Austin Asian American Film Festival

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Austin Asian American Film Festival We are the Austin Asian American Film Festival!

We showcase the best in Asian and Asian American cinema in order to celebrate our communities, entertain and enlighten the public, and support the creative talents of Asian American and Asian artists.

📽 Short Films, Long Journeys; A Film Screening & Panel Discussion 📽The gestation period for a short film is a lot longer...
09/14/2026

📽 Short Films, Long Journeys; A Film Screening & Panel Discussion 📽

The gestation period for a short film is a lot longer than most people think. So how does one go about that task? 👀Join AAPI filmmakers Neha Aziz, Kayla Abuda Galang, and Meghan Ross for a screening and panel discussion on how they made their films in Austin, from inception to distribution. 👏

Films include SO, THAT HAPPENED (Neha Aziz), AN ONGOING LIST OF THINGS FOUND IN THE LIBRARY BOOK DROP, USUALLY BEING USED AS BOOKMARKS (Kayla Abuda Galang), and HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS (Meghan Ross). 🎬

Co-presented by Neha Aziz & Austin Asian American Film Festival at ArtUs Co, located at 10000 Research Boulevard Suite 141, doors open at 7PM with programming starting at 7:30PM sharp. Light food & beverages provided. The event is FREE to attend but spots are limited so please RSVP here: eventbrite.com/e/short-films-long-journeys-screening-panel-tickets-2000182355268 🎟️

This project is supported in part by a Nexus Grant of Austin Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment. 🫂

Let's demystify the journey of the short film! 🔥🔥🔥🔥

🐎 THANK YOU FOR THE HORSEPOWER 🐎For keeping us fed, hydrated, fueled, and looking and feeling our best, we’d like to giv...
07/14/2026

🐎 THANK YOU FOR THE HORSEPOWER 🐎

For keeping us fed, hydrated, fueled, and looking and feeling our best, we’d like to give a standing ovation to all of our Premiere, Patron, and Supporting Sponsors for helping us make our 18th edition so special! ❤️

WE COULDNT HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT
City of Austin
Austin Film Society
Hold Out Brewing
HEB
Color Congress
Texas Commission on the Arts
Taiwan Ministry of Culture
Taiwan Academy
Austin PBS
Asian American Cultural Center
Yeo's
Holiday Inn Austin Midtown
Better Sour
Yellow Bird
Shaz & Kiks
Fermenteria
Juice Consulting
St. John Studios
Umma Juice
ATX Cold Brew
Kaiju Cut and Sew
Numa Foods
Topo Chico
Timothy Joseph Phillips
Coca Cola
DP Events

YOU HAVE OUR ETERNAL GRATITUDE 🙏🙏🙏

may be over, but that doesn't mean there isn't more to share! As we prepare to announce Jury and Audience awards, we'd...
06/30/2026

may be over, but that doesn't mean there isn't more to share! As we prepare to announce Jury and Audience awards, we'd like to introduce you to our 2026 Narrative and Documentary Jury. 👋 Comprised of longtime filmmakers, AAAFF alumni, and film community pillars, we've tasked them with the difficult job of determining awards given how incredible our 2026 film lineup has been. 📝

So get to know them and get ready for some awards! 🎉

🐎 THAT'S A WRAP ON 🐎We rode all day and night for 5 full days of film, fun, and friendship. We laughed. We cried. We g...
06/29/2026

🐎 THAT'S A WRAP ON 🐎

We rode all day and night for 5 full days of film, fun, and friendship. We laughed. We cried. We grieved. We were angry at times at all the traumas that constitute living in this world. Ultimately, we healed. We sat together. With friends. With strangers that became new friends. We ate together. Drank together. Clapped and cheered together. We received new work together with open arms. Hosted our visiting filmmakers with true, community Southern Hospitality ™, and all learned a little (or a lot) more about life. ❤️

On behalf of our entire board and staff (some of whom are not pictured here but we still love you), thank you to for allowing us to takeover your space. Thank you to our community partners, sponsors, and volunteers, who we couldn't have done this without and can never do without. To our visiting filmmakers who took a chance on us to become family for life. Our videographers, photographers, and jurors for making our memories alongside us. Most importantly, thank you from the bottom of our hearts to our community of film-going and film-loving AAAFF supporters who were here day-in and day-out to help us champion Asian and Asian American stories! ❤️

Turning 18 isn't so bad when it's with all of you!!! ❤️

The fest may be over but there's still lots more to come, including AWARDS so stay tuned and ty ty ty. 'Til we ride again... 🐎

🫶 DAWN OF THE FINAL DAY 🫶We've had the best time of our lives the last four days, and as we celebrate one last ride toge...
06/28/2026

