnimAsian Award (Supported by Sheridan College)
My Wonderful Life by Calleen Koh

For the Michael Fukushima AnimAsian Award, we selected My Wonderful Life by Calleen Koh for its bold defiance of expectations, using dark, at times, absurdist humour to unearth the pressures of motherhood. Through a textured and deeply personal exploration, the director offers a playful yet relatable narrative that poignantly reminds us to show kindness to our mothers.

We would also like to give an honourable mention to The Popstar Water Deer and I by Sasha Lee for its surreal and vivid visuals that capture a poignant sense of loneliness in a world that offers only fleeting glimpses of happiness. Through a caring and intimate lens, the film explores our own mortality while reminding us to chase what brings us joy. Lee’s work exemplifies the magic of animation as a storytelling medium where rules and limits are meant to be broken.

Directors Guild of Canada and WIFT+ Toronto Film Award
A Fermenting Woman by Priscilla Galvez

Priscilla Galvez’s directorial debut is a testament to the power of risk-taking and a commitment to bold narratives that invite audiences to embrace discomfort. Known for her work as a producer, Galvez delivers a captivating story and proves herself to be a natural-born director. The jury is thrilled to award the DGC Ontario and WIFT+ Toronto Award to A Fermenting Woman and looks forward to seeing more of Galvez’s work in the future.

Directors Guild of Canada Best Direction in a Short Film
Unblending by Michelle Ku

The jury recognizes Michelle Ku as the winner of the Directors Guild of Canada Best Direction in a Short Film award for Unblending and its delightful hand-painted animation that succinctly captures the myriad thoughts and colourful feelings that keep us awake at night, eventually lulling us to sleep as we come to embrace these sensations as our own.

Canadian Society of Cinematographers Best Cinematography Award
Reunion, Director of Photography Andrew Lee

The jury would like to present Andrew Lee of Reunion with the Best Canadian Cinematography Award. Told with outstanding discipline and visual acuity, this difficult subject matter was lensed with originality and craftsmanship. Its engaging framing injects a sense of unease and strangeness, supporting this powerful and original film.

We’d like to thank the filmmakers, cinematographers and crew who worked to make all these films a reality. In the end it was a tough decision, as there were many strong entries and beautiful works. We wish all the entrants luck and success in their future endeavours.

Honourable Mention: Benjamin Wong of Rosa’s Flowers The jury extends an honourable mention to Rosa’s Flowers for its daring, creative execution, filled with various looks, lensing and lighting design, deserving recognition and applause.

Armstrong Acting Studios Outstanding Performer in a Canadian Short Film
Yên Sen in Lovin’ Her

For the Armstrong Acting Studios Outstanding Performer in a Canadian Short Film Award, we selected Yên Sen of Lovin’ Her for their delicately interwoven portrayal of the main character, Ann Lai. Yên’s performance, infused with profound depth and compassion, evokes the possibilities and pluralities inherent in a single life. We would also like to extend an honourable mention to JueMeili Olaes and Micah Chu for their generous, collective presentation of a character, a person, who lingers in our minds long after the film concludes.

So You Think You Can Pitch? Awards:

The 2024 Pitch Jury will announce the winner of the Silver Prize Award and Gold Prize Award during the live event on November 23 from 5:00 pm. The Pitch Jury includes director/producer Amanda De Souza, filmmaker Meelad Moaphi and filmmaker Sami Khan.

Audience Choice Film Awards

The winners of the Blue Ant Media Audience Choice Feature Award and the BFL CANADA Audience Choice Short Film Award will be announced on Saturday November 23.

Click here for a list of 2024 Reel Asian Award Winners and for more information on the Festival, visit reelasian.com.

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival gratefully acknowledges the support of government partners Telefilm Canada, Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage, Ontario Trillium Foundation, Ontario Creates, and the City of Toronto; and the support of Premier Partners Crave and Warner Bros. Discovery Access Canada.

So thrilled to attend opening night festivities. Some highlights here, including Opening Night Gala, CAN I GET A WITNESS?

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#FIRSTLOOK: PROGRAMMING ANNOUNCED FOR 2024 TORONTO REEL ASIAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

The 28th Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (Reel Asian), Canada’s premiere pan-Asian festival, today announced its 2024 programming lineup. Opening the festival is Can I Get a Witness?, by veteran director and Reel Asian alum Ann Marie Fleming, and starring award-winning actor Sandra Oh. From November 13 to 24, 2024, the festival embraces diverse stories showcasing contemporary Asian cinema that bridge cultural divides and connect global communities.

This year’s lineup comprises 17 features and 49 shorts spanning all genres and ages from Canada, China, Indonesia, France, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. For the first time, Reel Asian introduces Colliders, a new Shorts category in partnership with Indigenous storytellers from ImagineNATIVE. This new initiative invites audiences to explore the solidarity between Indigenous and settler Asian communities through storytelling dialogue.

