South Korea20203 minKorean with English subtitlesAnimation, Available Online, Music, Queer
One night, while Seolgi is lying on a grass field with friends, a shooting star falls and dark intrusive thoughts hit her, bursting with movement and blooming bright colours.
IN PERSON & ONLINE: This film is being presented with English subtitles for all spoken dialogue (no sound cues indicated).
Sasha Lee
Sasha Lee is an animator who likes plants and animals.
6 Nov, 2025 8:30 pm
TIFF Lightbox C4PG
Canada20205 minNo Dialogue2slgbtq+, Aboriginal + Indigenous, Available Online, Directed By Women, Experimental, Music, Romance, Science Fiction
This experimental examination of threshold states moves through deep space time in underwater realms. Mirrored bodies spiral, suspend, and dance through Te Reo Māori and nêhiyawêwin lamentations.
IN PERSON & ONLINE: No dialogue (no audio + visual descriptions)
Moe Clark, Victoria Hunt, James Brown
Weather Beings is a Two-Spirit/takatâpui collaborative performance between Victoria Hunt (Maori dancer, choreographer) and Moe Clark (Métis sound designer, vocalist) that explores the connections between Mâori whakapapa and Métis wâhkôhtowin (the kinship system).
This film is part of the Shorts Presentation: COLLIDERS shorts programme.
16 Nov, 2024 5:00 pm
TIFF Lightbox C4Taiwan20239 MinMandarinAnimation, Available Online, Directed By Women, Family-friendly, Music
Returning to a house that holds nothing, a mother misses her own mother.
IN PERSON & ONLINE: this film is scheduled to be presented with subtitles for all spoken dialogue (no sound cues indicated)
*Ji-Tian Li
Ji-Tian Li graduated from Taipei National University of the Arts and participated in the AVU exchange program in Prague in 2021, focusing on materials and installations. She is now a full-time artist exploring space through gardening, ceramics, painting, music, and performance.
This film is part of the Shorts Presentation: AN UNFAMILIAR TALE shorts programme.
16 Nov, 2024 12:00 pm
TIFF Lightbox C4PG
USA20245 MinMarathi2slgbtq+, Animation, Available Online, Directed By Women, Family-friendly, First Films, Music, Romance
This Bollywood-inspired hybrid animated music video features Aadarshini, an anxious Indian American girl who feels out of place at an Indian wedding, until she learns to make space for herself in her culture through Parvati, a traditional dancer who catches her eye.
IN PERSON & ONLINE: No dialogue (No audio + visual descriptions)
Nimisha Mahatme
Nimisha Mahatme is a Bay Area visual development artist working in film and television. She enjoys creating characters and worlds! She loves having characters that range from different diversities, cultures, and sexualities.
This film is part of the WEE ASIAN shorts programme.
23 Nov, 2024 10:00 am
Innis Town HallGA
South Korea202417 minEnglish, KoreanAnimation, Available Online, Directed By Women, Drama, Music
Vega, a lonely programmer, falls in love with a beautiful popstar water deer. Constantly dragged back to reality by pigeons, Vega’s longing for warmth is in need of being sated.
IN PERSON: this film is scheduled to be presented with English subtitles only (no subtitles for English dialogue)
ONLINE: this film is scheduled to be presented with subtitles for all spoken dialogue (no sound cues indicated)
*Sasha Lee
Sasha Lee is an animation artist based in Seoul, South Korea. In the name of Studio Sleeper, she makes 2D animation about isolation and depression using animal imagery.
This film is part of the Shorts Presentation: LOVE ISLAND shorts programme.
15 Nov, 2024 8:00 pm
TIFF Lightbox C4
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.
This film is part of the WEE ASIAN shorts programme.
Some family stories are so epic they demand telling. Some moments in history require the intimate and inside knowledge of community storytellers. The venerated Chinese Canadian filmmaker Keith Lock narrates the story of how his mother married his father in Australia, who was training with other Chinese Canadian veteran volunteers for the top secret suicide mission, Operation Oblivion.
Visit the PIGEONHOLE, nest and rest from the festival chaos, listen to collaborative pigeon music, watch raw footage, compose your own ditties, and collage a flock of desired futures together with other attendees. Check the festival website or rarara.ca for a full program schedule including artist talks and facilitated collage sessions.
Six fearless emerging filmmakers embarked on a summer-long filmmaking journey online. We’re proud to present their world premiere here in the 12th edition of Reel Asian’s filmmaking program.
Canada202310 minEnglish2slgbtq+, Music
Filmmakers Njo Kong Kie and John Greyson (using their highlighter compositional method) have created an original short opera about the last day on Earth for Li Shiu Tong, the lover of Berlin sexologist and legendary gay-rights pioneer Magnus Hirschfeld.
