New Directors New Films Festival – Asian Presence 2023

By Asian Film Festival on June 14, 2023 • ( Leave a comment )

We present the Asian films that will be screened at the New Directors New Films Festival which will take place from June 19 – 26, 2023 in Espinho, Portugal.

Note: The list may include movie made by filmmakers with Asian ancestry.

– Feature Films –

**Past Lives** by Celine Song – USA, Korea | 2023 – 106 minutes

Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life, in this heartrending modern romance. Celine Song’s debut feature was one of the year’s biggest success’ at Sundance and Berlin FF. (NDNFF 2023)

Trailer:

– Short Films –

**Epicenter** by Hee-yoon Hahm – Korea | 2022 – 11 minutes*

Bukhansan Mountain grows in an earthquake in a normal daily life. Little by little, as fine cracks appear on the wall that divided the world of fantasy and reality, someone begins to notice the existence of an invisible world. (NDNFF 2023)

Trailer:

**Imagine The Fire** by Zachary Yap – Singapore | 2023 – 9 minutes*

Along the coast at night, a birthday surprise awaits. Caught in between parallels, order and chaos, something ignites. (NDNFF 2023)

**Smoke Gets in Your Eyes** by Alvin Lee – Singapore | 2022 – 19 minutes*

A funeral director finds himself helpless when the wrong body has been sent for cremation. When there seems to be no other way out, he devises a plan for a sham funeral with the deceased’s three estranged children. One of the most pleasant surprises at this year’s Busan Film Festival was “Smoke gets in your eyes.” The film is one of several entries this year from Singapore, a country whose filmmaking scene is growing significantly in the last few years. (NDNFF 2023)

Trailer:

**Swallow Flying to the South** by Mochi Lin – Canada | 2022 – 18 minutes*

Spring 1976, 5-year-old Swallow is abandoned at a public boarding preschool in central Beijing. When the persimmons are ripe, Swallow masters how to cry, but doesn’t forget how to fly. (NDNFF 2023)

Trailer:

**Will You Look At Me** by Shuli Huang – China | 2022 – 20 minutes*

As a young Chinese filmmaker returns to his hometown in search for himself, a long due conversation with his mother dives the two of them into a quest for acceptance and love. (NDNFF 2023)

Trailer: