The annual Asian American International Film Festival returned on July 31st, hosting screenings, filmmaker panels, and an awards ceremony in New York City until August 10th.
This is the festival’s 48th year, having launched in 1978 on the Lower East Side, and it is the nation’s oldest and longest running film festival that spotlights Asian American voices, according to Forbes. They have screened movies by various filmmakers, including Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club, Maid in Manhattan) and Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Brokeback Mountain).
According to Asian Movie Pulse, the 48th edition aims to honor the beauty of repair and transformation, exploring themes of rupture to renewal through storytelling. To this end, more than 90 films will be showcased.
The nonprofit organizing the festival, Asian Cine Vision, is also celebrating its 50th year anniversary.
“AAIFF is harkening back to our underground origins by highlighting scrappy young AAPI filmmakers from New York and beyond,” the festival’s programming director Kris Montello said. “We are also showcasing a legacy of unsung and ‘sung’ indies in our special presentations of Albert Pyun’s recently unthawed Captain America director’s cut and festival alum H.P. Mendoza’s 2009 musical Fruit Fly.”
“We hope to continue being NYC’s number one festival for nurturing and celebrating the next generation of Asian American and Pacific Islander filmmakers.”
In-person screenings will take place at five venues: Asia Society, Regal Union Square, Welcome to Chinatown, Linen Hall, Downtown Social. Tickets can be purchased on their website, with events both in NYC and online.
Registration is closed for Common Ground: Building Together conference and gala award banquet in San Francisco on January 24. A shoutout to our planning committee: Jane Chin, Frank Mah, Jeannie Young, Akemi Tamanaha, Nathan Soohoo, Mark Young, Dave Liu, and Yiming Fu.
We are published by the non-profit Asian American Media Inc and supported by our readers along with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, AARP, The Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation, The Asian American Foundation & Koo and Patricia Yuen of the Yuen Foundation.
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