In partnership with the Toronto Palestine Film Festival, join a dedicated space for community members to gather and be present with one another.
Please note this is a drop-in event with no formal programming. RSVPs are not required. Light refreshments will be available.
9 Nov, 2023 4:00 pm
Commons Lobby at 401 Richmond StreetBlue Ant Media is looking for its next hit factual paranormal series with T&E and HauntTV’s global free streaming channel. Chosen projects will receive a paid CMF development phase with exact deliverables determined based on the project. Submit your creative proposals by Friday, November 17, 2023.
Join us on November 14th, 3-4 pm at The Commons @ 401 Richmond Street, Toronto, for a spooky information session with Blue Ant Media’s Sam Linton, VP Production and Development and Julie Chang, EVP Business Strategy and Co-productions, to get all of your questions answered.
INFORMATION SESSION
14 Nov, 2023 3–4PM
Commons Lobby at 401 Richmond Street
Deadline: November 17, 2023
Sign up for Industry Bootcamp and meet professionals from various fields, companies and organizations through panels and seminars, followed by Q&A with our experts.
In collaboration with the Independent Media Arts Alliance (IMAA), Reel Ideas will co-host a three-day mini-conference from November 11–13, 2025, focused on artist advocacy, fair pay, and building an equitable arts ecosystem.
Sign up for Industry Bootcamp and meet professionals from various fields, companies and organizations through panels and seminars, followed by Q&A with our experts.
This free two day workshop seeks to demystify the process of writing for television by leading participants through the nuts and bolts of a TV writer’s room. Ins Choi will lead nine participants through the process of pitching ideas, developing stories, outlining and scripting.
Sign up for Industry Bootcamp and meet professionals from various fields, companies and organizations through panels, seminars or one-on-one consultations!
Call for Submissions for RA:X: Puncta! Part of the 26th Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (November 9-20), Puncta is an in-person, multi-disciplinary exhibition that takes up explorations of fracture to unsettle dominant coded narratives of cohesion and uniform Asianness within Canadian nation-state multicultural frameworks.
Sign up for Industry Bootcamp and meet professionals from various fields, companies and organizations through panels, seminars or one-on-one consultations!
An incubator for arts organizations engaged in the presentation of arts and cultural works. Through a network and collaboration-based approach, a network of arts organizations will be working together, learning from each other and supporting each other as they explore the impact of digital technologies on the presentation of artistic and cultural productions.
APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED
1h30
Following our Building Forces: The Director Producer Relationship panel, stay for a reception with Canadian Media Producers Association, a chance to network, ask questions, and enjoy snacks and refreshments. Especially good for Producers!
The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) is Canada’s trade association for independent producers. CMPA represents hundreds of companies engaged in the development, production and distribution of English-language content for TV, feature film and digital media channels.
14 Nov, 2023 6:00 pm
Festival Lounge401 Richmond St W
Commons Lobby (Suite 440)
Free event. No RSVP necessary.
You rarely couple poop and romance together, but Okiku and the World does it effortlessly in the most genuine and adorable way.
From the team behind Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (Reel Asian Official Selection, 2021) comes Junta Yamaguchi’s latest time loop comedy, River. Set in a quaint inn along the Kibune river near Kyoto—a one-street village wedged between a riverbed on one side and mountains on the other—staff and guests find themselves stuck in a continuous two-minute time loop.
Free-spirited 12-year-old Zaffan is the first of her friends to get her period and experience the body-changing horrors that come with puberty and menstruation.
Get sticky with it! Join us for our inaugural Sticker Xchange during our Festival Happy Hour in The Commons, 401 Richmond, on Sunday, November 12, from 4–6 PM. Bring your unique stickers to swap or showcase. Reel Asian will be selling #ReelAsian27 limited edition stickers and merch featuring designs by this year’s Festival Creative Artist, Ben Luu.
Adding to the excitement, Jeff Yang will also be present, selling and signing copies of his latest book, The Golden Screen: The Movies that Made Asian America.
12 Nov, 2023 4:00 pm
Commons Lobby at 401 Richmond StreetCatch Jeff Yang in conversation with Madelyn Chung about his new book, THE GOLDEN SCREEN. Purchase a copy and get it signed!
