1 GIRL INFINITE

The 24th New York Asian Film Festival Unleashes Cinema's Next Wave
July 11–27

Presented at Film at Lincoln Center, SVA Theatre, LOOK Cinemas W57, and the Korean Cultural Center of NY

The New York Asian Film Foundation and Film at Lincoln Center announce first highlights from the 24th edition of the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF). Running from July 11 to July 27 across four NYC venues—Film at Lincoln Center, SVA Theatre, LOOK Cinemas W57, and the Korean Cultural Center NY, this year’s festival marks NYAFF’s most globally expansive lineup ever. Film at Lincoln Center is proud to host 40 features of the more than 100 films featured in this year’s festival. With over 75 premieres—including eight world premieres—and 17 directorial debuts, the 2025 program showcases its largest slate of premieres and new talent to date, bringing bold, genre-defying films from across Asia. The festival offers New York audiences a rare opportunity to experience the next wave of global cinema, months or even years ahead of wider release.

This year’s theme is “Cinema as Disruption”—spotlighting films that challenge, provoke, and reimagine. From unsettling horror and feminist thrillers to cosmic punk epics and political allegories, NYAFF celebrates the power of Asian cinema to defy convention.

The 2025 lineup confronts taboos and reclaims narrative power: Tokyo International Film Festival selection Pavane for an Infant by Chong Keat Aun explores Malaysia’s hidden crises; Japanese cult director Toshiaki Toyoda’s Transcending Dimensions conjures an opium-dream convergence of sci-fi, metaphysics, and gangster myth; and Korea’s Lee Jong-suk detonates social mores in Forbidden Fairytale, a fearless satire on sex, porn, and censorship.

This year’s program includes bold works from across Asia, with particular emphasis on rarely seen regions. From Thailand’s genre-bending blockbusters to rare dispatches from Bhutan (I, the Song), Myanmar, and Mongolia (competition title to be announced), NYAFF 2025 highlights formal ambition and moral urgency. MA – Cry of Silence, winner of the New Currents Award at the Busan International Film Festival, presents Myanmar’s post-coup surveillance state through a garment worker’s quiet reckoning—marking the country’s powerful return to international cinema.

“This year’s lineup dares to confront, question, and dream—exactly what cinema should do,” says Samuel Jamier, NYAFF Executive Director. “With 19 Southeast Asian films—our strongest regional representation ever—we’re witnessing a generational shift. Beyond the curation of films, we're redrawing a cultural map that urgently needs expansion. Many festivals treat Asian cinema like it ends at the Korean border—we’re here to blow up that thinking. We mean business. Or chaos. Probably both.”

The festival is presented with major support from the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York (HKETONY), Thailand Creative Culture Agency (THACCA), Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, Fundstrat Global Advisors, and Korean Cultural Center New York (KCCNY), whose partnership amplifies Asian cinema’s most vital voices.

This year’s festival celebrates cinema legends and rising auteurs through intimate post-screening Q&As and in-person appearances.

Lisa Lu, the beloved star of The Joy Luck Club and Crazy Rich Asians, reflects on a groundbreaking career spanning seven decades. She will be honored with two awards—the Trailblazer Award and the Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award—marking the first time in the festival’s history that both distinctions will be conferred upon a single individual, in recognition of a body of work that has left an indelible mark on the history of cinema, not only entertaining and inspiring audiences but also elevating the cultural and artistic profile of Asian cinema on the world stage.

Star Asia Award recipient Ekin Cheng unveils his latest reinvention in Last Song for You, while Japanese visionary director Toshiaki Toyoda headlines NYAFF’s first-ever mid-career retrospective, appearing in person for the North American premiere of Transcending Dimensions. In addition to his latest film, rare screenings of Blue Spring (on 35mm), Hanging Garden, a collection of his best shorts, turn the spotlight on a truly one-of-a-kind filmography.

Joining them are trailblazing voices like Venice winner Chong Keat Aun (Pavane for an Infant), breakout LGBTQ+ filmmaker Lilly Hu (1 Girl Infinite), and Screen International Rising Star Asia awardee Natalie Hsu (remarkable in both Pavane for an Infant and Last Song for You), along with emerging headliner Heaven Peralejo and Mikhail Red, the enfant terrible of new Philippine cinema—collectively ushering in a new era of vivid, unfiltered Asian storytelling.

More than 30 filmmakers will appear throughout July for post-screening discussions that turn each showing into a cinematic exchange.