Reel Asian will also present four innovative multimedia experiences through the RA:X programme and welcome several esteemed industry professionals for their Reel Ideas conference. For the full programming lineup and ticket information, visit reelasian.com.

“We are delighted to welcome audiences back to Reel Asian to celebrate the finest in global and homegrown Asian cinema from the diaspora across Canada,” said Deanna Wong, Executive Director of Reel Asian. “This year’s lineup is a testament to the exceptional talent our community brings to the industry, which grows stronger each year. We look forward to presenting these unique and captivating stories that will truly inspire and create deeper conversations in a safe and inclusive environment”.

Please see Reel Asian’s programming highlights below. For the full Festival programme and schedule, please visit reelasian.com or view the 2024 Programme Guide here.

FEATURES

[*] indicates expected attendance

CAN I GET A WITNESS (Opening Night)
Dir. Ann Marie Fleming * | Canada 2024 | 110 min. | English | AA
What would you give up to ensure a world with no war, no poverty, and a stable climate? Your phone? Your car? Your life? That’s the question that looms over Ann Marie Fleming’s near-future fable, where the solution to our world’s ills is for humans to die by their 50th year.

It’s not all doom and gloom. For teenage Kiah (Keira Jang), it’s her first day of work as a Documenter. Her world of peace in sun-soaked Powell River, B.C., is all she knows, and she’s getting trained by Daniel (Joel Oulette), a seasoned convener of death ceremonies. Meanwhile, Ellie (Sandra Oh) puts on a parent’s brave face for Kiah’s venture into adulthood while making her own empty-nest arrangements.
WED, NOV 13 • 7:00 PM • HOT DOCS TED ROGERS CINEMA

PIERCE
Dir. Nelicia Low | Taiwan, Singapore, Poland 2024 | 104 min. | Mandarin | AA | Toronto Premiere
Trouble seems to follow Jie and his family. Training to be a competitive fencer, Jie is lost, haunted by the childhood memory of a near-drowning incident with his menacing older brother Han. Years later, a teenage Han is imprisoned after killing a competitor during a fencing match (by accident, he swears). Meanwhile, Jie’s mother has been spiteful and distant ever since, with no love to give her younger son. So when Han is finally released from prison, Jie is desperate to have some family love restored — and eager for some helpful fencing and boy-friend dating tips, too. But is Han’s reformed presence for real?
THURS, NOV 14 • 5:30 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

THE LAND OF MORNING CALM 아침바다 갈매기는
Dir. Park Ri-woong | South Korea 2024 | 114 min. | Korean | AA | International Premiere
Feeling stuck, young fisherman Yong-su sees no hope in his future – like a fish in a net. As a last resort, he plans an insurance scam by staging his disappearance, hoping to provide a better life for his Vietnamese wife and his ageing mother. At the centre of this scheme is his captain, Yeong-guk (Yoon Joo-sang), who reluctantly reports Yong-su missing. However, when Yong-su’s mother (Yang Hee-kyung) refuses to connect her son’s disappearance with his death, the white lie snowballs into something harder to chew.
THURS, NOV 14 • 8:00 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

BORROWED TIME 人海同游
Dir. Choy Ji | China 2023 | 93 min. | Cantonese | PG
While picking juicy lychees on an endless summer day, Ting is uneasy. She’s on the verge of marriage in her hometown in mainland China. Her father will not be there. He long ago left her and her mother to stay with his preferred family in Hong Kong — part of the legacy of men from the region who had extramarital affairs in China in the 1980s and ’90s. Before she ties the knot, Ting ventures to Hong Kong to find the father she’s never known. While on her journey, she finds she has other loose ends to tie up, too.
THURS, NOV 14 • 8:00 PM • TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX

FRESH OFF MARKHAM 敗走麥城
Dir. Kurt Yuen, Cyrus Lo and Trevor Choi * | Canada 2024 | 83 min | English, Mandarin, Cantonese | AA
Shan, an immigrant from Dongbei, China, settles in Markham, Ont., a suburb known for its welcoming Chinese community. There, Kevin, a fellow Dongbei local, pulls him into a scheme to rob a Japanese restaurant stealing business from Chinese locals. After the heist goes horribly wrong, they delve into the streets of Markham in a series of chaotic episodes. Fresh Off Markham functions as a satirical anthology, highlighting experiences and dilemmas that some Chinese immigrants encounter amidst relocation.
FRI, NOV 15 • 5:30 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

BEN AND SUZANNE, A REUNION IN 4 PARTS
Dir. Shaun Seneviratne | USA 2024 | 110 min | English | AA
It’s the holidays, and Ben Santhanaraj shows up to Sri Lanka to see Suzanne Hopper, his long-distance partner who works there. Unfortunately, Suzanne’s been informed she now has to work through the holidays, thwarting their dream vacation plans (and his amorous intentions). They decide to go along with their itinerary, her laptop in tow, but nothing seems to work out as planned, leading to candid conversations and chaotic twists. Will their relationship endure — or have they grown too far apart?
FRI, NOV 15 • 5:30 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

