Klora and Minky work together to solve a very, very "important" equation.
12 Nov. 6:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
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.
13 Nov. 8:15 pm | TIFF Lightbox C3
A prairie landscape undergoes a metamorphosis from rural idyll to over-urbanized dystopia.
21 Nov. 10:00 am | Innis Town Hall
In the intimate oasis of a tiny women’s-only beauty parlour, generations of devoted customers, including the filmmaker’s family, reflect on letting their hair go grey.
13 Nov. 6:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
Using a remarkable wealth of archival material seamlessly woven into a creative, scrapbook-style tapestry, AN INCOMPLETE CALENDAR centres on a rare and surprising artifact: the vinyl record of Rhymes and Songs for OPEC, or the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
18 Nov. 7:00 pm | Innis Town Hall
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.
14 Nov. 10:00 am | TIFF Lightbox C4
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. 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.
17 Nov. 7:30 pm | Innis Town Hall
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.
12 Nov. 2:00 pm | Commons Lobby at 401 Richmond Street
Hand-drawn on film by James Anderson, 19, and Keith Lock, 18, this film was inspired by the first Apollo moon landing in 1969 and is critical of Western ideations of advancement.
21 Nov. 10:00 am | Innis Town Hall
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.
14 Nov. 12:15 pm | TIFF Lightbox C3
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.
18 Nov. 6:00 pm | Commons Lobby at 401 Richmond Street
CABBAGEWORM is a horror stop-motion animation film, exploring queer desire and emancipation after the death of Michelle's abusive and homophobic mother.
15 Nov. 1:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C2
It’s the hottest day of the year. The popsicles are dripping, the pimples are popping, and the power is out. Taking a classic "day-in-the-life" form, we are treated to vignettes and conversations that on the surface seem ordinary but build to reveal each young character’s anxiety about the clash between their carefree present and uncertain future.
15 Nov. 7:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C2
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.
20 Nov. 7:30 pm | It's OK* Studios
In a dark preservation lab in New York City, international student Ting Su works to digitize archival film negatives from the Daily Worker, a union newspaper that began in Chicago in 1924.
12 Nov. 5:30 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
A 45-year-old corporate worker befriends a group of young skaters and secretly begins learning to skateboard during his lunch breaks. When doubt and judgment creep in, he must decide whether to abandon the joy he’s found or embrace the risk of starting over.
15 Nov. 1:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C2
A middle-aged Indian mother is faced with the dilemma of a lifetime when her yesteryear Bollywood crush arrives at her door with just one request for her husband and kids — to marry her.
15 Nov. 1:00 pm | TIFF Bell Lightbox C2
At a dim sum table where food meets kink, three friends push playfulness and intimacy to its sticky, steamy edges — until a sudden interruption challenges who gets to claim pleasure.
13 Nov. 6:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
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 will bring the characters and stories to life, followed by a reception with the writers, performers, and industry guests.
19 Nov. 7:30 pm | It's OK* Studios
Traces of birds become calligraphy. Handmade filmmaking creates impressions of flying.
21 Nov. 10:00 am | Innis Town Hall
A simple itch spirals into an outbreak with many legs. Certain things will always find their way to the surface.
14 Nov. 8:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
In a time and place where abortion is illegal, a woman’s repeated attempts to end her pregnancy fail, until she crosses paths with a strange bus driver.
14 Nov. 8:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
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.
19 Nov. 7:00 pm | Innis Town Hall
Videographers Arief and Edi exchange memories and imaginations about Papua based on the footage they captured during their time there.
14 Nov. 2:45 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
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.
12 Nov. 7:45 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
A girl walking home alone takes to the sky to shake off her loneliness. Her ability to use magic is a secret from her classmates.
21 Nov. 10:00 am | Innis Town Hall
A casual couple’s outing, a mysterious encounter, and an afternoon thunderstorm.
14 Nov. 12:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
Interwoven with animation, observational footage, and shadow puppetry, Landlines follows migrant truck drivers living in the Greater Toronto Area as they navigate the unjust realities of their industry.
12 Nov. 5:30 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
Letter to Celestial is a reanimation and reimagination of archival documents found in the search for Asian sex workers in Montreal's Chinatown and historic red light district.
