0
CART
$ 0

Don't Miss...

CLOSING NIGHT FILM: RAMEN SHOP

A cinematic turducken of food movie wrapped in a love story marinated by Singapore’s multi-ethnic history. Two iconic dishes and one iconic director come together in a Japanese chef’s search for his Singaporean mother’s soup recipe, discovering forbidden love and family rifts swimming in the broth. Foregoing nostalgia, Khoo vividly…

Buy tickets

SHOPLIFTERS

Scrambling just below the radar is a rag-tag family that subsists on petty thievery. When they decide to take in a young girl from the cold, the unspeakable secrets that hold this improvised household together start to spell danger. Creative living and the hardest bonds to break enliven this nimble…

Buy tickets

SIR

A delicate and charming story of thwarted love as widowed villager Ratna takes a Mumbai job as a live-in-maid for handsome Ashwin, recovering from a failed engagement. Transcending savior narratives, Rohena Gera’s latest explores unpredictable agency across modern-day caste divides and the magnetic pull of reinvention.

Buy tickets

NERVOUS TRANSLATION

Yael, an eight-year old girl growing up in late 80's Philippines, confronts miracles and disasters both international and very, very small. With tremendous empathy, imagination, and attention to detail, director Shireen Seno evokes a child's world as strange and intimate as a dream.

Buy tickets

KILLING

Young ronin Mokunoshin is recruited away from countryside life and must grapple with a samurai sword he has never used to kill. Known as the legendary creator of Tetsuo, Tsukamoto continues to experiment, this time with a samurai’s inner turmoil as he confronts the mythical violence he is known for.

Buy tickets

GIRLS ALWAYS HAPPY

Director-actor Yang Mingming’s feisty new feature pits the cranky crackling wits of mother and daughter, both struggling writers stuck living together in the cramped eavesdropping confines of old Beijing. Their unusual camaraderie snaps with the dry comedy of flawed lovers and ambition hemmed by codependence.

Buy tickets

BIG BROTHER

Donnie Yen puts the danger in Dangerous Minds as the martial arts superstar plays a US Marine returning to his former high school as an extremely unconventional teacher. Yen solves student problems at home, fights corrupt developers, and keeps fans happy with his lightning quick legs in this upbeat social…

Buy tickets

THE ISLAND

Fresh from the Whitney Biennial, a stunning film that weaves historical footage, interviews, and speculative fiction focused entirely on Pulau Bidong, an uninhabitable island that from 1978-1991 became the largest refugee camp post-Vietnam War. Monumental ruins and national debate mix with mythology as the last man on earth encounters a…

Buy tickets

TO KILL ALICE

Literal explosives light the media firestorm surrounding Eunmi, a South Korean in America who rethinks her anti-Communist upbringing after visiting North Korea and pens a book calling for unification. Sangkyu Kim’s objective eye captures the public turmoil of her Korean book tour and wildly shifting assumptions about free speech, social…

Buy tickets

INLAND SEA

Surrounded by cats in a remote Japanese village, fishing is braided into the lifestyles of all its aging but vivacious residents. A doc that unfolds with easy curiosity and reveals the rhythms and the underlying change of a dwindling way of life.

Buy tickets

SUNSET IN MY HOMETOWN

Hak-Soo’s big chance to succeed as a rapper is interrupted when his father suddenly falls ill and he must return to his hometown. As he realizes nothing has changed, he begins a humorous and heartwarming journey to reckon with an unwelcome past.

Buy tickets

LATE LIFE: THE CHIEN-MING WANG STORY

Former New York Yankees pitcher and “Pride of Taiwan,” Chien-Ming Wang, finds himself without a job in Major League Baseball while struggling to come back after years of injuries. He works to regain his form to make one final push to pitch again at baseball’s highest level.

Buy tickets

BUFFALO BOYS

Smoke-filled, action-packed, dust-covered Indonesian spin on the classic western. In the 19th century, American-born Indonesian gunslingers return to Java to avenge their father’s murder and deliver sweet justice to evil Dutch colonizers who have taken over their town.

Buy tickets

Film Sections

There's a festival for everybody at SDAFF. Pick your path from the sections below.

Special Presentations

The feature presentations of this year's San Diego Asian Film Festival include two delectable films about families bound by food, a selection of imaginative virtual reality from Taiwan, classic films that will have you singing in your seats, and a rousing documentary about the kids who will save the world.

Special Presentations
Asian American Panorama

The best of Asian American cinema in all of its colors – from documentaries about the famous and infamous, to feature-length tales of woe and humor.

Asian American Panorama
Asia Pop!

Films to make you laugh, cry, and cheer, featuring high-flying teachers, time-traveling lovers, and a zombie-film director who will stop at nothing to achieve greatness.

Asia Pop!
Masters

Fresh from Cannes, Venice, and other prestigious international film festivals, these are premiere works by the world’s best directors

Masters
Discoveries

From Asia’s most innovative and thought-provoking filmmakers come new stories and new ways of telling them.

Discoveries
Short Film Programs

Discover the thrills of the short form in this year's program, which includes international award winners, surprising documentaries, narrative thrills, slow burns, and lush pleasures, from an exciting new generation of filmmakers.

Short Film Programs