Asian American film festival season kicks off in L.A. and S.F.

There is a growing audience for the works shown at Asian American film festivals.

The 2026 Asian American film festival season is officially hitting its stride, and if you haven’t heard the buzz surrounding The A List, you’re clearly not checking your feed. 

Asian American film festivals are not just about seeing movies; they are vital lifelines for a community still fighting to be seen, heard, and understood on its own terms. While Hollywood occasionally pats itself on the back for a single "breakthrough" hit, these festivals have been doing the heavy lifting for decades, proving that our stories are not a monolith or a trend.

As VC Film Fest (the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival) and San Francisco’s CAAMFest kick off the festivities, the community is showing up in force to celebrate stories that refuse to stay on the sidelines.

The opening night feature at CAAMfest in San Francisco will be The A List: 15 Stories from Asian and Pacific Diasporas, the HBO Original documentary everyone is talking about. Directed by Eugene Yi, it’s a high-wattage deep dive into the lives of icons who paved the way.

Among the heavyweights featured are: Sandra Oh (Korean Canadian), Kumail Nanjiani (Pakistani American), Tammy Duckworth (Thai American) and trailblazer Connie Chung (Chinese American).

It’s more than a highlight reel; it’s a raw, intimate look at the struggle for visibility and the weight of being "the first." The documentary serves as a definitive roadmap of the AAPI experience in media, bridging the gap between industry legends and the next generation.

Asian Americans who have become role models including, from left:  Kumail Nanjani,
Tammy Duckworth and Sandra Oh,  are interviewed in The A List documentary.

The "Big Two" are setting the tone for the year with a slate that spans the entire diaspora.

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (VC Film Fest)

Celebrating its 42nd year, this is one of the most significant festivals for AANHPI storytellers. eneral ticketing goes on sale April 6 at 12 PM PST at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival site. Opening night features Lucky Lu directed by Lloyd Lee Choi. Here are some of the featured films:

• The Furious (Chinese/Indonesian): A high-octane special presentation starring Miao Xie and Joe Taslim. It’s a masterclass in martial arts choreography.
• Honeyjoon (Kurdish American): A touching mother-daughter dramedy from Lilian T. Mehrel that explores grief and heritage with a light, humorous touch.
• Before the Moon Falls (Cambodian American): A spotlight documentary by Kimberlee Bassford that captures the delicate balance of cultural preservation.

CAAMFest (San Francisco)

The nation's leading showcase for Asian American film, music, and food. Opening Night: The A-List: 15 Stories from Asian and Pacific Diasporas followed by a gala at the Asian Art Museum. Here are sme key films in the festival:

• Forge (Chinese/Singaporean American): This buzzy centerpiece by Jing Ai Ng follows siblings in Miami running a high-stakes art forgery ring. It’s slick, stylish, and deeply human.
• Traces of Home (Palestinian/Egyptian American): Serving as the Closing Night film, Colette Ghunim takes viewers on a visceral journey to find her parents' ancestral homes.
• Mabuhay (Filipino American): A narrative feature that dives deep into the specific rhythms and challenges of the Pinoy experience in the States.
• Jersey Boy (Indian American): A narrative selection making waves for its sharp writing and relatable exploration of second-generation identity.

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Cross-over hits

• Diamond Diplomacy (Japanese/American): Screening across the circuit, Yuriko Gamo Romer explores the shared history of baseball, from the professional leagues to the fields behind barbed wire in incarceration camps.
• Y Vân: The Lost Sounds of Saigon (Vietnamese American): Closing out the SDAFF Spring Showcase, this doc profiles a legendary rock 'n roll figure, reclaiming a piece of musical history often lost to war.
  

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Besides the Big Two, Asian American film festivals will be held in other cities this Spring and Summer.

• Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) – 'Ōpio Fest: April 17–19. This spring weekend in Honolulu at the Consolidated Theatres Kahala focuses on the "Future of Film," spotlighting student creatives (K-12) alongside family-friendly premieres. 

• Seattle Asian American Film Festival (SAAFF): May 29–31. A vital hub for the Pacific Northwest, SAAFF continues to amplify North American Asian and Pacific Islander voices. 

• San Diego Asian Film Festival (SDAFF): April 24-26. This is one of the largest media arts events in North America dedicated to Asian American cinema. A "mini-festival" highlighting over a dozen independent films. Opening Night: The Road to Sydney, a documentary about Filipino master dance choreographer Sydney Loyola.

• Austin Asian American Film Festival (AAAFF): June 24–28. Held at the AFS Cinema, this festival is a key platform for Asian and Asian American cinema in the heart of Texas.

A scene from 'Republic of Pipolipinas, 'a mockumentary, from the Philippines that is making
its North American premiere this year at the San Diego festival.

Fall Highlights

A second flurry of film festivals takes place in the fall.

• 49th Asian American International Film Festival (July 30 – August 9) Known as "The First Home to Asian American Cinema," this is the longest-running Asian American festival in the US. Organized by Asian CineVision, it is held in venues throughout New York City. The program is still being finalized.

• Hawaii International Film Festival (Main Fall Festival): October 15–25, 2026. The 46th annual flagship event will span the islands, continuing its mission to bridge the East and West through adventurous storytelling.
  
  
• Silicon Valley Asian Pacific Film Festival: October 23–25, 2026. Based in Sunnyvale, California, this festival highlights the intersection of tech, culture, and cinema in the valley.

• San Diego Asian Film Festival (SDAFF): Typically held in November. This is one of the largest media arts events in North America dedicated to Asian American cinema.

View from the edge

The film festivals give filmmakers a chance to show their talent. Before they did Hollywood directors, Ang Lee, Mira Nair, Wayne Wang and Justin Lin were showing their wares in film festivals often telling stories and documenting history unseen and unknown by mainstream audiences.

For too long, the industry has viewed Asian American stories through a narrow lens—Asian Americans are often relegated to sidekicks, martial artists, computer nerds or the perpetual foreigner. Film festivals like AAIFF or CAAMFest flip that script. They provide a sanctuary for "niche" stories that the big studios are too afraid to touch. Here, we see the full spectrum of our lives: the messy, the experimental, the queer, and the mundane. It’s where a documentary about a local Chinatown grocery store is treated with the same reverence as a high-octane thriller.

As we look toward the 2026 festival season, the stakes feel higher than ever with the rise of anti-immigrant rhetoric, threats to birthright citizenship and history being rewritten erasing. We don't just watch these films; we witness our own survival.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge.