Canada202510 minEnglish, Urdu, Arabic

Expecting another uneventful Jummah, Safa finds herself trapped with her overbearing family and an angry ex.

IN PERSON & ONLINE ACCESSIBILITY

IN PERSON & ONLINE: This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated).

Directors Bio

*Anushay Sheikh

Anushay Sheikh is a multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto. Drawing on their experiences, their work is process-based and rooted in anti-oppressive practices, highlighting vulnerability as a form of resistance and empowerment.

Canada20259 minEnglish, Korean, Italian with English subtitlesAction + Adventure, Available Online, Comedy, Science Fiction

A mixed-race student meets the full Asian and full white versions of himself from parallel universes. Together, they must find a way to get back to their own realities.

IN PERSON & ONLINE ACCESSIBILITY

IN PERSON: This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated).

ONLINE: This film is fully captioned in closed captions (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated).

Directors Bio

Devin Lee

Devin Lee is a Korean Italian actor and filmmaker. A graduate of NYU Tisch School of Arts, he received the Panavision New Filmmaker Grant and was part of Reel Asian’s Unsung Voices program.

Canada2025 18:00French, Mandarin with English subtitlesAvailable Online

In Gaspésie in rural Quebec, a quirky Chinese motel owner navigates his quiet routine between fixing rooms and casting lines into the sea — until his filmmaker son visits for a week.

IN PERSON & ONLINE ACCESSIBILITY

IN PERSON & ONLINE: This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated).

Directors Bio

*Calvin Liu

Calvin Liu is a Montreal-based Chinese Canadian filmmaker and cinematographer. He explores themes of family, diaspora, and memory through documentary and narrative work.

Canada20258 minEnglishAvailable Online

An exploration of past choices and the enduring burden of regret expressed through drums and dance, where movement echoes memory and the weight we must carry.

IN PERSON & ONLINE ACCESSIBILITY

IN PERSON & ONLINE: This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated).

Directors Bio

*Jordan Tsering

Jordan Tsering is a Tibetan multidisciplinary artist based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, exploring death and dharma, and writing stories of love and regret through narratives rooted in memory and emotion.

Canada20259 minEnglish

A chronically single young woman finds the courage to go on a first date with the help of some unusual friends.

IN PERSON & ONLINE ACCESSIBILITY

IN PERSON: This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated).

ONLINE: This film is fully captioned in closed captions (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated).

Directors Bio

*Ash Yee

Ash Yee (she/they) is an emerging Chinese Canadian writer and filmmaker based in Toronto. A self-proclaimed nerd and fangirl, their work explores identity, belonging, and the magic within everyday life.

Canada2025 12:00Vietnamese, English, American Sign Language

After years of isolation in the hearing world, a mainstreamed Deaf adult learns sign language for the first time.

IN PERSON & ONLINE ACCESSIBILITY

IN PERSON & ONLINE: This film is scheduled to be presented fully captioned (all dialogue subtitled + sound cues indicated).

Directors Bio

*Anh (Autumn) Pham

Anh (Autumn) Pham is a Vietnamese Canadian Deaf Queer tech worker and writer. They are passionate about the intersection of art and technology, and advocate for accessibility.

Canada2025Various languages with English subtitlesWorld PremiereAvailable Online

Six emerging filmmakers embarked on a months-long filmmaking workshop this past summer. We’re proud to present their world premieres here in the 14th edition of Reel Asian’s filmmaking program.

For: the friends and family hype squad, fresh-talent seekers, next-gen storytellers waiting for a sign

*Directors in attendance starred.

Canada2025110 minEnglish, Cantonese, Mandarin with English subtitlesToronto Premiere

Finch and Midland, an intersection in Scarborough, is like many others in the suburbs of Canada's largest city. But every intersection has a story to tell. Timothy Yeung’s Finch & Midland focuses on four stories from the wave of Hong Kong immigrants who came to Canada in the 1990s hoping for a new life: a former pop singer trying to reconnect with his daughter; a woman caring for her elderly mother while yearning for love; a single mother who works in a massage parlour and dreams of becoming a realtor; and a factory manager confronted with a glass ceiling.

Through strip malls, harsh lights, and dark nights, Finch & Midland reinterprets the stories of the community Yeung grew up in, and stars an impressive ensemble cast led by Anthony Wong Chau‑sang. Yeung’s film is an important addition to the recent movement of local cinematic stories from Scarborough that connect to universal themes.

– Aram Siu Wai Collier

Canada, Japan2025105 minEnglish, Japanese with English subtitlesToronto Premiere

Kana, a struggling visual artist, returns to Japan after years away in Vancouver to attend her beloved grandmother’s funeral. The familiar cadence of family dynamics endure and yet, everything feels different. While in Tokyo, Kana discovers her grandfather had a love of his life outside of his arranged marriage to her grandmother. Meanwhile, Kana reluctantly confronts her own messy romantic past with old flame Hiro to see if the embers of their love still flicker.

Adapted from a play and short film of the same name, powerhouse actor-writer-director Mayumi Yoshida presents an impressively romantic first feature, beautifully lensed across two timelines. Yoshida deftly balances swooning, dreamlike nostalgia with the universal realities of distance, time, and circumstance.

– Aram Siu Wai Collier

Canada202479 minEnglish, FarsiToronto PremiereDrama, First Feature, Romance

Amir is an aspiring chef trying to get ahead, but he can’t seem to break out and meet his own expectations or those of his parents, while his favoured younger brother Mahyar can seemingly do no wrong. When news from Iran arrives that a family friend has died and passed his entire inheritance solely to Mahyar, the mystery of the gift’s provenance begins to unravel the family's story, the image of their parents, and the relationship between the two brothers.

Alireza Shojaei gives a simmering performance as the self-destructive Amir against Parham Rownaghi’s flashy Mahyar, while Gus Tayari and Mitra Lohrasb give a loving but weary weight as their parents. Set within Toronto’s significant Iranian community, Meelad Moaphi’s first feature is a measured study in shifting family roles and perceptions when the past comes calling, especially for first-generation families whose ties to other lives and lands are so far but carried closely every day.

– Aram Siu Wai Collier