Njo Kong Kie & *John Greyson
Njo Kong Kie is an award-winning Toronto composer who has been a long-serving music director of La La La Human Steps in Montreal.
John Greyson is a Toronto filmmaker who is a pioneer of the new queer cinema. His films have won four Berlin Teddies, five Canadian Screen Awards, and over 50 Best Film prizes at festivals internationally.
This film is part of the Shorts Presentation: THE STRANGE, THE ODD, AND THE FAMILIAR 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.
At the heart of Baby Queen is a tender and joyful relationship between Singaporean drag queen Opera Tang and her 90-year-old grandmother, who makes many of her performance costumes.
The Good Guise is an artist collective in Toronto formed to spark conversations around healthy masculinity.
Canada, Philippines200182 minutesEnglishDrama, Music
Amidst a mountain of food, jokes, prayers, joints, songs and Filipino Elvis impersonations, Lolo's Child questions, criticizes and celebrates the intricate underbelly of the Filipino-Canadian community. Reel Asian's Opening Night Film in 2002.
Romeo Candido is a CSA winner and proud Filipino Canadian story teller with experience in film, television, theatre, documentary and advertising. Recent credits include writing / directing a film for the NBA called SHORTY, directing on S29 of THIS HOUR HAS 22 MINUTES, directing two episodes of the upcoming CIRCUIT BREAKERS for Apple TV and writing an episode of the hit comedy SON OF A CRITCH. He is currently the co-showrunner of S8 of popular dance series The Next Step for CBBC and YTV. His ten part musical series TOPLINE, which he serves as creator, writer, director and composer premiered to rave reviews on CBC Gem March 31 2022. His original musical PRISON DANCER will have its world premiere as a stage musical at the Citadel Theatre in spring of 2023.
This screening will be online from Nov 9 – 20. The ROMEO CANDIDO RETRO VOD PASS will give FREE access to
Rated PG
This screening is part of the Canadian Spotlight: Romeo Candido programme.
When reserved, late-bloomer Grace gets passed up for a major promotion at work, she tries to break out of her shell by pursuing a one-night stand at the club.
In this reflective documentary, director Quen Wong turns the lens toward the intimate and vulnerable in her own life as a trans woman in Singapore.
Following her previous basketball documentary Finding Big Country (2018), Kat Jayme embarks on an equally quixotic journey to find out why the Grizzlies abandoned Vancouver.
Canada, Philippines20218 minMusic
In Shorty, a father gives his daughter a history lesson of the greatest small NBA players to illustrate that height isn’t all you need.
An NBA Films for Fans created by a partnership with the OLG and Toronto Film Festival, SHORT Y is part of collection of short films commemorating the NBA's 75th anniversary
Romeo Candido is a CSA winner and proud Filipino Canadian story teller with experience in film, television, theatre, documentary and advertising. Recent credits include writing / directing a film for the NBA called SHORTY, directing on S29 of THIS HOUR HAS 22 MINUTES, directing two episodes of the upcoming CIRCUIT BREAKERS for Apple TV and writing an episode of the hit comedy SON OF A CRITCH. He is currently the co-showrunner of S8 of popular dance series The Next Step for CBBC and YTV. His ten part musical series TOPLINE, which he serves as creator, writer, director and composer premiered to rave reviews on CBC Gem March 31 2022. His original musical PRISON DANCER will have its world premiere as a stage musical at the Citadel Theatre in spring of 2023.
This film is a part of the Retro Screenings Online programme presenting a collection of short and mid-length work from Candido’s career.
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Canada, Philippines20154 minMusic
A music-video collaboration between dance troupe Hataw and Candido’s music project A La Una (née Datu).
Romeo Candido is a CSA winner and proud Filipino Canadian story teller with experience in film, television, theatre, documentary and advertising. Recent credits include writing / directing a film for the NBA called SHORTY, directing on S29 of THIS HOUR HAS 22 MINUTES, directing two episodes of the upcoming CIRCUIT BREAKERS for Apple TV and writing an episode of the hit comedy SON OF A CRITCH. He is currently the co-showrunner of S8 of popular dance series The Next Step for CBBC and YTV. His ten part musical series TOPLINE, which he serves as creator, writer, director and composer premiered to rave reviews on CBC Gem March 31 2022. His original musical PRISON DANCER will have its world premiere as a stage musical at the Citadel Theatre in spring of 2023.
This film is a part of the Retro Screenings Online programme presenting a collection of short and mid-length work from Candido’s career.
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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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info@reelasian.com
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