Austin Asian American Film Festival

You have until Monday, May 18th at 11:59PM CST to vote for AAAFF for Best Film Festival in the @austinchronicle 36th Annual Best of Austin®️ Readers Poll!!! Link in bio Make it a part of your morning routine and spread the love, cuz we always put on for our city and community 🫂 HEADLINERS ANNOUNCED NEXT WEEK AAPI MONTH SPECIAL PRICE BADGES STILL ON SALE (they go up June 1st) Love youuuuuuu

“CHUNGKING EXPRESS is one of Wong’s purest evocations of love’s excitement and heartbreak.” —Slant A total charmer from master stylist Wong Kar-wai, CHUNGKING EXPRESS begins this Friday, May 15, at AFS Cinema. Tickets and more info via the link in our bio. Thanks to our promo partner @aaafilmfest

Emerging from the wild, genre‑bending energy of 1990s Japanese cinema, Kaizo Hayashi’s Maiku Hama Trilogy reimagines the character of the hard‑boiled detective through a distinctly pop‑art lens. Anchored by the effortless cool of Masatoshi Nagase (star of Jim Jarmusch’s MYSTERY TRAIN) as a private eye working out of a dilapidated Yokohama movie house, the films blend moody American noir, Nikkatsu‑style action, and offbeat comedy into a world where missing dogs, waterfront turf wars, and serial killers coexist — with deadpan charm. Shot in both striking black‑and‑white and bold color palettes, the trilogy stands as a cult landmark of its era, now newly restored and ready for rediscovery. Launching the trilogy with a mix of black-and-white noir and pop‑art swagger, THE MOST TERRIBLE TIME IN MY LIFE channels the wild energy of Seijun Suzuki and the gumshoe grit of Mickey Spillane. See it at AFS Cinema on May 10 & 13. Tickets available via the link in our bio. Thanks to our promo partners: @aaafilmfest @jasga_austin

GUESS WHAT 🗣 Your favorite Asian American film festival has been nominated for Best Film Festival in the @austinchronicle 's 36th Annual Best of Austin® Readers Poll!!!! 📰 Our core staff, programmers and screeners, operations and box office teams, board members, event and hospitality leads, volunteers, and yes our social and marketing folks work hard year in and year out to make AAAFF the preeminent AANHPI film festival in Texas and the south, representing and championing third coast stories while bringing dynamic films and filmmakers from all over the world to AFS Cinema to be enjoyed by all. 👊 It's not just the films though! Whether it's a late night AYCE hot pot moment or BBQ filmmaker mixer, a closing party with @yellowrangeratx at @the.golden.horn.atx or morning boba and matcha, locally-designed SWAG or a well-timed nacho bar or onigiri/samosa snack break, every single moment, event, and activation is thought through with intention and care. We want our guests (whether they're fest attendees or filmmakers) to have an incredible time and have so much fun every single moment they spend with us! 🥰 WE DO THIS 'CAUSE WE LOVE IT and if you love us, consider taking a moment to vote for us from now through May 18th -- LINK IN BIO 🫂🫂🫂 P.S. Early-bird All-Access Badges have officially SOLD OUT!!! You can still get a special AAPI Heritage Month discounted badge at this rate before prices go up in June! :)

Austin’s film festival ecosystem thrives thanks to mutual support. At the LBJ Library’s Terrace Tent, a panel of festival leaders breaks down how culturally diverse, artist-driven film communities in Austin are built and sustained through collaboration rather than competition. Our Art House Alternatives panel at The KUT Festival features Alex Chew of Black Auteur Film Festival, Hanna Huang of Austin Asian American Film Festival, Gabriel Ornelas of Cine Las Americas, and Alice (Ali) Mechaley-Saigal of Indie Meme Org. They’ll join Texas standard’s Laura Rice to talk programming, funding pressures, and why cross-promotion between festivals has become essential infrastructure for keeping independent film visible in Austin. Learn more about this free and open event and more about KUT Fest at kut.org.

