Films to See at the 48th Asian American International Film Festival
Established in 1978 by Asian CineVision, the Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) is the nation’s first and longest running festival of its kind and the premier showcase for the best independent Asian, Asian diaspora and Pacific Islander cinema.
This year’s AAIFF honors the beauty of repair and transformation, examining how personal and collective fractures can be reassembled into something stronger and more radiant than before. Drawing inspiration from kintsugi, the Japanese art of mending broken ceramics with gold, this year’s theme asks how storytelling, dreaming, and creation can guide the community through rupture into renewal. It’s a celebration of resilience, imagination, and the radical act of envisioning a future shaped by the truths of the past.
The festival also celebrates the 50th anniversary of Asian CineVision, which was first founded in 1975 by grassroots media activists Peter Chow, Danny Yung, Thomas Tam, and Christine Choy. At a time when diverse cultural groups were claiming their voices and places in a predominantly white landscape, ACV’s founders saw the need to bring greater sociocultural awareness to the experiences and history of Asian Americans.
With dozens of screenings and events taking place throughout New York City and online from July 31 to August 10, there’s so much to explore. We’ve compiled a few of the films we’re most looking forward to checking out at this year’s AAIFF.
Directed by Amy Wang
Described by the Hollywood Reporter as “satirical body horror,” Slanted follows Joan Huang (Shirley Chen), a Chinese American teen in the 2010s South as she battles racism and cultural clashes. As an eight year-old, she’s bullied for her differences. At 17, obsessed with popularity, she pursues Prom Queen and undergoes extreme changes, including dyeing her hair and considering racial modification surgery, to achieve a “white” ideal. Her quest alienates her from family and friends, satirizing assimilation and white worship while focusing on her tragicomic struggle for self-worth.
The directorial debut of actress Amy Wang, Slanted is already gearing up to be one of this year’s most exciting films, having already won the Narrative Feature Jury Award at the 2025 SXSW this past March.
It is also the opening screening of this year’s AAIFF, which will be followed by a Q&A with Chen and fellow actor Fang Du, moderated by Alex Chester-Iwata of Mixed Asian Media.
Where to watch:
7:00 PM on Thurs, July 31
Asia Society
August 1—10
On-Demand
Directed by Christine Choy, Worth Long, and Allan Siegel
Before Ryan Coogler’s Sinners spotlit the history of the Chinese American community in the Mississippi Delta, there was Christine Choy’s Mississippi Triangle (1983). One of Asian CineVision’s founders, Choy (along with co-directors Worth Long and Allan Siegel) offers a prescient and intimate documentation of life in the Mississippi Delta, where Chinese, African Americans, and whites live in a complex world of cotton, labor, and racial conflict.
In Mississippi Triangle, the history of the Chinese community, originally brought to the South to work on cotton plantations after the Civil War, is framed against the harsh realities of civil rights, religion, politics, and class in the South. Rare historical footage and interviews of Delta residents are combined to create this unprecedented document of inter-ethnic relations in the American South.
This screening will be followed by a Q&A with Choy.
Where to watch:
2:30 PM on Sat, August 2
Regal Union Square
Directed By Albert Pyun
A rare screening of the late cult filmmaker Albert Pyun’s never-before-released version of Captain America (1990), which sees its titular hero freed after being frozen in ice for decades to battle against arch-criminal, The Red Skull. While its original release considered it to be one of the worst superhero movies ever made, this long-lost version restores the verve, tragedy, and depth of the movie Pyun always intended to make. AAIFF is delighted to celebrate the late Pyun as one of the greatest Asian American filmmakers: a man who understood how to bring comic books to the screen long before the Marvel Comic Universe.
The in-person screening will be followed by a Q&A with the film’s screenwriter, Stephen Tolkin and moderated by AAIFF programmer Kris Montello. Get your tickets soon—they’re nearly sold out!
Where to watch:
8:30 PM on Fri, August 1
Regal Union Square
Directed by Jason Park
This year’s centerpiece screening, Transplant follows Jonah Yoon (Eric Nam), a motivated surgical resident who pushes himself to extreme lengths while training under a legendary heart transplant surgeon obsessed with protecting his perfect reputation.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the film’s writer and director, Jason Park, in addition to a centerpiece reception at Linen Hall. Tickets are nearly sold out!
Where to watch:
7:00 PM on Sun, August 3
Regal Union Square
Directed by Connor Sen Warnick
The feature film debut of Asian American Arts Alliance’s 2023/2024 Van Lier Fellow, Connor Sen Warnick, Characters Disappearing is an existential portrait of griefs large and small. Conducting original research into a vanishing era–and pulling from his own family history and personal encounters with anti-Asian violence–Warnick’s film examines collective paranoias from the 1970s and present day.
When their grandfather goes missing, cousins Mei (Yuka Murakami) and Chris (Warnick) cut diverging paths through a haunting vision of Manhattan’s Chinatown, painting a melancholic portrait of the Asian American Movement. Characters Disappearing portrays a Chinatown rarely seen, where bursts of unexplained violence and spectral figures co-exist with the promise and fragility of multi-ethnic solidarities.
While the in-person screening (followed by a Q&A with Warnick) is currently sold out, the film will be streaming on AAIFF’s website.
Where to watch:
8:30 on Thur, August 7
Regal Union Square
(SOLD OUT)
August 1—10
On-Demand
Directed By Alina Mustafina
Alina Mustafina’s documentary feature follows 85-year-old Lyabiba as she tries to remember her father, who died in World War II. Lyabiba’s daughter and granddaughter decide to find a mass grave in Poland where Lyabiba’s dad was buried. These three generations of women go from Kazakhstan to Poland, not only to search for physical remains, but also to restore the lost connection between themselves. They confront post-colonial Soviet traumas and search for a sense of home and lost identity of Kazakhs.
The film won the Best Film Award at the 2024 Iran International Film Festival.
Where to watch:
10:30 AM on Sat, August 9
Regal Union Square
August 1—10
On-Demand
Directed by H.P. Mendoza
To help close out its 50th anniversary celebrations, ACV will be hosting a very special retrospective singalong screening of H.P. Mendoza’s Fruit Fly, which follows Filipina performance artist Bethesda as she moves into an art commune to search for her long missing biological mother. Along the way, she comes to realize that she just might be a fairy princess, fruit fly.
The film was featured as AAIFF’s closing night screening back in 2009—this year’s screening will be followed by a Q&A with Mendoza.
Where to watch:
6:00 PM on Sat, August 9
Regal Union Square
August 1—10
On-Demand
Directed by Alika Tengen
The final film of the 48th AAIFF will be the New York City premiere of Alika Tengen’s Moloka’i Bound. Kainoa De Silva (Holden Mandrial-Santos) is a wayward Hawaiian man on parole, committed to reconnecting with his family. Most important to him is rebuilding his relationship with his adolescent son, Jonathan, after years of being incarcerated. But acclimating to a normal life in Hawai’i is harder than it seems and Kainoa tends to do all the wrong things for the right reasons. In trying to prove himself worthy of his family and his native heritage, Kainoa’s journey is a story of both reconciliation and redemption.
This screening will be followed by a Q&A with Mandrial-Santos and moderated by Stacey Young, founder and executive director of The Pacific Island Film Festival (PIFF). Following will be a reception at Downtown Social.
*Where to watch: *
7:00 PM on Sun, August 10
Regal Union Square
