These are twenty short films you shouldn’t miss at the San Diego Asian Film Festivals which will take place from November 2 – 11, 2023 in San Diego, USA.

A Roadside Banquet by Peiqi Peng – USA | 2023 – 16 minutes
At her baby brother’s first birthday, Mai slowly turns into a feather duster. A tender contemplation of metaphoric and literal objectification, and the things that are overlooked and undervalued by family. (SDAFF 2023)

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All Tomorrow’s Parties by Zhang Dalei – China | 2023 – 24 minutes
In this subdued ode to spectacle with gentle one-takes, a woman sells tickets to a movie for factory workers and their families.

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Anu by Pulkit Arora – New Zealand, India | 2023 – 13 minutes
Anu is newly quarantined in New Zealand, and must get creative with what she has on hand to prepare her husband’s journey after death.

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Azheh by Hadi Rezayati Charan – Iran | 2022 – 15 minutes
A young boy tries to honor Azheh’s wish to be buried in her birth town, except the borders keep changing. An open-ended story about shifting histories and the afterlives of displacement.

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Bold Eagle by Whammy Alcazaren – Philippines, Singapore | 2022 – 16 minutes
In this part gay-porn-psychedelic and part despairing-under-capitalism short, a sex worker searches for happiness through masturbation, cat emojis, and talking anuses.

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Carrion by Yvonne Zhang – USA | 2022 – 21 minutes
While living with her mother running a hotel, the living and the dead, the tiny and the cosmic, intersect vividly under a child’s unwavering gaze.

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Chomp it! by Mark Chua, Lam Li Shuen – Singapore | 2023 – 12 minutes
It’s a cute boy summer: poolside yearning, synchronized crocodile transformations, and an existential crisis between respectability and surrendering to desire!

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Closing Dynasty by Lloyd Lee Choi – USA | 2023 – 17 minutes
With gentrification claiming her neighborhood, Queenie roams the highs and lows of New York City, hustling to protect all she’s ever known.

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First Chair by Ethan Montgomery, Luke Montgomery – USA | 2023 – 13 minutes
With a new student’s arrival, artistry and musicianship compete as a high school clarinetist strives to maintain her position as first chair.

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Hito by Stephen Lopez – Philippines | 2023 – 22 minutes
Young Jani befriends a radioactive talking catfish named Kiefer. Together they set out to strike a blow against the cruel dystopian forces around them in this vaporwave psychedelic adventure.

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For more information, please visit: https://sdaff.org/2023/