Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival 2011 Preview

This week the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival hits town and celebrates its 15th anniversary. I've been attending the festival since 2007 (it's year of the pig!) and it's been exciting to see the festival grow each and every year. This year they continue extend their film branches with screenings in Richmond Hill next week (Nov 18-19, 2011) as well as the hometown Toronto edition which runs from November 8-13, 2011.

The festival kicks off tonight with the Opening Night Gala screening of the genre-being Hong Kong film Lover's Discourse at the Isabel Bader Theatre. Note for festival regulars, this year again has the Toronto edition is at several locations including the Bader, NFB, Innis & Royal but all evening/weekend screening are at one location which makes this festival goer happy with not needing to account for any travel time! Especially or the Closing Night Film & Awards Ceremony which is on Sunday at 8pm with the highly acclaimed Buddha Mountain screening at the Royal, and all of Sundays films are at The Royal. I don't think I've even spent the entire day there before - a new experience happens every year!

UI'm looking forward to many of the films in this years line up, and considering one of my not quite a genre, but close enough sub-specialties is bodies in motion (i.e. dance, martial arts & sport) I'm very keen on seeing JUMP ASHIN! which is inspired by a true story of a young man who wants to become a gymnast. I'm also anxiously awaiting seeing performance piece LILY ENG: REAL ASIAN-CANADIAN WOMAN WARRIOR.

The festival also brings us many shorts to enjoy with the Canadian set Seize the Moment, Youth Presentations including Creatures, Crossroads and Resident Aliens plus a look at the stories of the lives of seniors with Trailerblazers. But is features are more your thing the festival has films from all over the world including Tibet, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan as well as USA & Canada.

I hope your curiosity is piqued! You can check out trailers for many of the films in this years line up over at the Real Asian Film Fest YouTube page & see the festival trailer below:



I'll be covering the festival all week here at Movie Moxie so be sure to check back for my daily for reviews. I can't wait for another great year of film at Reel Asian!

For more information, check out the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival: Website, 15th Anniversary, How to Buy Tickets, Buy Tickets, Full Festival Schedule, Industry Series Information and Venue Information and Festival Awards & Jury Information. Also see the Reel Asian Facebook Page and you can follow the festival on Twitter.

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival 2011 runs from November 5 - 13, 2011 in Toronto and November 18-19, 2011 in Richmond Hill in Ontario, Canada