🫶 DAWN OF THE FINAL DAY 🫶

We've had the best time of our lives the last four days, and as we celebrate one last ride together, we want to bring special attention to the NOT-SO-SHORT SHORTS BLOCK at 4:30PM, which features three incredible films (including a world premiere!!!) in the ~30min runtime range. A Q&A with visiting directors Lisette Flanary and Myles Matsuno as well as producer Lailanie Gadia will follow, so do NOT miss this incredibly invigorating block. Plus there's snacks beforehand... goelevent.com/AAAFF/e/NOT-SO-SHORTSHORTS 😋

After all tonight's films, please join us at Yellow Ranger for our CLOSING PARTY from 10:30-late, where we will have fun and announce our jury winners 🎉

MĀHŪ: A TRANS-PACIFIC LOVE LETTER
MĀHŪ: A Trans-Pacific Love Letter is a short documentary about an innovative theater production by master hula teacher, Kumu Hula Patrick Makuakāne, which aims to reclaim and celebrate the traditional place of honor and respect given to māhū (transgender) people. 🏝

THIS HOUSE OF OURS
Following her husband’s death, an elderly Vietnamese woman moves through her family home clinging to memory and rituals, pulled apart into different directions by not only grief and tradition but also the pressure from her children. 🏠

LIGHT ON A HILL
When the Eaton Fire destroyed thousands of homes in Altadena, one Korean family’s restaurant survived, though they lost their own home. Supported by their community and organizations, they turned their parking lot into a distribution center, providing meals and clothing to those in need. World-renowned artist Robert Vargas painted a hopeful mural on their wall, symbolizing how art can bring healing and renewal. Told through mixed media and personal home footage, this film reveals a powerful story of resilience, generosity, and recovery rising through the ashes. 🔦

CLOSE OUT WITH US SEE YOU AT THE FEST 👋

🔥 SUNDAY FEATURES 🔥We've been having TOO much fun at the fest (what a centerpiece party last night!!!), and it's time to...
06/27/2026

🔥 SUNDAY FEATURES 🔥

We've been having TOO much fun at the fest (what a centerpiece party last night!!!), and it's time to keep it going! This weekend is for the movie lovers who can watch films back-to-back-to-back, and you're gonna wanna pay attention to these Sunday features ☝ As always, tix at goelevent.com/AAAFF/e/List

THE GAS STATION ATTENDANT
A daughter reflects on her father’s life — weaving the story of his miraculous journey from the streets of India with the realities of life in America. Using recorded phone calls with her dad while he worked nights at a gas station along with home movies past and present, this deeply intimate film is a meditation on family, the immigrant experience, and the dreams we carry with us. ⛽

BENEATH WHICH RIVER FLOWS (Precedes DO YOU LOVE ME)
In southern Iraq's marshlands, Ibrahim finds solace with his buffalo companion amidst feeling alienated, but an impending ecological disaster jeopardizes their way of life. 🐃

DO YOU LOVE ME
DO YOU LOVE ME is a playful and personal journey through Lebanon’s audiovisual memory, composed entirely of archival footage. It is a love letter to Beirut, spanning 70 years of film, TV, home videos, and photography, exploring the Lebanese collective psyche – marked by joy and intimacy, destruction and loss. Through the eyes of citizens, filmmakers and artists, the film reconstructs a fragmented history in a country without a national archive, celebrating creative expression as both resistance, renewal and a way to preserve memory. 🇱🇧

GLOAMING IN LUOMU (Closing Film)
Bai receives a postcard from a small town in southwestern China. It's from her boyfriend, who disappeared without a word three years earlier. After wrestling with doubt, she decides to go to the town and uncover the truth. 💌

TWO MORE DAYS LETS KEEP IT GOING 🐎

🤞 NARRATIVE SHORTS COMING YOUR WAY 🤞Mark Sunday, 6/28 at 11:30 AM down on your calendar, ‘cause our Narrative Shorts Blo...
06/26/2026

🤞 NARRATIVE SHORTS COMING YOUR WAY 🤞

Mark Sunday, 6/28 at 11:30 AM down on your calendar, ‘cause our Narrative Shorts Block is gonna blow you away! 🔥 Fresh ideas. Gripping contexts. Heart in spades. This is short-form narrative filmmaking at its finest—TIX still available: goelevent.com/AAAFF/e/NarrativeShorts 🎟️

PAPER DAUGHTER
Joy, an immigrant from China, enters the U.S. under a false identity as a “Paper Daughter,” memorizing details of a deceased girl named Mae and creating a paper mask in her likeness. Arriving at Angel Island, she faces detention and interrogation, discovering carved poems that echo the struggles of immigrants before her. 🗽

VITAL
A mother in Iran, considers selling her organs to save her daughter, while in the United States, a doctor faces ethical dilemmas to save his daughter, revealing the complexities of organ trade. ⚕️

PILOT
In an orthodox village in India, a young widow defies all norms and learns to ride a bicycle to take her son to school 20 kilometers away. 🚲

