Canada202586 minNo dialogueAnimation

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.

– Aram Siu Wai Collier

Directors Bio

Kid Koala

Kid Koala (Eric San) is a Montreal-based DJ, composer, and visual artist. Creator of five solo albums and the graphic novels Nufonia Must Fall and Space Cadet, he has collaborated with Gorillaz and Radiohead. His first animated feature, Space Cadet, premiered at the Berlinale and screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Canada202586 minNo dialogueAnimation

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.

– Aram Siu Wai Collier

Directors Bio

Kid Koala

Kid Koala (Eric San) is a Montreal-based DJ, composer, and visual artist. Creator of five solo albums and the graphic novels Nufonia Must Fall and Space Cadet, he has collaborated with Gorillaz and Radiohead. His first animated feature, Space Cadet, premiered at the Berlinale and screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Norway, Romania202598 minKurdish, Norwegian with English subtitlesToronto PremiereAvailable Online, Comedy, Drama

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.

– Amreen Kullar

India2024108 minAssamese with English subtitlesCanadian PremiereAvailable Online, Directed By Women, Drama, Family-friendly

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.

– Mariam Zaidi

Vietnam202563 minVietnameseNorth American PremiereAvailable Online

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.

– Aram Siu Wai Collier

Directors Bio

Nguyễn Lê Hoàng Phúc

Nguyễn Lê Hoàng Phúc is a Saigon-based filmmaker and editor whose works blend humor, sincerity, and genre play to create films that are witty yet profound.

Canada2025116 minFrench, Mandarin with English subtitles2slgbtq+, Directed By Women, Drama, Lesbian, Reel Asian Award Winner, Romance

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.

– Aram Siu Wai Collier

Canada199487 minEnglish, Hindi, Bhilali, Marathi, GujaratiAvailable Online

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.
– Ali Kazimi

Pakistan202467 minUrdu, Pashto, Hazaragi with English subtitlesCanadian PremiereAvailable Online

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.

- Mariam Zaidi

USA202593 minEnglishOntario PremiereAvailable Online

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.

– Aram Siu Wai Collier

South Korea2025122 minKorean with English subtitlesCanadian Premiere2slgbtq+, Available Online

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.
– Aram Siu Wai Collier