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.

Canada202512 minEnglish, Tamil with English subtitlesAvailable Online

At her 65th birthday party, Karupy makes an unexpected announcement: She will be ending her own life that very night, sparking a whirlwind of emotions amongst her family. As she prepares for this final act, her party guests confront her about her decision.

Directors Bio

*Kalainithan Kalaichelvan

Kalainithan Kalaichelvan is a Tamil Canadian writer and director whose films have screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and Palm Springs International ShortFest. He is an alumnus of the 2024 CFC Norman Jewison Directors Lab.

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

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

Japan, Philippines2024102:00Tagalog, JapaneseNorth American PremiereAvailable Online, Directed By Women, Drama, First Feature

In Japan’s aging society, kodokushi — the lonely death of the elderly — has become disturbingly common. Divorced salaryman Yoji (Lily Franky) is confronted with this reality when he discovers his neighbour’s decomposing body. The shocking experience forces him to face his solitude, deepened by his own mother’s ageing. Seeking escape and connection, he follows a caretaker to Manila, where his choice takes an unexpected turn.

Diamonds in the Sand explores the contrasts between two distinct Asian cultures. While reflecting on the isolation faced by many people in modern society, the film also captures the warmth, vitality, and complexity of family life in the Philippines. Within this vibrant setting, bonds bring both joy and hardship, connection and obligation. This is a bittersweet story of acceptance, the courage and impact of our personal choices, and the search for meaning within oneself and community alike.

– Rolando Basmayor

USA2025106 minEnglishToronto Premiere2slgbtq+, Bisexual, Comedy, Directed By Women, First Feature, Gay, Non-binary, Transgender

She’s been cursed. Literally. And she needs $1,000 for the hex-breaking cure. AP (played by director Annapurna Sriram) embarks on a sex worker’s odyssey through pre-millenium Trashtown, U.S.A., where the grass is brown and the cops are kinky. Desperate for a life reset, AP embarks on a scooter-driven adventure with her always-and-forever-tethered ex-lover Danni. Through strip clubs, celebrity mansions, and fortune tellers around every corner, fans of John Waters and 1990s Gregg Araki films will love Sriram’s world-building and her campy, crude, queer take on the buddy film genre.

Fucktoys is a darkly humorous tale about the uphill battle of carving out a new life for oneself and the risks it takes to do it. Sriram’s directorial debut kicks down the door for a new wave of American sexploitation films, while its anarchist spirit is a call to challenge mainstream American filmic conventions.

– Khanh Tudo

Canada20248 minEnglish, Farsi, DariWorld PremiereAvailable Online, Directed By Women, Drama

When his health starts to decline, a young man spirals into paranoia, and he blames a growing mould problem for his issues.

IN PERSON: This film is scheduled to be presented with subtitles for all spoken dialogue (no sound cues indicated)

ONLINE : This film is scheduled to be presented with subtitles for all spoken dialogue (no sound cues indicated)

Directors Bio

*Sofia Habib

Sofia Habib is an Afghan actor, writer, and arts worker based in Ontario. She performs both on stage and screen and has played the lead role in two films that premiered at Reel Asian Film Festival.

Canada20247 minEnglishWorld PremiereAvailable Online, Drama, Experimental

A burgeoning artist reckons with the struggle to find an audience for his art and his desire to reconnect with his mother in the afterlife.

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

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

Directors Bio

*Liam Ma

Liam Ma (he/him) is an award-winning actor and filmmaker currently based on the unceded and ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tseil-Waututh) peoples, known as Vancouver.