Held in Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg, the FascinAsian Film Festival celebrates Asian filmmakers, stories and perspectives in film and media during Asian Heritage Month, with a prairie regional focus.

The festival exists to build community, foster creativity, and highlight Asian-Canadian filmmakers and their stories; providing the general public the opportunity to be engaged, entertained, and enlightened by the films' unique perspectives and creativity.

All films made by Pan-Asian filmmakers will be considered, with preference given to those filmmakers from Canada, the US, and other diasporic communities around the world.

*Submissions are considered for all city's festivals (Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg), however may not be selected for all. Each festival has the autonomy of selecting which films best suit their programming.

**Submissions are accepted for short films only. FascinAsian selects feature films through distributors or other curatorial means. If you have a feature film you wish to submit for consideration, please email programming@fascinasian.ca

***WAIVER CODES POLICY: FascinAsian Film Festival is committed to keeping submission fees low and affordable. That being said, we will NOT be offering waiver codes going forward, as the submission fee is already lower than the average, and for the sake of fairness to all filmmakers, and respect for our programming committee's time. Each submission is viewed and considered based on the merits of the film.

****FascinAsian Film Festival pays $100.00 CDN per short film/per screening. If your film is selected to screen at all three festivals, you will receive a $300 screening fee. On top of this, you will receive speaking fees for attending in-person or virtual Q&A sessions.

Festival Dates TBA.

Awards & Prizes

Awards will be presented for:

- Best Short Film - Juried Award
- Best Short Film - Audience Choice
- Emerging Filmmaker Award
- Building Bridges Award (for film that best embodies cultural understanding and furthers anti-racism)
- Best Performance Award

More Awards To Be Announced!

Rules & Terms

Eligibility to submit to this film festival:

- We are currently accepting short films in all genres.
- Film or video created must have at least one member of the creative team (director, writer, producer, cinematographer) or one of the lead actors/subjects (if documentary) self-identify as being of Asian heritage.
- The film should align with with the mission statement of the film festival. https://fascinasian.ca/about
- Films must have been completed within the past two years.
- All non-English language films must have English subtitles (hard coded or SRT file).

20 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Michael Angelo Pogoy

    I really love this film festival. They are really great in communication given the fact that they have three film festival locations. I love their advocacies and events. I really wished I a capable to attend their event face-to-face, regardless of that, I still think that this is a great celebration of Asian Culture through film and beyond.

    May 2026
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  • Hannah Yang

    Great festival with caring organizers, great food, and thoughtful Q&As! The blocks were curated with beautiful films. Screening our film, 'Red Light Rebel' to an Asian audience was so meaningful. Can't wait to come again!

    May 2026
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  • Amir Zargara

    Thanks for having us :)

    May 2026
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  • Sherry Li

    Really want to provide a huge, huge, huge thank you to the FascinAsian Film Festival team. My short "Yellow Fever" screened in Calgary, and I loved the Calgary team! They were extremely communicative, friendly, and welcoming. The festival itself was well organized and provided a lot of opportunities for networking and socializing, and I thought I got so much out of just being there with the team as well as the numerous other filmmakers who made it in person. It was my first time in Alberta and they really showed me how amazing Calgary is as a city, and I appreciated that as part of their opening ceremony, they included traditional Indigenous dancers and talked about the history of not just the Indigenous people but also with Chinese Canadians/Asian Canadians, and tied it with the present. They also allowed me to be a delegate at EXNW, which even further helped me in my film journey! As someone who is quite early in their career, I really feel like FasinAsian helped propel me forward this year and help bring momentum to the things I'm working on. Not to mention, since FascinAsian is in 3 different cities, even though my film screened in Calgary, I got to connect with the FascinAsian team in Winnipeg and Edmonton too. I feel like I've made great friends and feel so much more connected to filmmakers all over Canada. I highly recommend everyone apply to FascinAsian!

    October 2025
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  • Anne Mueller

    It was such an honour to have my film, The Artist: A Creative Journey screened at the FascinAsian Film Festival. The entire experience from start to end was inviting, enjoyable and truly memorable. There was a lovely variety of films and thoughtful events planned throughout the run of the festival. Thank you to Alan Wong, and the entire FascinAsian team for providing such a wonderful film festival experience!

    August 2025
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