13 Nov. 6:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
A chance encounter at a laundromat sparks a meaningful connection between Vinnie and Ryan. As closeness blurs into desire, they are forced to confront what love demands.
13 Nov. 8:45 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
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.
14 Nov. 10:00 am | TIFF Lightbox C3
How do you cancel an online order? Filmmaker Ansh Sirohi's grandfather, Nanu, certainly has no idea.
21 Nov. 10:00 am | Innis Town Hall
As the sole camerawoman at Kabul’s state television network, Naru navigates a daily battleground of misogyny just to hold her rightful place. She is hardened by her realities and her worldview is absolute: There are no good men left.
14 Nov. 8:45 pm | TIFF Lightbox C3
Struggling actress Devin and sound mixer Tom share an unlikely behind-the-scenes moment of connection, leads to an outpouring of emotion that neither of them expected.
12 Nov. 5:30 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
Two lonely grandmas from different cultures connect through daily walks around the neighbourhood. Today is their last walk before one of them flies back home to South Korea.
14 Nov. 2:45 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
MiaoMiao receives a box of chocolate balls. As she clings to this small treasure, a mix of doubt and quiet rebellion begins to blur the boundaries between order and desire.
14 Nov. 2:45 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
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. Duong responded to the book with more questions — and this remarkable documentary, Ba’s Book.
11 Nov. 7:30 pm | Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema
A boy’s breaking voice derails his dream of reunion, forcing him to confront the irreversible passage into adulthood.
13 Nov. 8:45 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
The story follows Pankaja, a woman who, along with her daughter Lalli, desperately navigates the city slums and bureaucracy of Bangalore in a quest to find her missing husband.
12 Nov. 5:30 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
A dreamlike parable about immigration, Permit Garden follows a nameless child who toils to exit the garden. But as time goes on, they wonder if escape is even possible.
12 Nov. 5:30 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
Yosef, 19, 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 fulfilment, his younger sister, Azra, returns to Egypt and discovers a liberating sense of belonging, giving Yosef new perspective.
14 Nov. 5:15 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
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.
21 Nov. 7:00 pm | Bathurst Street Theatre
In a photography studio, a woman and a photographer struggle to capture an innocent portrait of the woman.
14 Nov. 8:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
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. Explore and take a step into the many projects and events in the world of Expanded Dis/Closures.
11 Nov. | TIFF Lightbox C4
The Reel Asian Digital Community Archive was dreamed up to reflect on the festival's history as we approached our 30th anniversary. From cleaning out the office and sorting through boxes of storage materials to public callouts for community members old and new to submit their personal materials, we embarked on a six-month journey of collecting and documenting. The archive is now live and available for anyone interested in looking at the festival through its traces.
11 Nov. | 401 Richmond
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.
12 Nov. | 401 Richmond
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.
17 Nov. 6:30 pm | Commons Lobby at 401 Richmond Street
Ira reluctantly takes the bus to meet up with a guy from online, but when her date cancels mid-ride, she decides to join the middle-aged bus driver on his smoke break.
15 Nov. 1:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C2
Intuitively layered, textual animation is used as a tool to describe and come to terms with hallucinations as a part of sight.
14 Nov. 2:45 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
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.
14 Nov. 2:45 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
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?
13 Nov. 6:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
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?"
12 Nov. 5:30 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
Under suspicious circumstances, you wonder if the entities around you are withholding your full autonomy. Do you fight back?
14 Nov. 8:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
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.
15 Nov. 1:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C2
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.
14 Nov. 12:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
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.
13 Nov. 8:45 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
Using cyanotype animation, feelings of desire, romance, and melancholy are drawn from the lingering memory of a young man who falls in love with a statue.
13 Nov. 8:45 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
Harvinder “Harvey” Singh, a former bodybuilder now cares 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.
14 Nov. 3:30 pm | TIFF Lightbox C3
Ashima Shiraishi, a former child prodigy climber, and their Butoh dancer father offer a ceremony of climbing and dance to invite healing to both their fractured relationship and the land of Paiute.
13 Nov. 8:45 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
A portrait of an ordinary “one-child” Chinese family in their habitat in an ordinary apartment.
14 Nov. 8:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
Sunny Park’s world is … complicated. She discovers her life partner 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 celebration — and the family restaurant.