🐎🐎 YOU HERD IT HERE FIRST 🐎🐎 Our official #AAAFF2026 poster is ready for its world premiere!!! A one-woman institution in Austin's tattoo and music scenes for a great number of years, we're truly proud and honored to announce that Emily No Good is our poster artist for the 18th Edition of the Austin Asian American Film Festival. 🎬 Between running East Austin's celebrated No Good Tattoo (Austin Chronicle Best Tattoo Shop 2025), making music across a variety of bands and solo projects, and debuting her first collection of fine-art ceramics at an incredible @futurefronttexas solo gallery show last fall, we've had several opportunities to be blown away by her work over the last several years. As our fandom grew (and her schedule got busier and busier), we decided for our 18th Annual Edition to finally reach out—after all, our Festival is finally old enough to get a tattoo. 😅 Incorporating her multi-disciplinary background and experience as a tattoo artist and graphic designer, Emily interpreted this year's poster alongside the Lunar Year of the Horse. Drawing on fire, intensity, passion, and the growth that symbolizes the coming of age and the burning of letting go, we're energized and captivated by Emily's art and hope you are too—it's Chucky's world and we're just living in it. 🔥🐎 Emily No Good (aka Bad Chuck) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Austin, Texas. With a background in songwriting and audio production, Emily has been releasing music and scoring fine art films for the last decade. She also works as a tattoo artist, graphic designer, and ceramicist, creating bold, playful, minimalist designs that mirror the world around her with a tongue-in-cheek lightheartedness. 🏆 To celebrate our poster and the fact that AAAFF is less than two months away, we've released a limited number of early bird All-Access Badges. At $160, they'll be the cheapest our Badges will be, so jump on them quick before prices go up (link in bio)! 🐣

Our dear friends @indiememe are coming back for their 11th Indie Meme Film Festival from April 22nd-26th, sharing the best of independent South Asian cinema in Austin with in-person screenings, Q&As, mixers, and filmmaker events. 👊 Hosted at AFS Cinema, we're pleased to be community partners for 2 incredible features and 4 masterful shorts that we think our AAAFF audience will love. 🎬 Friday 4/24 5:30PM SHAPE OF MOMO (Texas Premiere) Bishnu and her family of women navigate patriarchal norms, reflecting on the complexities of identity and freedom within a traditional community. Saturday 4/25 3:30PM THE CYCLE OF LOVE (Texas Premiere) In 1977, PK, a 23-year-old Delhi street artist from a poor, ‘untouchable’ family, picked up a handful of paintbrushes and a second-hand bicycle and set off on a 6000-mile cross-continent mission - to find Lotta, the woman who had captured his heart. Sunday 4/26 3:45PM Family Shorts Block AASMANI An elderly woman struggles with the choice of selling her beloved vintage car, Aasmani. DEVA AAJ PAN VHAY (North American Premiere) A young boy and his grandfather dream up mischievous ways to protect him on his way to school from torrential rains. LITTLE FISHIES A young girl grapples with the loss of her father and helps her conservative family break free from what is deemed as “acceptable” grieving. WAAGH (THE LEOPARD) (United States Premiere) A leopard dies in a housing complex in Mumbai, awakening paranoia in young Apu. Can humanity and nature co-exist? Snag tickets and check out the full #IMFF2026 schedule at the link in bio! As an AAAFF supporter, enjoy 10% off with code: COMMUNITY 💸 We'll see you at the cinema! 🍿

A love story that crossed continents 🚲❤️ The Cycle of Love 📍AFS Cinema, Austin 🗓️ April 25 at 3:30 PM ✨ 11th Indie Meme Film Festival In 1977, a young Delhi street artist biked 6,000 miles across continents for love. A real-life journey of courage, devotion, and believing in something bigger than yourself. 🎤 Live Q&A with the real-life couple + producers 🎬 Texas Premiere 🎟️ Limited seats. Get your tickets now or grab a festival badge Tap the shop or link in bio 🤝 thank you to our community partners: @aaafilmfest @sweainternational #IMFF2026 #IndieMeme #AustinFilm #FilmFestival #thingstodoinaustin