LAYLA
Dir. Amrou Al-Kadhi | UK 2024 | 99 min. | English Arabic | AA
Layla is a struggling Palestinian drag queen who often finds creative ways to make ends meet, surrounded by a small, supportive group of close friends within the North London queer scene. A stuffy corporate event performance goes terribly wrong, making Layla and their outrageous antics go viral, and they meet the seemingly-dull-in-comparison marketing executive Max. Despite their very different worlds, a transformative love affair ensues, much to the annoyance of Layla’s close friends, who are highly sceptical of how healthy or affirming this relationship could possibly be.
FRI, NOV 15 • 8:00 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

EXCLUSION: UNRAVELLING A CENTURY OF SILENCE
Dir. Keira Loughran * | Canada 2024 | 85 min. | English, Cantonese, Toisanese | GA
In 1923, Canada passed the ironically named Chinese Immigration Act — better known as the Chinese Exclusion Act — which for the next 24 years barred virtually any Chinese person from entering the country. They were the first ethnic group to be singled out in this way.

In her directorial debut, award-winning actor and playwright Keira Loughran traces her family’s history to show the act’s devastating impact on the Chinese community, focusing on her grandmother, activist Jean Lumb, who was the first Chinese Canadian woman to receive the Order of Canada. Among the many incidents igniting Lumb’s activism was the shocking revocation of her Canadian citizenship when she married Loughran’s Chinese-born grandfather — a lesser-known requirement of the act.
SAT, NOV 16 • 12:00 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

THE MOTHER AND THE BEAR
Dir. Johnny Ma * | Canada, Chile 2024 | 100 min. | English, Korean | AA
After a mysterious encounter leaves her daughter Sumi in a coma, Sara rushes from South Korea to Winnipeg to be by her side. As Sumi heals, Sara begins to unpack details of her life that her daughter never shared with her. On a mission to find a husband to take care of Sumi when she wakes, Sara ventures into the daunting unknowns of dating apps and Winnipeg winters, and finds out more about herself than she planned.
SAT, NOV 16 • 2.30 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

LUCKY STAR
Dir. Gillian McKercher * | Canada 2024 | 85 min. | English | PG | Toronto Premiere
Deep in debt, with a house and a university-bound kid, plus a marriage on the rocks, reformed gambler Lucky sees his luck run out after getting scammed in a tax-fraud scheme. Ashamed and desperate to keep it from his family, he returns to underground backroom gambling dens, playing for big payouts to relieve the debt and win back his family’s favour. Meanwhile, each family member, unaware of Lucky’s troubles but feeling the money crunch, too, resorts to unsavoury means to dig out of their hole.
SAT, NOV 16 • 5:00 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

THE DRAFT! SETAN ALAS!
Dir. Yusron Fuadi *| Indonesia 2024 | 84 min. | Indonesian | AA
Five oblivious youths, a video camera, a remote rundown villa, and a creepy caretaker. Doesn’t it sound like the perfect recipe for a horror film? A mysterious death that soon follows takes the story on a route beyond the fourth wall. The group finds out that they’re characters of a screenplay, and that their smarts will dictate their survival.
SAT, NOV 16 • 7:30 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

HOME COURT
Dir. Erica Tanamachi | USA 2024 | 98 min. | English | PG
At the heart of this captivating coming-of-age sports film is Ashley Chea, a Cambodian American basketball marvel whose high school career we follow. Hailing from a lower-class immigrant family that sought safety in the U.S. after the Khmer Rouge came to power, Chea is given the opportunity to attend a private school and thus pursue a coveted college basketball career. While her parents work vigorously at their doughnut store and can’t attend her games, Chea bonds with her Japanese American coach, who helps her with doctor’s appointments and even attaining her driver’s licence.
SUN, NOV 17 • 10:00 AM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

THE GLASSWORKER
Dir. Usman Riaz * | Pakistan 2024 | 98 Min | Urdu | PG | Toronto Premiere
A young, gifted Vincent and his father Tomas run the finest glass workshop in the country, creating delicate, magnificent pieces of art. Their close bond is soon put to the test with the arrival of an army colonel and his young, aspiring violinist daughter Alliz, to their hometown. Amidst the rumblings of an impending war, Vincent and Alliz eventually fall in love, a relationship that is continually opposed and challenged by their fathers.
SUN, NOV 17 • 1:00 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

ASHIMA
Dir. Kenji Tsukamoto | USA 2023 | 86 min. | English, Japanese | GA
What does greatness look like? What does it take to be great? In the documentary Ashima, greatness looks like Ashima Shiraishi, a modest but determined 13-year-old Japanese American rock-climbing prodigy. For her demanding father, Hisatoshi, a former Butoh dancer and Ashima’s coach, greatness requires discipline and intense focus. Together, they’ve embarked to South Africa to climb Golden Shadow, a famous V14 boulder, for Ashima to become the youngest woman to ever climb it.
SUN, NOV 17 • 4:00 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