11:11
When 16-year-old Pakistani-American Noori’s wish at 11:11 to be her crush’s type goes awry, she’s magically transformed into a white, blonde, blue-eyed girl — and must undo the wish before losing herself completely. Set in affluent Palos Verdes, 11:11 is a comedic and profound exploration of the painful yet liberating realization that true belonging can’t be found by becoming someone else. 💅

ANOTHER DAUGHTER
A mother with two daughters is pregnant again. After finding out through a checkup that the baby is another girl, the family decides to terminate the pregnancy... 🏥

PRAYING MANTIS
A praying mantis mutant seduces and preys on men out of desperation to save her child. A failed mission led to revelations of her past and dark secrets as the story unfolds. 🙏

🌶️ SPICY TAIWANESE VR ACTIVATION 🌶️Courtesy of the and the Taiwan Academy in Houston, we have the distinct honor and pl...
06/26/2026

🌶️ SPICY TAIWANESE VR ACTIVATION 🌶️

Courtesy of the and the Taiwan Academy in Houston, we have the distinct honor and pleasure (no pun intended) of hosting an exclusive viewing of CHOU Tung-Yen’s IN THE MIST and KISS. 💋

An 18+ VR experience, Badgeholders can RSVP for a time slot whereas any single ticket holders can show up in person for a rush list slot with a proof of any AAAFF film program purchase. Running all day Friday and Saturday at the Oak Ballroom at the Holiday Inn Midtown right across from AFS Cinema, we hope you pop over for this exclusive and one-of-a-kind experience. Can’t make it in person? KISS is available to view online during the duration of the festival: goelevent.com/AAAFF/e/KISSVirtual 😘

On Saturday from 2-3pm, we will have a meet and greet with director CHOU Tung-Yen and editor Huang Chia-Wen at the Holiday Inn Midtown Pecan Room, so please join us as it’s both filmmakers first times in the US! 🙏

IN THE MIST
In a dim room filled with steam and mist, blurred figures of men are sipping the desire and loneliness from each other. You seem to have entered a forbidden zone and fallen into a state between dreaming and being awake, gazing at someone and also being gazed by them. Theater and new media director Chou Tung-Yen once again touches on the unspeakable life experience of the gay community culture, exploring a male sauna through poetic lenses to take a peek into something that’s hidden under the desire—the love without love.

KISS
In an unbroken chain of disasters and epidemics, fewer and fewer people are surviving. If there’s such a thing as the apocalypse, this must be it. K strays into a desolate gay sauna. The decadent and damp smell permeates the rooms, and sounds of groans and licks still echo between the narrow hallways. An old tree seemed to have taken root in these moist quarters. Now only its withered branches remain, stretching out, longing for something. Intimacy has become a tale of a bygone era. A myth, a holy grail that people desperately quest after.

SEE YOU IN THE MIST 🧖‍♂️🧖🧖‍♀️

🌎 WORLD PREMIERES 🌎We have the great honor and privilege to debut the work of three filmmakers this year, and we trust...
06/25/2026

🌎 WORLD PREMIERES 🌎

We have the great honor and privilege to debut the work of three filmmakers this year, and we trust our AAAFF audience will bring the enthusiasm, appreciation, and consideration necessary to receive new work and embrace it with gratitude, grace, openness, and sharpness. 🫂

BE THE FIRST IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD TO SEE THESE THREE INCREDIBLE SHORT FILMS TIX AT goelevent.com/AAAFF/e/List 👀

TAEMONG dir. Sophia Lim
Texas Shorts 6/25 5:25PM
A pregnant young woman buys a “Taemong” of peaches, a Korean conception dream, from her photographer. This symbolic dream is dreamt by the mother and signals the conception and destiny of the child. 🍑

UNFOLDING dir. Meghna Chakraborty, Iris (Yi Youn) Kim
Documentary Shorts 6/27 11AM
UNFOLDING follows Mai Mizuno, who in 2018 joined hundreds of other USC students and alumni to speak out against USC gynecologist George Tyndall, who abused hundreds (if not thousands) of women over nearly three decades. 🗣️

THIS HOUSE OF OURS dir. Jay Ngo
Not-So-Short Shorts 6/28 4:30PM
Following her husband’s death, an elderly Vietnamese woman moves through her family home clinging to memory and rituals, pulled apart into different directions by not only grief and tradition but also the pressure from her children. 🪢

SEE YOU AT THE 🤞

06/25/2026

is officially in full swing!!! 🐎🐎

We got our beers, our badges, our shirts, and our totes; have you?? 👀👀

Day 1 with lilianfilm and honeyjoon was a real dream! Soupleaf after was the cherry on top. 🍒

Today’s racers include TEXAS SHORTS at 5:25PM and TikTok Never Dies at 7:35PM, followed by a Softserve Stampede Social at SOMISOMI Soft Serve & Taiyaki, where badgeholders get a free ice cream 🍦

What’s not to love DAY 2 HERE WE COME 🫡

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6406 N I-35, #3100
Austin, TX
78752

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