FIRST WAVE OF LINEUP (35 FEATURE FILMS, 27 AT FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER) — more titles to be announced
Please note the program is still subject to change.
Films marked with ** will screen at Film at Lincoln Center.

BHUTAN
**I, the Song | dir. Dechen Roder, Bhutan/Norway/Italy/France, 2024 | East Coast Premiere

HONG KONG (presented with the support of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York)
**Behind the Shadows | dir. Jonathan Li, Chou Man-Yu, Hong Kong, 2024 | North American Premiere
**Last Song for You | dir. Jill Leung, Hong Kong, 2024 | North American Premiere
Papa | dir. Philip Yung, Hong Kong , 2024 | Special Screening
**Possession Street | dir. Jack Lai, Hong Kong 2024 | North American Premiere
**Smashing Frank | dir. Trevor Choi, Hong Kong, 2024 | U.S. Premiere
**Valley of the Shadow of Death | dir. Jeffrey Lam Sen, Antonio Tam, Hong Kong, 2024 | North American Premiere
**The Way We Talk | dir. Adam Wong , Hong Kong, 2024 | North American Premiere
Young and Dangerous | dir. Andrew Lau, Hong Kong, 1996, 35mm | Special Screening

INDONESIA
Gowok: Javanese Kamasutra | dir. Hanung Bramantyo, Indonesia, 2025 | North American Premiere
**Perang Kota This City Is a Battlefield | dir. Mouly Surya, Indonesia/Singapore/Netherlands/France/Norway/Philippines/Cambodia, 2024 | North American Premiere

JAPAN
9 Souls | dir. Toshiaki Toyoda, Japan, 2003 | Special Screening
Babanba Banban Vampire | dir. Shinji Hamasaki, Japan, 2025 | North American Premiere
**Blue Spring | dir. Toshiaki Toyoda, Japan, 2002 | Special Screening
**Dollhouse | dir. Shinobu Yaguchi, Japan, 2025 | North American Premiere
**Hanging Garden | dir. Toshiaki Toyoda, Japan, 2005 | Special Screening
**Transcending Dimensions | dir. Toshiaki Toyoda, Japan, 2025 | North American Premiere

MALAYSIA
**Pavane for an Infant | dir. Chong Keat Aun, Malaysia, Hong Kong, 2024 | North American Premiere

MYANMAR
**MA – Cry of Silence | dir. The Maw Naing, Myanmar/South Korea/Singapore/France/Norway/Qatar, 2024 | North American Premiere

PHILIPPINES
**The Hearing | dir. Lawrence Fajardo, Philippines, 2024 | North American Premiere
**Lilim | dir. Mikhail Red, Philippines, 2025 | North American Premiere
Sunshine | dir. Antoinette Jadaone, Philippines, 2024 | New York Premiere

SOUTH KOREA (Co-presented with Korean Cultural Center New York)
**Forbidden Fairytale | dir. Lee Jong-suk, South Korea, 2024 | North American Premiere
**A Girl with Closed Eyes | dir. Chun Sun-young, South Korea, 2024 | North American Premiere

TAIWAN (presented with the support of Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York)
Daughter’s Daughter | dir. Huang Xi, Taiwan, 2024 | U.S. Premiere
**Unexpected Courage | dir. Shawn Yu, Taiwan, 2025 | International Premiere

THAILAND (presented with the support of Thailand Creative Culture Agency – THACCA)
404 Run Run | dir. Seua Pichaya Jarasboonpracha, Thailand, 2024 | North American Premiere
**Attack 13 | dir. Taweewat Wantha, Thailand, 2025 | International Premiere
**Flat Girls | dir. Jirassaya Wongsutin, Thailand, 2025 | North American Premiere
Panor | dir. Putipong Saisikaew, Thailand, 2025 | North American Premiere
**The Red Envelope | dir. Chayanop Boonprakob, Thailand, 2025 | North American Premiere
**Shutter (4K restoration) | dir. Parkpoom Wongpoom, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Thailand, 2004 | North American Premiere
**The Stone | dir. Pae Arak Amornsupasiri, Wutthipong Sukkhanintr, Thailand, 2025 | North American Premiere

U.S.
**1 Girl Infinite | dir. Lilly Hu, U.S., 2024 | North American Premiere
**Lisa Lu Plays Herself | dir. Chen Mei-Juin, U.S., 2025 | World Premiere

#NYAFF2025: Where Asian Cinema Gets Dangerous

Full lineup and updates: nyaff.org

Follow: @nyaff on Instagram, X, and Facebook for guest announcements and exclusive content.