Nov 12, 2023
Hang out with us for Festival Happy Hour, open to the public! Grab a drink and join in on the casual activities each day.
Day 1: Friday November 10th, 4-6 PM. Pigeonhole Live Musical Performance in Bachir Yerex Presentation Space
Day 2: Saturday November 11th, 4-6 PM. Celebrating filmmakers of the Unsung Voices 12th cohort
Day 3: Sunday November 12th, 4-6 PM. Reel Asian Sticker Xchange and merch will be available!
9 Nov, 2023
to 12 Nov, 2023
Commons Lobby at 401 Richmond Street
1h30
12 Nov, 2023 2:00 pm
Festival Lounge401 Richmond St W.
Commons Lobby (Suite 440)
Free event. No RSVP necessary.
All proceeds from book sales at this event go to Reel Asian.
Catch Jeff Yang in conversation with Madelyn Chung about his new book, THE GOLDEN SCREEN. Purchase a copy at the special discounted rate of $40 and get it signed!
The past decade has been a groundbreaking era for Asian-centric storytelling in Hollywood films, from the mainstream success of Crazy Rich Asians to the amazing achievements of Everything, Everywhere All at Once, culminating in the film’s seven wins at the 2023 Academy Awards. Featuring a foreword from newly crowned ‘Best Actress’ Michelle Yeoh and an afterword by director Jon M. Chu, THE GOLDEN SCREEN is an in-depth look at these cinematic triumphs, and the decades of films that paved the way by culture critic and New York Times bestselling author Jeff Yang. The book also includes commentary and conversations from Hollywood’s most visible faces, such as Simu Liu, Lulu Wang, Daniel Dae Kim, Janet Yang, Ronny Chieng, Alice Wu, and Ken Jeong.
Featuring over 100 photographs along with gorgeous, original artwork from nine esteemed Asian illustrators, including Toma Nguyen, barbarian flower, Jun Cen, Cryssy Cheung, Cliff Chiang, Yu-Ming Huang, JiYeun Kang, Ashraf Omar, and Zi Xu, THE GOLDEN SCREEN is a beautiful keepsake for movie and history fans alike.
Madelyn Chung
EIC and Founder of RepresentASIAN Project
Madelyn Chung is a multidisciplinary creative, speaker and registered psychotherapist with a focus on supporting the Asian North American community.
She is the founder of The RepresentASIAN Project, the leading Canadian media platform catering to the Asian North American diaspora, and The Blossom Mental Health Fund, a registered non-profit dedicated to supporting the mental health of Asian Canadians. Madelyn has previously worked at HuffPost Canada, FASHION and Netflix Editorial, where she was part of the core team that launched @netflixgolden, a social channel catered to the Asian diaspora.
In 2021, she was named one of Bay Street Bull’s Women of the Year and in 2023, she was listed among View the Vibe’s POWER 60: Inspiring Asian-Canadians of Influence. Through her writing, advocacy and therapy work, Madelyn is committed to empowering and uplifting the Asian North American community.
Jeff Yang
Author
Jeff Yang has been observing, exploring, and writing about the Asian American community for over thirty years. He launched one of the first Asian American national magazines, A. Magazine, in the late nineties and early 2000s, and now writes frequently for CNN, New York Times, and elsewhere.
He has authored three books—Jackie Chan’s New York Times bestselling memoir I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action; Once Upon a Time in China, a history of the cinemas of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Mainland; and Eastern Standard Time: A Guide to Asian Influence on American Culture, and most recently coauthored the New York Times bestselling RISE: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
Get sticky with it! Join us for our inaugural Sticker Xchange during our Festival Happy Hour, taking place from 4–6 PM. Bring your unique stickers to swap or showcase.
NOV 12, 2023
The Sari-Sari Xchange is a project that seeks to amplify Asian representation in the creative emerging media industries in Canada, particularly through a community-building residency program that engages artists with digital and extended reality (XR) technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, 360 cinema, game-engine animation, and 3D scanning.
A job interview, a children’s clothing store, a government registry office. These are just some of the everyday sites for which the characters of Terrestrial Verses must navigate cultural, religious, and institutional constraints imposed on them.
