Preview by Brad Balfour
New York Asian Film Festival
July 11 – 27, 2025
Various venues in NYC
Now in its 24th installment, the New York Asian Film Festival brings innovative cinema from Japan, Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and more from throughout Asia. Running July 11th to the 27th, screenings take place at Lincoln Center, LOOK Cinema, and other venues
The theme of this year’s festival being “Cinema as Disruption” spotlighting films that challenge, provoke, and re-imagine cinema through Asian eyes.
The festival opens with the World Premiere of Korean action-comedy Informant, with Director Kim Seok and actor Heo Sung-tae (Squid Game) in attendance. In the Informant a bungling cop and a slick informant have their lives upended by a botched sting operation. Now this chaotic duo must team up to take down a smuggling ring and survive each other.
Tadanobu Asano (Shōgun) will also attend the festival for Ravens, alongside the 4K restoration of horror classic Shutter and Thailand’s Attack 13 with the cast and director present.
The closing night film is the International Premiere of Flower Girl from the Philippines, starring Sue Ramirez. In Flower Girl vapid transphobic celebrity Ena mysteriously wakes up minus her vagina, she must find true love before a magic flower wilts or lose her “Poochy” forever.
The festival has multiple sections each with a different theme, such as Diasporic Discoveries, Horrorscope, Japnorama, Queer Unbound, Korean Horizons, and more.
Since 2002 the NYAFF has brought over bold and exciting films from throughout Asia from the likes of Bong Joon Ho and introduced viewers in the US to vibrant works.
To learn more, go to: https://www.nyaff.org/