HIS FATHER’S SON (Centrepiece Gala Presentation)
Dir. Meelad Moaphi * | Canada 2024 | 79 Min | English, Farsi | PG | Toronto Premiere
Amir is an aspiring chef trying to get ahead, but he can’t seem to break out and meet his own expectations or those of his parents, while his favoured younger brother Mahyar can seemingly do no wrong. When news from Iran arrives that a family friend has died and passed his entire inheritance solely to Mahyar, the mystery of the gift’s provenance begins to unravel the family’s story, the image of their parents, and the relationship between the two brothers.
SUN, NOV 17 • 7:00 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

NOBUKO MIYAMOTO: A SONG IN MOVEMENT
Dir. Quyên Nguyen-Le & Tadashi Nakamura | USA 2024 | 60 Min | English| GA | Toronto Premiere
Through the lens of directors Tadashi Nakamura and Quyên Nguyen-Le, this compelling documentary captures the bold journey of visionary artist-activist Nobuko Miyamoto. From her upbringing in a Japanese American internment camp to her breakthrough as a performer in films and on Broadway, Miyamoto reflects on how her personal encounters with racial injustice inspired her blending of artistic endeavours with Asian American advocacy. Her thoughtfully created music, dances, and theatre productions carry on to bridge cultural divides and facilitate mutual support among BIPOC communities.
TUE, NOV 19 • 7:00 PM • INNIS TOWN HALL

FILE NO. 2304
Dir. Alison S.M. Kobayashi * | Canada, USA 2024 | 5 Min | English | PG
After accessing the 119-page custodial file of her great-grandfather in the National Archives of Canada, Alison S.M. Kobayashi discovers new details about her Japanese family’s history and their lives before internment.
TUE, NOV 19 • 7:00 PM • INNIS TOWN HALL

NIKAH
Dir. Mukaddas Mijit & Bastien Ehouzan | France 2023 | 55 Min | Uyghur | PG | Canadian Premiere
Dilber is 27 years old, preparing for her younger sister Rena’s wedding while contemplating her own future. Despite the recent nuptials in the family, their mother continues to put pressure on Dilber to find a husband soon, responding to the heightened anxiety during a time when Uyghur people are being arrested without process or reason. Dilber’s friend in Paris convinces her to marry a young Uyghur man in France, a proposition that feels very attractive. But will it work out
WED, NOV 20 • 7:00 PM • INNIS TOWN HALL

SHORTS

This year’s Shorts programming includes:

LOVE ISLAND: Pulling you in closer, these films traverse the ebbs and flows of infatuation, fascination, longing, desire, and the release of letting go — all this to possibly feel our true selves more intimately.
FRI, NOV 15 • 8:00 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

AN UNFAMILIAR TALE: Family dynamics are complicated. No matter how intimately familiar kin can feel, there’s room for surprise to the point where we wonder if we even knew them at all. Which stories and emotions do we hold inside, and which are we ready to share?
SAT, NOV 16 • 12:00 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

UNSUNG VOICES 13: Six emerging filmmakers embarked on a summer-long filmmaking journey. We’re proud to present their world premiere here, in the 13th edition of Reel Asian’s filmmaking program.
SAT, NOV 16 • 2:30 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

COLLIDERS: This programme invites audiences into a storytelling dialogue between imagineNATIVE and Reel Asian on the solidarity between Indigenous and settler Asian people. Tenacious and confrontational, this collection transports resilience from the past and into the present.

Co-curator: Kaitlynn Tomaselli is Anishinaabe and Italian from Manitoulin Island. An emerging curator and arts administrator, she currently works for the world’s largest presenter of Indigenous screen content, imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts
SAT, NOV 16 • 5:00 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

PUSHBACK: Trivial or not, these short films push and push … and push. Is it provocation, retaliation, or sheer determination? Regardless of the answer, how far might you be willing to go?
SAT, NOV 16 • 7:30 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

LOVE IS LOVE: The notion of love transcends you and me. It resides in the personal, the familial, the imaginary, and a nation.
SUN, NOV 17 • 1:00 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

UNDERCUR RENTS: Seemingly stagnant on the surface, in motion underneath. These five short films trace and retrace what movements and stories might exist within us and beyond, pulling us in unexpected directions.
SUN, NOV 17 • 4:00 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

RA:X

Storytelling beyond the screen. RA:X is Reel Asian’s programming section with interactive elements and innovative storytelling tools that seek to engage audiences in new and exciting ways.

RA:X SEN
Experience a poetic journey of connection and entanglement inspired by the philosophies of a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. Set in the famous Tai-An teahouse, SEN takes us from joy and wonder, through carelessness and confusion, to peace and renewal, in a lush, visual homage to the expansive emotional interior.

Hold a black raku tea bowl to wake Sen, the spirit of tea, and follow as it learns about itself, the world, and the relations that connect us all together.
NOV 14 – 24 • BACHIR YEREX PRESENTATION SPACE • RSVP AT REELASIAN.COM/RAX

PRESENTING SEN: IN CONVERSATION WITH SANA AKRAM
Join Sana Akram with Reel Asian programmer Aram Collier to talk about the work required to present SEN, the world of experiential media, and the impact of new media technologies in storytelling.
Speaker: Sana Akram
FRI, NOV 22 • 5:00 PM • 401 COMMONS

RA:X CREATURA INSTALLATION
We’re excited to be presenting at the festival an assortment of art pieces by Wenting Li, inspired by the wide repertoire of fantastical and strange beings that inhabit their portfolio.
THU, NOV 7, NOV 13 – 24 (NOV 18 CLOSED) • VARIOUS TIMES • 401 COMMONS

ARTIST TALK WITH WENTING LI
Join Wenting Li in conversation with Reel Asian programmer Jasmine Gui as they discuss the featured artwork, their artistic practice, and all things creature-related.
MON, NOV 22 • 6:30 PM • 401 COMMONS

WEE ASIAN

Loud and expressive, reflexive yet playful, this programme, in the spirit of Creatura, makes room for all our mushy and monstrous emotions. Come for the screening, stick around for the delightful arts activities for all ages to enjoy together!
SAT, NOV 23 • 10:00 AM & 1:00 PM • INNIS TOWN HALL

This year’s Wee Asian short film lineup includes:

LOLA – USA
DANCING DHAMAAL! (DANCING FUNI) – USA
STARLING – USA
HU (후!) – South Korea
MINUS PLUS MULTIPLY – UK, Taiwan
LOOK – Canada
DETOURS AHEAD – Canada
UNBLENDING – Canada

REEL IDEAS

It’s no secret that filmmaking requires grit, stamina, and a whole lot of determination. Reel Ideas celebrates the behind- the-scenes perseverance that drives creators to follow their instincts and shape their stories.

This year’s Reel Ideas programme highlights the various roles integral to following the north star in one’s artistic vision. Amidst the chaos of creation, where things never quite go as planned, we hope you can find what it is you want to persevere towards, and trust that your story will eventually find its audience and community.

CAN I GET A WITNESS: ARTIST TALK WITH ANN MARIE FLEMING

Join us for an in-depth conversation about Ann Marie Fleming’s Can I Get A Witness?, Reel Asian’s opening night film this year. This thought-provoking movie examines a near-future society grappling with climate change, mortality, and the value of life. Fleming draws inspiration from her personal experiences, including her time in Vancouver’s West End and the environmental upheaval of Stanley Park.

What began as an absurdist satire has transformed into a poignant exploration of intergenerational responsibility and community resilience. In this talk, Fleming will share insights into her creative process, the film’s evolution from satire to heartfelt comedy, and the collaborative journey with a talented cast and crew, including Sandra Oh. Discover how Can I Get A Witness? invites us to reflect on what we’re willing to sacrifice for a sustainable future and the beauty of life itself.
Speaker: Ann Marie Fleming, Filmmaker
THURS, NOV 14 • 2.30 PM • FESTIVAL LOUNGE

FROM SHORT TO FEATURE: THE JOURNEY OF SHOOK BY AMAR WALA

Fresh off its world premiere at TIFF, Amar Wala’s Shook serves as an ideal case study for filmmakers, particularly those transitioning from shorts to feature films. Set in Scarborough, Ont., the film captures the area’s multicultural essence and reflects on identity, place, and personal growth through rich, site-specific details. This panel explores the complexities of film financing, distribution strategies, and the key decisions that shape a film’s journey from concept to completion. By examining Wala’s experience with Shook, we’ll shed light on how an honest love letter to a city and its diverse communities can be crafted, while successfully balancing complex personal narratives with broader cultural commentary.
Speaker: Amar Wala, Filmmaker
THURS, NOV 14 • 5:30 PM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

LATE BLOOMER: SCREENING & ARTIST TALK

Sit in on this exclusive screening and deep dive of Late Bloomer, the groundbreaking series from the creative mind of Jasmeet Raina (Jus Reign). Centred on Jasmeet Singh’s life, the show unpacks family expectations, intergenerational relationships, and racial identity in ways rarely seen on Canadian TV. We’ll screen Episode 1: “Nudes” and Episode 4: “The Turban”, offering a glimpse into Jasmeet’s complex journey as he navigates personal desires that go against familial pressures. Stick around to hear from the creative team about how Late Bloomer has landed in the community, and how it will continue to shape these conversations in real life.
Speaker: TBA
TUES NOV 17 • 10:00 AM • TIFF LIGHTBOX