Be warmed by friendship and held by the depth of feelings in this collection of wholesome shorts for all ages in a relaxed screening environment. Stick around to participate in fun and simple art activities post-screening.
We are kicking off the 27th edition Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival with a night to remember! Come celebrate with us on Nov 2 from 8PM – 11PM (EST) for our Festival Launch Party, co-hosted by New Ho Queen!
Hosted by Patrick Salvani, the night will be filled with a mix of DJ sets and performances from Discoraphy, Lena Di, and Fio.
This is a free event.
2 Nov, 2023 8:00 pm
Commons Lobby at 401 Richmond Street
India20227 minEnglish, Kannada with English subtitlesAboriginal + Indigenous, Animation, Directed By Women, Environment, Family-friendly, First Feature
A little girl stumbles into a sacred grove near her village in south India.
Nandini Rao, Nirupa Rao, Kalp Sanghvi
Nandini Rao was the winner of the 2021 Cannes residency program and is based in Paris.
Nirupa Rao is a botanical artist based in Bangalore whose work is inspired by field visits and close collaboration with natural scientists.
Kalp Sanghvi is an animation filmmaker who graduated from the Indian National Institute of Design and is based in Sydney.
This film is part of the WEE ASIAN shorts programme.
In our inaugural First Films event, award-winning Asian Canadian filmmakers show the first films they’ve ever made. They will reveal their origin stories—that time they caught the movie bug; the place their creative voices first started cracking.
These shorts look at the soft to even slightly off-kilter bonds we find in one another, the realms we exist in, and ultimately, ourselves, despite ongoing change—no friendship bracelets required.
Hmm … this doesn’t seem right?! This programme asks us to sit with the discomforting feelings that arise when we begin to confront the unknown in what we believe to know.
Japan, USA202212 minFarsi, Japanese with English subtitlesAnimation, Drama, Family-friendly, Mystery
Mehrdad, an Iranian boy, befriends an old Japanese woman in a graveyard in Tokyo.
Liam LoPinto
Liam LoPinto is a filmmaker and animator based out of New York City who is an assistant manager at the Moviehouse in Millerton.
Directed by Meredith Hama-Brown. Judith, a Japanese Canadian woman, and her reluctant white husband attend a week-long couple’s retreat on a coastal British Columbia island, their two daughters in tow. With Judith grieving the recent loss of her mother, and her connection to her Japanese Canadian identity, the couple’s disconnect grows as she finds herself infatuated with another, seemingly perfect, interracial couple at the retreat.
Delve into the profound connections filmmakers Fawzia Mirza (The Queen of My Dreams) and Zarrar Kahn (In Flames) forge when revisiting their roots in Pakistan, through a cinematic lens. This in-depth conversation explores how filmmakers turn place into its own dynamic character, and unpacks the emotive pull of returning, despite its tensions and contradictions. Join us as they showcase how "home" can transcend geographical boundaries, ignite stories with new interpretations of place, and animate narratives with the rich tapestry of personal heritage.
The Sari-Sari Xchange is a project that seeks to amplify Asian representation in the creative emerging media industries in Canada, particularly through a community-building residency program that engages artists with digital and extended reality (XR) technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, 360 cinema, game-engine animation, and 3D scanning.
South Korea202311 minKorean with English subtitlesAnimation, Drama, Family-friendly, Fantasy
A grieving boy finds his late mother’s hair caught in the shower drainage hole and gets swept into the “Hair Universe,” an unknown world underneath the bathtub.
Jinuk Choi
Jinuk Choi is a Korean filmmaker based in New York.
This film is part of the WEE ASIAN shorts programme.
The Good Guise is an artist collective in Toronto formed to spark conversations around healthy masculinity.
Mariam, a medical student, is dealing with her grandfather’s passing, her grieving mother, and preparing for upcoming exams. When an estranged and suspiciously helpful uncle re-enters their lives and promises support with their property and finances, Mariam senses trouble.
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.
401 Richmond Street West, The Commons (Suite 448)
Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3A8 Canada
(416) 703 – 9333
info@reelasian.com
Charitable number: 870021383RR0001
