The juggernauts of the fall festival season — Venice, TIFF, NYFF — cast a long shadow, which means that smaller autumn festivals too often get overlooked. As an outlet that celebrates the festival experience, InRO is especially conscientious of putting respect on these less-celebrated festivals’ names, and one of our favorite programming slates can annually be found at the San Diego Asian Film Festival. The curatorial work is reliably impressive, plucking underseen gems from relative obscurity and platforming them for keen audiences. This year’s edition, which kicked off yesterday and runs until November 6, keeps that tradition alive, and the festival’s homepage boldly asserts its diversity and mission: “130+ films, 30+ languages, 20+ countries, 4 venues, 1 festival.” We’ve been lucky enough to already write about nearly 20 of the films from this year’s slate, including works by such celebrated directors as Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Zhang Yimou, Hong Sang-soo, and Ryusuke Hamaguchi, as well as a number of smaller titles that shine. But don’t just take our word for it — head on over to SDAFF’s home base, check out there extensive slate, and support one of the fall’s best fests.
Credit: SDAFF
by InRO Staff• Featured• Festival Coverage• Film