CREATURA: A JOURNEY INTO THE UNFAMILIAR

This session will explore how these concepts manifest through stories of endangered traditions and reimagined realities. The documentary The Last of the Sea Women provides a vivid portrayal of South Korean fisherwomen preserving an ancient practice amidst modern developments. Meanwhile, Universal Language, set in a reimagined Canada where Farsi and French are official languages, presents a surreal world where societal norms are upended and loneliness is a common experience. Both films vividly embody the spirit of CREATURA by pushing the boundaries of human experience and challenging conventional perspectives.
Speakers: Iris Ng, Cinematographer (The Last of the Sea Women) and Ila Firouzabadi, Screenwriter (Universal Language)
WED, NOV 20 • 4:30 PM • YOUTUBE LIVE PANEL

SPACE CADET: BEHIND THE ANIMATION – WORK IN PROGRESS

Join us for an exclusive Work-In-Progress presentation of Space Cadet, a captivating animated film directed by Eric San (Kid Koala). Work-In- Progress events at Reel Asian give audience members a chance to explore the development stages of a piece of work. In this session, we will hear insights from the creative team of Space Cadet, including director Kid Koala, head of story and production designer Lillian Chan, and artistic director Corinne Merrell, who will guide us through the artistic process and illustrate how animation brings this heartfelt narrative to life.

Space Cadet tells the story of Robot, a guardian programmed to protect Celeste, the sweetest astronaut on this (or any) planet. When Celeste embarks on a solo mission into the vast unknown, Robot is left behind, grappling with loneliness and the passage of time. As Celeste faces unforeseen challenges in space, memories of her childhood with Robot resurface, revealing the deep emotional bond they share.

This tomorrow-days lullaby is not just about outer space adventures. It also delves into themes of ageing, destiny, and the significance of our memories.

Don’t miss this opportunity to travel the richly textured, imaginative world of Space Cadet and explore its journey.

Speakers: Director Eric San (Kid Koala), Head of Story and Production Designer Lillian Chan, Artistic Director Corinne Merrell and Producer, Les Films Outsiders Inc.
THU NOV 21 • 7.00 PM • HOT DOCS TED ROGERS CINEMA

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN PITCH? (Closing Night)

Join us for the live So You Think You Can Pitch competition at the 28th Reel Asian Film Festival! This is a fantastic opportunity to support emerging filmmakers as they showcase their projects to our distinguished jurors. Watch the five finalists compete for an incredible prize package to help launch or complete their films. Come cheer on the next generation of talent and get inspired by the future of Asian Canadian cinema!
SAT, NOV 23 • 5:00 PM • ANNEX THEATRE

Reel Asian 2024 Digital Programme Book here.

For more information, visit reelasian.com.

#FIRSTLOOK: PAUL WONG TO RECEIVE 2024 FIRE HORSE AWARD FROM TORONTO REEL ASIAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival is thrilled to reveal award-winning Interdisciplinary Visual and Media Artist Paul Wong as the recipient of this year’s 2024 Fire Horse Award. The award honours an Asian Canadian individual who has made an extraordinary contribution to the film and media-arts community. In celebration of Asian Heritage Month, the third annual Awards Ceremony and Fundraiser for the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival will take place on May 23rd at the Shangri-La Hotel Toronto.

To purchase tickets, please visit: www.reelasian.com/fire-horse-event

The Fire Horse Award was introduced in 2021 to honour individuals who embody the spirit of originality, creative thinking, and visionary leadership. The award, named after festival founder Anita Lee, holds significant importance within the Asian Canadian film and media arts community and serves as a tribute to those who have made extraordinary contributions and left a lasting legacy.

This year’s Fire Horse Award Ceremony will be hosted by Canadian media darling, author, and Etalk senior correspondent, Lainey Lui, adding her signature flair and energy to the occasion.

The nomination for the 2024 Fire Horse Award comes from esteemed figures in the arts community, including Lisa Steele and Kim Tomzak, the recently retired founders of Vtape, and the Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson.

“The jury is honoured to present the third annual Fire Horse Award to Vancouver artist Paul Wong, a bold pioneer in Canadian visual and media art. For fifty years and counting, Paul has been the creator of ground-breaking, large-scale public art installations that challenge stereotypes and our notions of belonging,” said the 2024 Fire Horse Award Jury Filmmaker/Academic Ali Kazimi, Filmmaker/Inaugural Fire Horse Award recipient Keith Lock and Journalist/Podcaster Hannah Sung. “Throughout his long career, he has modelled a commitment to building community and advocacy which has been influential on newer generations of media artists. We hope this award brings renewed attention to his entire body of work, especially to younger generations, given his career longevity and social impact. As a visual and media artist, storyteller, community-builder, advocate and curator, Paul fiercely embodies the qualities of the Fire Horse Award, as he dedicates his talent and energy to breaking down barriers, uplifting Asian Canadian communities and sparking cultural change.”

