AAIFF47 will be a hybrid festival from August 1- 11, 2024, with a mixture of VOD and select in-person screenings in NYC. We are aiming to have the virtual portion available to as much of the world as possible. Geoblocking on request.

This year, the Asian American International Screenplay Reading Competition winner will be presented separately from the main festival dates. The live reading will be in the spring of 2024.

Please read the below rules & terms carefully, and if there are any remaining questions or concerns, feel free to email submissions@asiancinevision.org. We will be in-touch by the notification deadline, so please do not contact us before then about selection status.

*****For financial assistance requests, please see our website https://www.aaiff.org/submissions. *****

ABOUT AAIFF
The Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) is proudly known as "The First Home to Asian American Cinema." Organized by Asian CineVision, it's the first and longest-running festival dedicated to showcasing the moving image work by media artists of Asian descent for and about the Asian diaspora experience. The Festival takes place in New York City, the second-largest Asian American market in the U.S. Every year, AAIFF attracts audiences from all five boroughs of New York City, the tri-state region, and around the world.

Asian CineVision (ACV) is a media arts nonprofit devoted to the development, exhibition, promotion, and preservation of Asian and Asian American experiences through storytelling. Our mission is to nurture and grow the community of makers and lovers of Asian and Asian American independent film, television, and digital.

Films submitted and screened at the festival are eligible to participate in our National Tour program, bringing Asian diaspora stories to broader audiences across North America through a rental service for cultural and educational institutions.

Jury Presented Awards may include:

• EMERGING DIRECTOR IN NARRATIVE FEATURE - Directors screening their first or second narrative feature film projects are eligible for this award
• EMERGING DIRECTOR IN DOCUMENTARY FEATURE - Directors screening their first or second narrative documentary film projects are eligible for this award
• EXCELLENCE IN NARRATIVE SHORT FILMMAKING
• EXCELLENCE IN DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILMMAKING
• ONE TO WATCH YOUTH FILMMAKER - Projects submitted by filmmakers under the age of 21 are eligible for this award.
• ASIAN AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL SCREENPLAY COMPETITION (AAISC)
• EXCELLENCE IN MUSIC VIDEOS

Honorable Mentions may include
• EXCELLENCE IN EDITING
• EXCELLENCE IN PRODUCTION DESIGN
• EXCELLENCE IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
• EXCELLENCE IN SCREENWRITING

By Audience Votes:
• AUDIENCE AWARD: NARRATIVE FEATURE
• AUDIENCE AWARD: DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
• AUDIENCE AWARD: NARRATIVE SHORT
• AUDIENCE AWARD: DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Additionally, AAIFF presents THE ASIAN AMERICAN MEDIA AWARD and the ASIAN MEDIA HUMANITARIAN AWARD to those who have contributed significantly to Asian American media. Since its inception in 1987, recipients have included:

Wayne Wang (1987); Loni Dong (1988); Christine Choy (1989), James Yee (1990), Steven Okazaki (1991); Mira Nair (1992), Ang Lee (1993); Joan Chen (1994); Kayo Hatta and Freida Lee Mock (1995), Russell Wong (1996); Jessica Yu and Arthur Dong (1997), Michelle Yeoh (1998); Sammo Hung (1999); Andy Lau (2000); Tamlyn Tomita (2001); Marilou Diaz-Abaya (2002); Jet Li and Maggie Cheung (2005); Janet Yang (2012); Kara Wai (2016); Justin Chon (2017); and Jean Tsien (2022).

ELIGIBILITY
•Submissions must have a date of completion on or after January 1st, 2023 (with the exception of the Works-in-Progress category).
•NYC Premieres are prioritized.
•Completed submissions that have at least one person of Asian descent in a key creative role e.g. Director, Writer, Producer, DP, etc.
•Completed submissions that represent the Asian diaspora experience.

***People of Asian descent includes but is not limited to people from and are descended from areas now known as Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia, China, Russia, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Micronesia, and the Pacific Islands.***

SUBTITLES
•All primarily non-English language films must include English subtitles.
•English language films with subtitles for accessibility are strongly encouraged.

NOTIFICATION
All applicants will be notified by email or FilmFreeway. Please do not contact us before the notification deadline about selection status.

You must contact us immediately if you want to withdraw your work from our consideration.

TERMS & CONDITIONS
AAIFF is hereby granted the right to utilize an excerpt from any film submitted and accepted for exhibition at the Festival for promotional purposes.

The individual or corporation submitting the film hereby warrants that it is authorized to commit the film for screening (online or in-person), and understands and accepts these requirements and regulations.

The undersigned shall indemnify and hold harmless AAIFF from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, and expenses (including but not limited to attorney's fees, and costs of the court) which may be incurred by reason of any claim involving copyright, trademark, credits, publicity, screening, and loss of or damage to the screening videos entered.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Pretty Magic Flying Koi

    We love AAIFF! The organization and communication of this festival was amazing. I bumped into some of my favorite filmmakers who also flew from LA and made new friends who had some quality films. Can't forgot to mention that the food and sponsors were so fun! So happy AAIFF included our Sci-Fi film "Autopilot" in their programming. Definitely worth a trip out to the big city and hope to return next year!

    November 2023
  • A. L. Lee

    The organizers were so helpful and the films were really great!

    October 2023
  • Jon Truei

    AAIFF does an incredible job of making their festival feel, like a citywide event, not just a string of individual film screenings.

    Really, they should change their name to Asian American International FUN Festival (but who knows if they'll take me up on that recommendation).

    For a festival with such a specific focus, they program so many great and surprising movies of different kinds, many that I might never have caught IRL elsewhere.

    It was a delight to be a part of this. Would do it again 100%

    August 2023
  • Great Festival, pretty aligned with what I wanted through and through for an experience!

    August 2023
  • Thank you for being the world premier for our film, SHE MARCHES IN CHINATOWN! ❤️ I enjoyed watching some great films in this years program as well.

    August 2023