Two-thirds of Asian representation in mainstream film and television remain confined to narrow archetypes. For the second year running, @seedandspark 's AAPI Renaissance Rally returns to keep rewriting the narrative. Building on last year’s movement toward multidimensional and unexpected Asian and Pacific Islander leads, this is the next evolution of the Renaissance: a moment for the stories we bring to life and for the evolving ways we continue to tell them differently. While there are 55 projects from all across the country worthy of your support, here are three Austin-based directors you can support TODAY to help usher in the next wave of AAPI storytelling: Natalie Tran - PASSION PROJECT A student director’s "Passion Project" turns into a sh*t show when it’s revealed that nobody on set has a single clue what they’re doing. PASSION PROJECT pokes fun at the "psycho directors" you'll inevitably come across on set, as well as their biggest coping mechanism: "Fix it in post." Jonathan Moon - YOU'RE SO LUCKY At nine years old, a Korean boy was put on a plane and told he was lucky. Now he's finally telling his own story and he needs your help to finish it. Interviews are complete. The final scenes are ready to shoot. Your support gets this film across the finish line and into the world. Neha Aziz - TELL ME HOW YOU FEEL TELL ME HOW YOU FEEL follows two Muslim millennials, Maya and Amir trying to navigate love and connection. A tender and bittersweet portrait of modern relationships, this short explores what happens when chemistry collides with vulnerability, and how difficult it can be to truly say what we mean. All projects are funding from March 30-April 29th and if they meet their goals and gather at least 350 followers they can qualify for up to $12,500 in funding, mentorship and more from our incredible partners: Goldhouse, Madison Wells, A Doc, CAAM, Timothy Tau and Jeff Yang. So whether it's a monetary donation or a follow on Seed&Spark, we invite you to check out these projects and support how you can at the link in our bio! The future of AAPI cinema is here... and it's BRIGHT 😎

“Jia Zhangke — in his first feature film — displays an incisive mastery of political symbolism. Jia’s estranged yet fierce x‑ray of the ills of modern China evokes a calm, intimate compassion for its struggling survivors.” —The New Yorker A 16mm production featuring nonprofessional actors shot without state approval, Jia Zhangke’s breakout, XIAO WU, follows a disillusioned pickpocket who finds himself empty‑handed in the new market economy. But as a romance blossoms between him and a sex worker, he begins to wonder: does love hold more value than money? Essential Cinema: Adrift On The Other Side Of The World: Early Films By Jia Zhangke starts this week with XIAO WU. Tickets are now on sale via the link in our bio.

AFS and Austin Asian American Film Festival present: Essential Cinema: Adrift On The Other Side Of The World: Early Films By Jia Zhangke, April 7 - May 2 at AFS Cinema As young filmmakers struggled to make their mark on China’s dysfunctional 1990s film industry, Jia Zhangke’s 16mm debut feature XIAO WU (1997) emerged like a shooting star from the independent scene, casting light on the country’s neglected interior and putting Jia’s obscure hometown of Fenyang on the cinematic map. The subsequent UNKNOWN PLEASURES (2002) and THE WORLD (2004) looked to the urban landscapes of Datong and Beijing and the Golden Lion-winning STILL LIFE (2006) to the upheavals wrought by the Three Gorges Dam. But the importance of home — and its changing significance in an era where rootedness is increasingly the exception rather than the rule — has never left Jia’s penetrating gaze. With these four early features, Jia charted a course of constant inquiry and exploration that culminated in 2024’s decades-spanning “self-retrospective” CAUGHT BY THE TIDES. Tickets and more info via the link in our bio.

Join us for a panel with Monica Macer (Executive Producer FAR CRY and Executive Producer/Co-Showrunner ALIEN: EARTH Season 2), Teresa Huang (Co-Executive Producer ALIEN: EARTH and FAR CRY), and Ananya Hegde (Writer FAR CRY Season 1). Moderated by Neha Aziz (AAAFF Artistic Director), this panel will discuss their journeys behind the screen as Asian American women writing for TV. Register at aaafilmfest.org or link in bio. This limited-seat event is free to attend with registration required. Donations to support our work championing Asian and Asian American stories through film and creative media optional in the registration process. Food & refreshments provided!