This film is part of the Shorts Presentation
Canada20254 minEnglishAvailable Online, Environment, Experimental, Sports
Hand-processed, solarized, tinted, and toned, Serene Hues is a meditative journey into the tranquility and vibrant beauty of nature.
IN PERSON & ONLINE: This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated).
*Rita Tse
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Rita Tse is an experimental filmmaker based in Toronto, with specific interests in gender, ethnicity, and memory. Her latest works have mainly explored artisanal manipulation techniques on celluloid.
This film is part of the Shorts Presentation
15 Nov, 2025 10:00 am
Innis Town HallGA
Malaysia, Sweden20229 minNo dialogue2slgbtq+, Animation, Available Online, Environment, Family-friendly, Queer, Romance
Newly orphaned and freshly wounded from a loss, a boy lends his companion a prosthetic arm for the day. This is a slow and meditative film about everyday gestures of love, communicated through our universal understanding of body language.
IN PERSON & ONLINE: This film has no dialogue (no audio + visual descriptions).
Gabriel Gabriel Garble
Gabriel Gabriel Garble works across animation, film, and geology, exploring how imagery and material ecologies intertwine.
6 Nov, 2025 8:30 pm
TIFF Lightbox C4GA
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.
Last fall, the DOC Institute invited creative producers to reimagine a documentary ecosystem that recognizes the needs of BIPOC producers with critically acclaimed projects, and published their thoughts in the “Creative Producer Think Tank Report.” A key point highlighted was producer/director relationships—listen as panelists delve into the critical and vital collaboration that underpins any successful film.
You rarely couple poop and romance together, but Okiku and the World does it effortlessly in the most genuine and adorable way.
Blue Ant Media is looking for its next hit factual paranormal series with T&E and HauntTV's global free streaming channel. Join us 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.
2022-2023TRT: 1h07English, Urdu, Ilocano, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Kannada, Japanese, Farsi, Korean, 2slgbtq+, Aboriginal + Indigenous, Animation, Directed By Women, Documentary, Environment, Experimental, Family-friendly
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.
Relaxed screenings will take place in Innis Town Hall at 11 AM & 1:30 PM. Activities will take place in the St. George Lobby from 11 AM–3 PM.
*Directors in attendance starred.
Canada20232 minNo Dialogue Animation, Directed By Women, Family-friendly
A lonely traveller plans to explore a small town, when a stranger suddenly joins him.
This film has no dialogue and is presented without captions.
Michelle Chen
Michelle Chen is an artist based in Burlington, Ont. A colour enthusiast with a passion for background painting, she can often be found cooking (and eating), or cuddling with her cat, Goober.
Pakistan, USA202216 minUrdu with English subtitlesAnimation, Comedy, Directed By Women, Drama, Family-friendly
Iman, a privileged six-year-old Pakistani girl, embarks on a mission to save her beloved pet goat from being eaten on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
Mahnoor Euceph
Mahnoor Euceph is a Pakistani American writer and director. She immigrated from Pakistan to Los Angeles at age eight and quickly learned that nobody else cares about cricket.
USA20233 minEnglishAnimation, Comedy, Family-friendly, Japan
Daigoro, a baby thunder god, dreams of being as powerful as his father.
Ryotaro Sawada, Agatha Tiara Christa
Growing up, Ryotaro Sawada turned to his daydreams to be entertained, only to find out that there were people called animators who could bring those daydreams to life. He hasn’t looked back since.
Agatha Tiara Christa, also known as Rara, is a 3D animator and layout artist from Indonesia. She believes that these small things create stories and always includes them in her work.
Canada20232 minEnglish, Ilocano, Vietnamese with English subtitles2slgbtq+, Animation, Documentary, Experimental, Family-friendly
A poetic glimpse into a love story.
*Dinaly Tran
Dinaly Joyce Tran is a queer, trans, nonbinary Filipinx Vietnamese community organizer and artist. They are always hoping to make things that feel homey, in their art, their organizing, and on their Animal Crossing island.
Hong Kong20229 minCantonese with English subtitlesAnimation
Things that we thought were gone may not truly leave us—perhaps they are still with us somehow.
Step C. & Kai Chung Ng
Step C. is an animation director, illustrator, educator, and art director based in Hong Kong.
Kai Chung Ng is an animation artist and the founder of Point Five Creations.
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.
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.
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.
Taiwan, USA20235 minEnglishAnimation, Comedy, Directed By Women, Family-friendly, Music
Nonoko the cat and Haro the rabbit dance to share a bittersweet goodbye on their graduation day.
Wanci Hua
Wanci Hua is a Taiwanese animator, currently studying at California Institute of the Arts. She loves telling whimsical and tender stories through the art of animation.
18 Nov, 2023 11:00 am
to 18 Nov, 2023 3:00 pm
Innis Town HallWee Asian is free and drop-in. Screenings take place at 11 AM and 1:30 PM.
No tickets required!
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This programme is presented with a mix of open captions, English subtitles, and no captions. Wheelchair spaces and step-free seating is available for this screening – click below to arrange for accessible seats.
Bring your own t-shirt or use a vintage Reel Asian one to upcycle it into your own DIY festival tote - no sewing required! Customize your new tote with patches, buttons and pins (not provided)! This activity is created by Minikino, a short film organization based in Bali, Indonesia.
11 AM–3 PM
How can we reimagine our relations to pigeons? Would there be something you'd like to say or share with our fellow pigeons? Write a letter or draw a picture and ``mail`` it to the Pigeon Band!
11 AM–3 PM
Colour in or out of the lines with the festival creative colouring sheet. Transform it into a flower vase!
11 AM–3 PM
London-based and Toronto Animated Image Society (TAIS)-resident artist Ivyy Chen embarks on a journey to create a neverending loop of moving chairs. In order to do so, she'll need your help to create the frames, and along the way, you'll learn the building blocks to create a hand-drawn animation!
1 PM–3 PM
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.
More to the situation than what it seems, these shorts choose to examine, tease, and redefine the forces that pull us to make a decision.
When Azra, a queer Muslim grad student, hears of her father’s sudden death, she flies back to her ancestral home in Karachi, Pakistan for the funeral, where she is received by her conservative mother, Mariam, perpetually disappointed by Azra’s choices. As a self-assured Azra wrestles with Karachi’s customs and norms, we time travel back to Mariam’s own life in the city 30 years ago, a remarkably different era in Pakistan’s political and cultural history.
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
