Reel Asian 2026: Our Top 10 Picks for This Year’s Fest

The 30th anniversary festival runs from November 11-21 in person with events across downtown Toronto and online across Canada November 16-29.

A still from *10s Across the Borders*. (Photo via Reel Asian).

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival is back!

This year, Canada’s biggest pan-Asian festival celebrates its 30th anniversary from November 11-21 in-person with events across downtown Toronto and online across Canada from November 16-29. The lineup this year includes 16 features, 43 shorts and a keynote from Reel Asian’s 2026 Fire Horse Award winner, Ana Serrano.

Below, 10 films we’re looking forward to watching at the 2026 Reel Asian Film Festival.

Ba’s Book (directed by Ashley Duong) — Opening Night Presentation

A still from *Ba’s Book*, directed by Ashley Duong. (Photo via Reel Asian).

For years, Montreal-based filmmaker Ashley Duong asked her father how he escaped Vietnam, lived through the revolution in Iran and eventually ended up in Canada. While she initially got very little back from her dad, he eventually surprised her with an entire memoir of his experiences, forming the book Dear Da Lê.

Her documentary, Ba’s Book, takes that manuscript back to Vietnam, where Duong, her father and their relatives re-enact scenes from it, revealing past joys and scars.

Ba’s Book will be screened on Wednesday, November 11, 7:30pm at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, followed by a Q&A with Duong and the opening night gala reception at the CBC Atrium at 9:30pm. Duong returns for an artist talk on Thursday, November 12 at 2pm at the Commons Lobby, 401 Richmond Street West.

10s Across the Borders (directed by Sze-Wei Chan)

Ballroom culture was born out of New York’s Black and Latino trans and queer communities in the 1970s and has since grown internationally, becoming a safe place for chosen family and self-expression. Sze-Wei Chan’s documentary follows the scene as it takes hold in Southeast Asia through three members of legendary houses: Xyza Pinklady Mizrahi in the Philippines, Aurora Sun Labeija in Thailand and Teddy Neverland Oricci in Malaysia.

Part documentary, part dance film, 10s Across the Borders looks at what it costs to build a community in places where transphobia and homophobia are routine and at how a scene that started elsewhere gets carried forward without losing track of where it came from.

10s Across the Borders will make its Toronto premiere on Friday, November 13, 8:15pm at TIFF Lightbox Cinema 3.

Sunburn (directed by Serville Poblete) – centrepiece gala presentation

A still from *Sunburn*. (Photo via Reel Asian).

It’s the hottest day of the year in St. James Town, the power is out and best friends Vince and Shay drift around the neighbourhood looking for shade. Everyone else is outside, too: family, friends, crushes. Canadian director Serville Poblete builds the film from small encounters over a single day and the conversations that seem like nothing gradually show how much each kid is worried about what comes after a summer like this one.

Sunburn is a portrait of a neighbourhood that rarely shows up on screen, made by someone who knows it intimately.

Sunburn will be screened on Sunday, November 15, 7pm at TIFF Lightbox Cinema 2, with a Q&A with Serville Poblete following the screening. The centrepiece gala reception will take place at the Centre for Social Innovation Spadina at 9:30pm. Sunburn will also be available to stream across Canada from November 19 to 29.

No Good Men (directed by Shahrbanoo Sadat)

A still from *No Good Men*. (Photo via Reel Asian).

Naru is the only camerawoman at Kabul’s state television network. She is separated from an unfaithful, abusive husband and cannot file for divorce without risking custody of her young son. Her conclusion is that there are no good men left. In the days before the Taliban retake the city in August 2021, she is moved onto the news desk and paired with Qodrat, a married reporter whose plain decency makes that conclusion harder to hold. Directed by and starring Shahrbanoo Sadat as Naru, No Good Men is the third film in a planned five-part series drawn from actor Anwar Hashimi’s unpublished autobiography and Sadat’s own life, following Wolf and Sheep and The Orphanage, both of which screen in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes.

No Good Men will be screened on Saturday, November 14, 8:45pm at TIFF Lightbox Cinema 3.

The Bryce Lee Story (directed by Arnold Lim)

A still from *The Bryce Lee Story*. (Photo via Reel Asian).

In the 1990s, 13-year-old Bryce and his younger sister Mei are sent from Hong Kong to Vancouver Island to live with their uncle and work in their Chinese restaurant. They pass the time making home movies on a camcorder their father sent along. Bryce wants friends and, ideally, popularity, and he finds a shortcut: he tells his classmates he has a personal connection to Bruce Lee. The kung-fu movie he starts making on the back of that story works, until the lies pile up and his sister and uncle get pushed aside. Directed by Victoria-based filmmaker and former photojournalist Arnold Lim, The Bryce Lee Story is a coming-of-age film about wanting to belong and what it costs when the version of yourself you sell isn’t true.

The Bryce Lee Story will make its Toronto premiere on Saturday, November 14, 6pm at TIFF Lightbox Cinema 3.

The Banquet (directed by Gloria Ui Young Kim)

A still from *The Banquet*. (Photo via Reel Asian).

Sunny Park, a single mother and ad executive, finds out her partner, who is also her boss, is cheating on her, so she decides to leave both him and her job. Immediately, her hyper-critical mother challenges Sunny to cook for the family’s upcoming Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) celebration — and the family restaurant. But with a chef next door starting to show interest and her boss/ex wanting her back, Sunny is soon faced with two impossible choices: a life of stability or one with new challenges.

The Banquet is Gloria Ui Young Kim’s second feature and is a romcom built on culturally specific Korean Canadian family dynamics, starring Vicki Kim in her first lead role and Park Hye-jin (Squid Game) as her mother.

The Banquet will make its Toronto premiere on Friday, November1 3, 5:15pm at TIFF Lightbox Cinema 3. The screening has gone rush, so a limited number of tickets will be released 15 minutes before showtime.

Strawberry Fields (directed by Rea Tajiri) — Anniversary Screening

A still from *Strawberry Fields*. (Photo via Reel Asian).

It’s the 1970s in Chicago and Irene wants out. Her sister just died, her parents won’t talk about the family’s past and she is in the mood to burn everything down. She leaves for San Francisco with her naive boyfriend, Luke, and along the way meets Aura and Mark, two Japanese American activists with more radical politics than hers. The trip turns into an attempt to dig up the family secrets her parents having kept, including what happened to them during the war.

Directed by Rea Tajiri and co-written by Toronto author Kerri Sakamoto, Strawberry Fields mixes narrative drama with archival images to look at what the Sansei generation inherited and wasn’t told. It had its Canadian premiere at the first-ever Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival in 1997 and returns 30 years later for the anniversary.

Strawberry Fields will be screened on Tuesday, November 17, 7:30pm at Innis Town Hall. It was also be available to stream across Canada from November 16 to 29.

Strong Son (directed by Ian Bawa)

A still from Strong Son. (Photo via Reel Asian).

Harvinder “Harvey” Singh is a former bodybuilder who now looks after his aging father in Winnipeg. Early on, his father tells him he needs to work on his legs, which Harvey interprets as advice on becoming a strong man. And while Harvey is, indeed, physically strong, mentally, he struggles with anxiety and insecurity, which worsens as he takes on the role of caretaker.

This film by Winnipeg filmmaker Ian Bawa explores masculinity, identity and Sikh family dynamics and is a beautiful story of father and son learning that strength can also mean vulnerability and letting others in.

Strong Son will be screened on Saturday, November 14 at 3:30pm at TIFF Lightbox Cinema 3.

Egg Yolk Custard Bun (directed by Soya Wu) — Shorts Presentation

A still from Egg Yolk Custard Bun. (Photo via Reel Asian).

At a dimsum table, three friends turn a meal into something closer to foreplay, pushing the game further with each dish until an interruption raises a pointed question about who gets to claim pleasure in public.

This Cantonese-language short is directed by Soya Wu, an artist and sex educator raised in Canton and now based on Coast Salish territory.

Egg Yolk Custard Bun will be screened as part of the Alphabet Soup shorts programme on Friday, November 13, 6pm at TIFF Lightbox Cinema 4. The programme will also be available to stream across Canada from November 16 to 29.

The Children Trap (directed by Yasmin Lau) — Shorts Presentation

A still from *The Children Trap*. (Photo via Reel Asian).

This short film by Chinese Canadian filmmaker Yasmin Lau depicts the realities of many Asian households: fights in the evening and a quiet reset and normalcy the next morning. Two young sisters decide the only way to fix their family is for their parents to divorce and quietly plot a plan to make it happen.

The Children Trap will be screened as part of Unsung Voices 15 (Reel Asian’s free summer filmmaking programme for emerging artists) on Sunday, November 15, 15pm at TIFF Lightbox Cinema 2. The programme will also be available to stream across Canada from November 16 to 29.

The 2026 Reel Asian Film Festival takes place from November 11th to 21st, 2026. You can purchase tickets here. RepresentASIAN Project is a proud media sponsor of the festival.