“In Paul Wong, the Fire Horse Award jury has chosen a one-of-a-kind artist whose work—which never shied away from exploring his queer, Asian and Canadian identities—has been recognized by his peers throughout his 50-year-plus career.” said Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival Executive Director Deanna Wong. “Considering also his tireless community work, activism and advocacy, Wong is truly the embodiment of this award and we can’t wait to present him with it this May.”

Hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, Paul Wong is a pioneering figure, known for his innovative work in visual and media art. With a career spanning over five decades, Wong has continuously pushed the boundaries of storytelling, working outside mainstream conventions. His illustrious career is marked by numerous accolades, including the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Art (2005) and the Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Visual Arts (2016). In 2023, Wong received the Outstanding Artist Award from the Federation of Gay Games and was presented with an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Emily Carr University of Art and Design (ECUAD).

He recently completed a year-long residency titled 身在唐人街/OCCUPYING CHINATOWN. Inspired by hundreds of letters and familial artifacts of his late mother Suk Fong Wong. Wong created intimate exhibitions, public art pieces, artist talks, events, workshops, and the website www.occupyingchinatown.com.

The Fire Horse Award recognizes one Asian Canadian member of the film and media-arts community. This member demonstrates qualities of the Chinese zodiac symbol in their work: Fire Horses are changemakers, creative thinkers, and visionary leaders who significantly impact the larger community. The award was created on the occasion of Reel Asian’s 25th Anniversary in 2021 to honour Reel Asian founder Anita Lee, whose groundbreaking work and determination has made Reel Asian a staple in Canada’s festival landscape. Lee served at the National Film Board of Canada for 18 years, for the last 14 as Executive Producer, Ontario Centre, and was appointed as Toronto International Film Festival’s Chief Programming Officer in April 2022, a new position where she continues to carry on the spirit of the Fire Horse.

This year’s recipient will be awarded $25,000 in cash, of which Golden Globe Award Winning Canadian film and television star Sandra Oh has committed $50,000 over five years. This contribution matches a generous lead donation from donor Ha-kyung Helen Song. More recently, Pan Asia Food Co., Ltd. has also pledged $25,000 over the next five years to the award. The company has been serving the Korean community in Canada for over 50 years. Ongoing contributions from the Reel Asian community will ensure the sustainability of the award for years to come.

The recipient will also receive the Fire Horse Award sculpture designed by Toronto- based artist and curator Myung-Sun Kim. The award design, a floating, malleable form, evokes the relationship between body and memory, our familial and cultural inheritances across the diaspora.

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival is pleased to announce that its event sponsor for this year’s 2024 Fire Horse Award is Shaftesbury, an award-winning creator and producer of original content for television, film and digital.

“I’m thrilled to join Reel Asian in wholeheartedly supporting the Fire Horse Award,” said Sandra Oh. “By honouring trailblazers of the Asian Canadian media arts community, we are recognizing ourselves. It deeply matters who makes our images, and to these pioneers we owe a debt—and our promise to keep striving to tell our stories to the world. Let’s pause to celebrate those who blazed those trails—it’s beautiful and necessary.”

About Reel Asian

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (Reel Asian) is a unique showcase of contemporary Asian cinema and work from the Asian diaspora. As Canada’s largest pan- Asian film festival, Reel Asian® provides a public forum for Asian media artists and their work and fuels the growing appreciation for Asian cinema in Canada. Reel Asian will be showcasing special projects featuring prominent artists, content creators, up-and-coming filmmakers and will also include the “Reel Ideas” program for creative minds in the industry to connect online. Works presented at Reel Asian include films, videos, and other media artworks by Asian artists in Canada, the U.S., Asia and all over the world.

#REELASIAN: 2023 REEL ASIAN AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Winners at the 2023 Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival have been announced. The Festival, now in its 27th edition takes place through November 19, 2023.

RBC Best Canadian Feature Film Award
THE QUEEN OF MY DREAMS by Fawzia Mirza

This audacious film takes us on a captivating joyride through Bollywood dreams, the swinging Karachi of the 60s via the generational conflicts within a contemporary Pakistani family. Full of theatrical flair, bold design, and a hint of camp The Queen of my Dreams marks the debut of a strong new voice, making Fawzia Mirza a filmmaker to keep a close eye on.

Osler Best Feature Film Award
TERRESTRIAL VERSES by Alireza Khatami & Ali Asgari

An uncomfortably captivating feature of revealing scenes between regular Tehranis and their frustrating interactions with oppressive authority figures. The jury recognizes the duo’s homage to classic Iranian cinema with performances so convincing one may mistake the film for a stylized documentary. The film’s austere form kept the jury riveted and is a challenge to audiences everywhere to consider personal agency in the face of tyrannical oppression.

Cinesend Best First Feature Award
Q by Jude Chehab

Chehab artfully blends home movies along with her striking cinematography to contemplate desire, spiritual longing, and family bonds. Resisting the urge to over-explain, her storytelling allows mystery to simmer, resulting in a complex, emotionally nuanced portrait. In honour of this bold new voice, the jury awards Jude Chehab’s Q the Best First Feature prize.

