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Reel Asian launches first in-person film festival since 2019

Yellow text on the left and centre and a large green and red drawing on the right. It is all on a black background.
The Reel Asian Film festival is celebrating 26 years with a full return to in-person screenings. Photo courtesy of Reel Asian.
Daniel Centeno - CJRU - Toronto • ON | 11-11-2022
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The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival returns to full in-person screenings for the first time since 2019. 

The 26th iteration of the festival is running now from Nov.9 to to 20 with both in-person and online screenings available for the entire lineup.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 and 2021 festivals were mostly online with the exception of select screenings.  

For this year, there will be 18 feature films and more than 40 short films. The lineup will include 10 Asian-Canadian films. 

Other programming includes the So You Think You Can Pitch competition and the Reel Ideas Industry Conference. 

A person with mixing boards and a laptop on a table. A neon red sign is glowing behind them.

Reel Asian's launch party this month outlined what to expect from this year's lineup. The Toronto DJ New Ho Queen headlined the party. Photo by Daniel Centeno.

Last year, Reel Asian had an in-person screening for its opening night with Martin Edralin's Islands, a film about a Filipino man named Joshua, who copes with his shyness and yearns for a partner as his parents age. 

This year’s opening night gala includes the screening of Riceboy Sleeps, a Korean-Canadian film about a single mother who is raising her young son in Canada with hopes of providing a better life for him than the one she left in South Korea. 

Riceboy Sleeps is directed by Anthony Shim and debuted at the 2022 International Film Festival. 

In-person screenings will be at the festival’s usual locations, including the TIFF Bell LightBox and the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema. 

More details to come. 

Listen to CJRU's coverage of the Reel Asian International Film Festival's 2022 launch:

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