Short

A wife searches for "Happily Ever After' when her wedding night takes a turn for the worst.  Will she get over her need for social validation?

Director: Renu Razdan
Producer: Janice Chua
Writer:  Renu Razdan            
Cast: Renu Razdan, Rajiv Sharma, Asit Vyas, Ravi Naidu, Elizabeth Lazan
Cinematographer: Suzaine
Editor: Khayyam Khan
Executive Producers: Rajiv Sharma & Sarah Khan

- Honorable Mention Best Short Film at Boston Lonely Seal International Film, Screenplay, and Music Festival.
- Outstanding Achievement Award for Romantic Comedy at Indie Shorts Film Festival Los Angeles
- Best Actress Award at London Women's Film Festival 

Website: anewlywedstory.com 
Instagram: @anewlywedstory_film 

Short
Los Angeles Premiere

Under immense pressure from family expectations and academic rigor, a first-gen Chinese American student faces a moral dilemma in a pivotal college exam.

Director: Gong Cheng
Producer: Joe Zheng, Xiaoxiao Wu, Blair Bai
Writer: Gong Cheng              
Cast: Kate Chen, Zhengzhao Yang, Mia Germar, Nana Ponceleon
Cinematographer: Young Li
Editor: Qiqi Deng

Feature Documentary 
USA Premiere

A young B.C. born, Japanese Canadian man decides to join the civil rights movement in the deep south of the USA through the Student NonViolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Learning photography along the way, the transformative journey allows him to confront his own identity and return ‘home’ to the west coast of Canada to begin photographic work that documents and captures the spirit of histories of Japanese Canadians that lived in the former Paueru Gai or Powell Street area.

Director: Cindy Mochizuki 
Producer: Cindy Mochizuki 
Writer: Cindy Mochizuki     
Cast: Cinematographer: Milena Salazar
Editor: Milena Salazar

Website: cindymochizuki.com/filmography-animation/between-pictures-the-lens-of-tamio-wakayama

Instagram: @betweenpicturesfilm

Documentary
West Coast Premiere

Decoupling was once a term primarily used in cosmology, but it has now taken on a geopolitical significance, referring to the deteriorating relationship between China and the U.S. The film ‘Decoupling’ is the story of a “Chinese” father as he navigates the breakdown of relations between China and the US and what that means for his own family. Born in China and living in the American Midwest, filmmaker Yinan Wang attempts to unpack his own experience of how a transnational migrant family deals with the distress caused by cultural identity, nationalism, and geopolitics.

Director: Yinan Wang 王一男
Producer: Yinan Wang 王一男
Writer: Yinan Wang 王一男
Cast: Yinan Wang, Yujing Wang, Zijin Wang
Cinematographer: Yinan Wang 王一男
Editor: Yinan Wang, Shakuru Tajiri

Website: yinan-wang.com/de-in-progress
Instagram: @yinannnnn
Facebook: fb.com/profile.php?id=100006764884390

Fiction Short
North American Premiere

Koyori Edogawa, whose been marked with her abundant talent as a manga artist. Kiriko Asai, the most popular student who must always be perfect. Two high school students who are always under scrutiny sympathize with each other and search for freedom.

No one knows the real you, so can you be happy now? Kiriko tells Koyori who’s alone and isolated after she drew a manga depicting her classmates and teachers, “That manga is the best." It's a manga where so many people are hurt and die. But why?

Kiriko is good at sports, has excellent grades, and her beauty wins her great popularity. But Koyori gradually becomes captivated by Kiriko's “hidden” face that she never shows.

What is Kiriko’s true meaning behind the words “Draw me”?

This is a short film that focuses on the mind of a teenager who is confused between the real self and the self she shows in public.

Director: Kohei Kiyasu
Producer: Yoshinobu Noma (Executive Producer), Ryoichi Suzuki, Hinami Kamakura, Takuya Nagamori, Keiichi Yuta, Kyohei Sudate, Tomonori Koyanagi
Writer: Kohei Kiyasu
Cast: Momoko Kobayashi (Koyori Edogawa), Erika Takizawa (Kiriko Asai)
Cinematographer: Masaya Suzuki

Short
World Premiere

5-year-old girl Lele, who used to cover the cracks of her family violence with drawings, wakes up to face the truth that she can't help her family with her fantasy.