13 Nov. 5:15 pm | TIFF Lightbox C3
Bryce and Mei Lee make home movies with a video camera, at their uncle's Chinese Restaurant in Vancouver island to pass the time. Bryce wants to level up, make some new friends, and get super popular through filmmaking. The quickest way to do that? Tell everyone he knows Bruce Lee.
14 Nov. 6:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C3
In a home where fights erupt and everything is quietly reset by morning, two young sisters begin secretly plotting their parents’ divorce, believing it’s the only way to save their family.
15 Nov. 1:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C2
As a night-shift security guard at a factory, A-Bang kind of likes his job. Patrolling, taking photos, signing in — it's all quite easy, but also quite solitary…
14 Nov. 12:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
Mr. Monzavi, a reclusive man, lives in an ice shop alongside a mysterious block of ice that never melts. Their quiet, intimate bond is threatened when a group of strangers arrive.
13 Nov. 8:45 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
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.
15 Nov. 4:15 pm | TIFF Lightbox C2
This coming-of-age tale follows Chanda, who unexpectedly discovers masturbation on an otherwise ordinary day — set off by nothing more than the whirl of a washing machine.
13 Nov. 8:45 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
A tick infestation drives a group of campers out of their tent as their only light source slowly loses power. Their conflicting instincts pit them against one another.
15 Nov. 1:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C2
In a rural Philippine market, a street dog scavenges for scraps while a mother and son, fleeing Canada, search for a fresh start.
14 Nov. 8:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
Fatima gets invited to her first husband's chaliswa, the 40th-day-after-death commemoration. She comes face to face with his widow, Safeena, and the memories they have both carried for decades.
14 Nov. 2:45 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
Don, in his adolescence, feels low self-esteem due to his awkward gait. The problem now is his father, who is coming home after years of far-sea fishing.
14 Nov. 12:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
A violinist and a violin fall in love. When the violinist is spotted with another instrument, drama ensues.
13 Nov. 6:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
A young delivery rider navigates a tough day in Lahore, away from home.
12 Nov. 5:30 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
In the mountain city of Chongqing, the “Bangbang Army” – pole-bearing labourers averaging 62 years of age – navigate the vertical labyrinth of this metropolis with bamboo poles slung across their weathered shoulders.
12 Nov. 5:30 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
A teenage girl must come to terms with her tense relationship with her mother while reckoning with the suspicion that she may be eating far more than just fruits from their garden.
14 Nov. 8:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
Rusmee keeps interacting with her dead husband Chalerm, in the form of an AI chatbot. It is only with the arrival of Fa, Chalerm’s former caretaker, that the memories inhabiting the house are released.
14 Nov. 2:45 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
A surreal and kitschy drag performance is mixed with prerecorded, lip-sync-style interviews based on the stories of East and Southeast Asian self-publishing underground heroes.
13 Nov. 6:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
This film was shot in the Dirt Palace, a feminist-artist-run space project founded in 2000 in an abandoned library building in the commercial corridor of Olneyville in Providence, R.I.
13 Nov. 6:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
RENT A PLUS-ONE, 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.
16 Nov. 6:30 pm | Commons Lobby at 401 Richmond Street
Daikon and Bean meet at the edge of the world, and then the hot summer turns into spring.
14 Nov. 12:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
Wanda and Miles move a lot. Whenever they feel like it, they just put on their shoes and go! But one day, Wanda realizes that moving too much makes Miles’s head hurt.
21 Nov. 10:00 am | Innis Town Hall
Remixing Wee Asian with archival short films, this edition reframes what might be discovered in the programme through craft, narratives, and sensory experiences.
21 Nov. 10:00 am | Innis Town Hall
Ping faces conflict with her girlfriend's homophobic and aggressive father. As tensions escalate, Ping is forced to take drastic action to save herself.
14 Nov. 8:00 pm | TIFF Lightbox C4
Ollie wishes to become a kaiju, like the giant lizard monsters he sees at the cinema.
21 Nov. 10:00 am | Innis Town Hall
Founded in Toronto in 1997, Reel Asian is Canada’s largest pan-Asian film festival and a year-round cultural organization dedicated to championing Asian and Asian diasporic artists and storytellers. What began as a grassroots film festival has grown into a national platform supporting filmmakers and audiences through screenings, education, industry initiatives, artist development, and community programming presented across Toronto, the GTA, and online across Canada.
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