The 2026 New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) runs July 10th to 26th across five New York venues—Film at Lincoln Center, SVA Theatre, IFC Center, Anthology Film Archives, and the Korean Cultural Center New York—and marks the landmark 25th annual edition of North America’s leading festival of Asian cinema.
Since 2002, NYAFF has grown from a grassroots festival built by passionate fans of Asian cinema into an essential platform for Asian film culture in North America. The festival has introduced audiences to filmmakers who would go on to become some of the industry’s most celebrated voices, while continuing to spotlight new talent and exciting discoveries from across the continent.
Queer stories have always been part of the NYAFF lineup and this year’s Queer Unbound section brings together an eclectic range of films from across Asia and the diaspora. Spanning intimate romances, personal journeys of self-discovery, documentaries, and crime dramas, these films explore love, identity, family, and belonging through a wide range of voices and experiences. Leading the lineup is NYAFF Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Joan Chen, whose remarkable performance in Xiaodan He’s Montréal, My Beautiful is yet another reminder of why she has remained one of cinema’s most magnetic screen presences for more than four decades.
Elsewhere, Philip Yung’s Cyclone follows a trans woman searching for freedom and a chance to reinvent herself in Hong Kong, while Tracy Choi’s Girlfriends offers a deeply personal reflection on love, friendship, and the passage of time. Park Joon-ho’s acclaimed debut 3670 centers on a North Korean defector navigating both the expectations of his community and Seoul’s queer nightlife, while Herman Yau’s We’re Nothing at All finds unexpected heartbreak in a forbidden relationship set against a shocking act of violence. Celebrating the Ballroom pioneers who helped build vibrant queer communities across Southeast Asia and beyond, is Chan Sze-Wei’s documentary 10s Across the Borders.
A special 10th anniversary screening of Andrew Ahn’s remarkable debut feature Spa Night, followed by a Q& moderated by Bowen Yang, will take place at SVA Theater on Saturday, July 25th. There will also be a special 20th anniversary screening of Leste Chen’s Eternal Summer 盛夏光年 starring NYAFF International Star Asia Award recipient Joseph Chang on Wednesday, July 15th at Film at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater.
NYAFF – Queer Unbound feature films:
3670
Park Joon-ho, 2025, South Korea, 124m / Korean with English subtitles | New York Premiere / Monday July 20, 9pm at SVA Theatre
Park Joon-ho’s debut follows a young North Korean defector resettling in Seoul, caught between the fellow defectors who took him in and the pull of the city’s queer nightlife. Kim Hyun-mok won Best Actor at Jeonju.
10s Across The Borders
Chan Sze-Wei, 2025, Philippines/Singapore/Germany, 99m / Filipino, Mandarin, Malay, Thai, Norwegian, and English with English subtitles |New York Premiere / Sunday July 19, 7pm at SVA Theatre / In attendance: Chan Sze-Wei, Phitthaya Phaefuang, Helida Xyza Ragunjan, and Ong Xing Kai / New York-based Ballroom Icons and Legends involved in the film in attendance: Legendary Mother Frida LaBeija, Legendary Mother Gilette Oricci, Icon Father Andre Mizrahi, Icon Snookie West, Icon Tim Lanvin , Icon Father Julian de la Blanca, Icon Mother Jack Gorgeous Gucci
A vibrant, big-hearted documentary following three trailblazers of Southeast Asia’s underground Ballroom scenes, from Manila to Bangkok to New York, where voguing becomes a path to chosen family and fearless self-invention.Chan Sze-Wei’s documentary debut profiles three people who carried voguing and ballroom culture into Southeast Asia, building houses and scenes from Manila to Bangkok. Dance here is a form of chosen family.
Cyclone (超風)
Philip Yung, 2026, Hong Kong, 119m / Cantonese and Mandarin with English subtitles | North American Premiere / Wed Jul 22, 8:30pm at Walter Reade Theater, Film at Lincoln Center / In attendance: Philip Yung and Subi Liang
The 50th Hong Kong Film Festival’s Closing Film: a trans woman leaves mainland China for Hong Kong’s back alleys, falls in love and explores the dangerous freedom to remake herself.
Eternal Summer 盛夏光年 (4K Restoration)
Leste Chen, 2006, Taiwan, 96 / Mandarin with English subtitles / July 15, 6pm at Walter Reade Theater, Film at Lincoln Center
A key work of 2000s Taiwanese queer cinema, Eternal Summer still carries the ache of first love like a bruise that never quite fades. Leste Chen’s 2006 feature gives us a portrait of youth romance as restless and unsayable with a star-making performance from Joseph Chang Hsiao-chuan.
Girlfriends (女孩不平凡)
Tracy Choi, 2025, Macau/Taiwan/Hong Kong/Thailand, 100m / Cantonese and Mandarin with English subtitles | North American Premiere / Thursday Jul 23, 6pm at Walter Reade Theater, Film at Lincoln Center / In attendance: Tracy Choi
A Macau-born filmmaker faces marriage, a stalled career, and the loves that made her who she is in Tracy Choi’s intimate queer drama about growing without letting go.
Montreal, My Beautiful (Montréal, ma belle)
Xiaodan He, 2025, Canada, 117m / French and Mandarin with English subtitles | New York Premiere / Sunday July 12, 3pm at Walter Reade Theater, Film at Lincoln Center / In attendance: Joan Chen
Joan Chen stars as a Chinese immigrant wife and mother in Montreal whose affair with a younger Québécoise woman turns one summer into a secret, sensual awakening.
SPA NIGHT
Andrew Ahn, 2016, USA, 93m / English, Korean, Spanish with English Subtitles / Saturday July 25th, 4pm at SVA Theatre / In attendance: Andrew Ahn. Q&A moderated by Bowen Yang
At a Koreatown spa, a dutiful son slips into a world of desire and shame. Ten years after its Sundance breakthrough, Andrew Ahn’s breakthrough still burns under the steam.
We’re Nothing At All (我們不是什麼)
Herman Yau, 2026, Hong Kong, 128m / Cantonese with English subtitles | North American / Saturday July 18, 8:45pm at Walter Reade Theater, Film at Lincoln Center / In attendance: Herman Yau
A Valentine’s Day bus explosion exposes a forbidden love story in Herman Yau’s furious Hong Kong crime tragedy, where social despair turns violently, devastatingly intimate.
LGBTQ+ Short Films:
Correct Me If I’m Wrong (Shorts Program: Pressure Points)
Si Shui (Still Water) (Shorts Program: Spirited Away)
Devils In The Bush (Shorts Program: Korean Shorts)
For the full 2026 NYAFF lineup and program updates visit nyaff.org.