Director: Yizhi Shi
Producer: Yuan Yang
Writer: Yizhi Shi, Janet Zheng               
Cast: Ziyi Zhang, Berly Liu, Kaixiang Zhang
Cinematographer: Wuqiu Fu
Editor: Xin Sui

Instagram @lookaway_2022

Short

A dark comedy about a neurotic but driven 17-year-old Chinese-American violinist on a mission to get admitted to Harvard at any cost.

Director: Jamie Ting
Producer: Bo Butterworth
Writer: Jamie Ting     
Cast: Danielle Liu, Mardy Ma, Jack C. Huang, Mariana Arôxa
Cinematographer: Josh Fisher
Editors: Karen Kourtessis, Artemis Tapliga, Luke Claibourne Nelson

- Grand Jury Award: SEE Asian Film Festival
- Audience Award: Austin Asian American Film Festival
- Best Dark Comedy: LAFA

Website: filmfreeway.com/projects/2547482

Short

A young Japanese American returns to his childhood home in Japan and reunites with his estranged mother and uncle. As he navigates the challenges of reconnecting with his family, he faces a difficult decision.

Director: Oliver William Staton
Producer: Oliver William Staton, Nathan M. Legger, Yukari Tsukahara
Writer: Oliver William Staton
Cast: Rick Kumazawa, Michiko Ishihara Roberts, Eric Presnall, Tsuyoshi Kondo
Cinematographer: Hans Bobànovits
Editor: Milène Ortenberg

Website: oliverwilliamstaton.com/places-we-knew
Instagram: @placesweknew_shortfilm

Short

When an insecure, Korean American boy meets an International K-Pop Star who looks just like him, they decide to switch identities.

Liann Kaye - Director
Liann Kaye - Writer
Nicole Palermo - Producer
Kevin Woo - Key Cast

Animation Short
World Premiere

A young man from a prestigious line of high cuisine chefs grows upexpressing his love of cooking playfully. Despite his father’s wishes, he secretly trains with a hibachi chef at a tiny food stall at night and discovers he has a talent for it. His father catches him at the night market, but before he can reprimand him, the boy performs his heart out, which convinces his father to let him pursue his dreams.

Director: Saiya Lin
Producer: Lex Cooper
Writer: Saiya Lin
Art Director: Mishi Lee
Animation Director: Han Thar Htin
Lead Animators: Eden Liu
Compositor: Erin Truong
Composer: Ethan Richey
Sound Designers: Rainn Mowris, Alex Han

- 41st College Television Awards, Savannah Film Festival, FLICKFAIR Film Festival, Red Movie Awards.

Website: saiyacreate.com/filmpresskit

Instagram: Sonmoonfilm

Short, Animation

Director: Sean Pecknold
Producer: Sean Pecknold
Writer: Sean Pecknold              
Cast: Kent Chen
Cinematographer: Sean Pecknold
Editor: Sean Pecknold & Aaron Beckum
Production Designer: Adi Goodrich
Art DIrector: Emily Franz

Website: tennis-oranges.com
Instagram: @seanpecknold
X: /seanpecknold

Animation
West Coast Premiere

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hanako and her family are abruptly uprooted from their home by order of President Roosevelt's signing of Executive Order 9066, forcing them and 120,000 other Japanese Americans into remote and isolated internment camps. Uprooted follows Hanako's life before, during and after the camps, displaying the harsh realities of discrimination and confinement, the deep generational trauma it leaves behind, the enduring bonds of family and community and the remembrance of this event.

Throughout my childhood my grandmother, Hisako Kido Yasuda, shared her experience of being interned during World War II. These stories were so close to her and my family, but I noticed that in school this time period was completely glossed over in history books.

Creating this film was my opportunity to tell my grandmother's story through animation.

I hope this film will be educational to those that have never heard about the internment of Japanese Americans. My main goal throughout the whole process was to honor my grandmother and the other Japanese Americans who came before me and endured so many hardships and trials. I will continue sharing this story, as we should never forget this time in history and ensure something like this never happens again. 

Director: Becca Jackson
Producer: Becca Jackson
Writer: Becca Jackson              
Cast: Kei Ito, Rachel Depp, Linda Benjamin
Cinematographer: Becca Jackson (Animator)
Editor: Becca Jackson

Instagram: @beccajj.art