SHORTS AWARDS

Reel Asian Best International Short Film Award
默 (TO WRITE FROM MEMORY) by Emory Chao Johnson

The jury recognizes To Write From Memory by Emory Chao Johnson as the Winner of Reel Asian Best International Short Film Award in the spirit of enunciating the unspeakable feelings of a personal experience with unrelenting honesty.

National Film Board of Canada Best Emerging Canadian Short Film Award
ABBY by Fanny Lord-Bourcier

Drawing from the director’s personal journey, Abby is an animated short that offers a poignant exploration of the unspoken feelings of isolation experienced as a transracial adoptee, all expressed with a gentle and sincere voice.

Air Canada Short Film or Video Award
ADAGIO by Emma Zuck
JUNGLEFOWL by Kalainithan Kalaichelvan
SAWO MATANG by Andrea Nirmala Widjajanto
THE REPAIR SHOP (L’ATELIER) by Namaï Kham Po
UNIBROW by Nedda Sarshar
PIXELS OF THE ORIENT by Warren Chan

Each film is sharply unique thanks to each director’s distinct perspective, yet each delves into the universal complexities of connection and the struggles, fears, and hopes of being truly seen.

Michael Fukushima Animasian Award
THE SEA ON THE DAY WHEN THE MAGIC RETURNS (마법이 돌아오는 날의 바다) by Ji-won Han

This captivating short employs ingenious visuals to explore personal desires and the essence of the human experience. Its delicate storytelling and open vulnerability linger, leaving a lasting resonance.

OUTSTANDING PERFORMER AWARDS

Armstrong Acting Studios Outstanding Performer in a Canadian Feature Film
Amrit Kaur, The Queen of My Dreams

The jury was captivated by Amrit Kaur’s range of performance and her ability to embody two distinct women in one film, which is why we enthusiastically present her with Outstanding Performance in a Canadian Film in The Queen of My Dreams.

Armstrong Acting Studios Outstanding Performer in a Canadian Short Film
Sherrylyn Vivero, APOY

Sherrylyn brought a special nuance to her performance as the main character’s mother, which made her incredibly engrossing to watch. The complex emotions she is able to convey in this charged piece showcases that she is truly a talent to watch.

Tickets here.

#REELASIAN: 2023 TORONTO REEL ASIAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL KICKS-OFF

Now in its 27th edition, the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival is back on today through November 19, 2023. The Festival features Pan-Asian talent in the Arts & Media through events and cinema.

This year’s Festival boasts 15 features and 57 shorts from Canada, India, Iran, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and the United States. Programming targets all age groups, including young ones with their Wee Asian programme. Reel Asian will also present three thoughtful and creative multimedia experiences through their RA:X programme and welcome a number of esteemed industry professionals for their Reel Ideas conference.

Kicking-of the Festival this year is TIFF ’23 selection THE QUEEN OF MY DREAMS by Director Fawzia Mirza, starring Amrit Kaur (The Sex Lives of College Girls) and Hamza Haq (Transplant). The Film will get national distribution early 2024 via Cineplex Pictures. It all ends on a high note with the SO YOU THINK YOU CAN PITCH: Live Finale at CSI Annex.

Check-out this year’s programming schedule here.

Some highlights from Opening Night here:

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#FIRSTLOOK: “WE WILL BE BRAVE” TO PREMIERE AT REEL ASIAN 2023

Following its world premiere at the Calgary International Film Festival, the feature-length documentary WE WILL BE BRAVE will be celebrating its hometown premiere at the 27th edition of the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival on November 11, 2023.

Directed by Toronto’s Chrisann Hessing, the documentary follows the journey of Toronto’s “Good Guise” collective, who are committed to sparking conversations around healthy masculinity through art. From photography and beatboxing to poetry and martial arts, the artists in the collective share their unique lived experiences and welcome others to join in their mission of finding radical alternatives to shame and punishment. As each of them grapples with upheavals in their personal lives, their resolve is further tested by a dire lack of resources and the burden of racialized discrimination. WE WILL BE BRAVE is a story about personal evolution, healing and an unlikely brotherhood forged in vulnerability.

“We’re thrilled to bring the film to audiences in Toronto, where we shot the film and where the Good Guise are based,” said director Hessing. “We’re excited to contribute to the cultural conversations surrounding men’s mental health and raise awareness about the Good Guise collective and their important work.”

The film was produced by Tanya Hoshi and Chrisann Hessing with the support of Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch Program, Hot Docs Cross Currents Fund and the Indigenous Screen Office.

Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival tickets can be purchased at: https://www.reelasian.com/festival-events/we-will-be-brave/.
Learn more about the film by visiting www.wewillbebrave.ca or checking it out on Instagram and Facebook.