CinemAsia Film Festival 2025

CinemAsia Film Festival brings together stories from across Asia and its diaspora to enhance Asian visibility and empowerment in culture and media in the Netherlands. The festival aims to foster an inclusive society by enriching the public discourse on Asian culture through an intersection between Asian cinema, popular media, and community building.

CinemAsia Film Festival returns on March 6-11, 2025 to Amsterdam, at Rialto De Pijp, Rialto VU, Studio/K and Eye Filmmuseum presenting the diversity and depth of Asian cinema. Scroll down to see all films and get tickets.

Fr 7 Mar - Sa 8 Mar

The Architecture of Love - CinemAsia

After her divorce, bestselling author Raia escapes to New York to overcome her writer’s block. There, she meets River, whose presence sparks the inspiration and healing she desperately needs—but he, too, is haunted by a painful past.

Su 9 Mar - Mo 10 Mar

Black Dog - CinemAsia

Released from jail, Lang returns to his hometown in Northwest China. While working for the local dog patrol team to clear the town of stray dogs, he strikes up an unlikely bond with a stray black dog.

Su 9 Mar - Su 9 Mar

Echoes of Her Longing - CinemAsia

Six short films by female, Asian filmmakers with bold, nuanced stories exploring life between two cultures.

Fr 7 Mar - Fr 7 Mar

Viet and Nam - CinemAsia

Two young lovers secretly embrace deep within a coal mine, grappling with imminent separation, and reflect on loss, reconciliation, and enduring love in this allegorical queer love story.

Fr 7 Mar - Fr 7 Mar

A Normal Family - CinemAsia

Two wealthy families are put on opposite ends of the moral spectrum when a shocking secret is revealed, forcing them to make a decision over the course of one dinner that will change their lives forever.

Sa 8 Mar - Sa 8 Mar

Yen and Ai-Lee - CinemAsia

After eight years in prison, Yen returns to her hometown in Kaohsiung to reconcile with her mother. When the mysterious Ai-Lee enters her life, things get complicated.

Su 9 Mar - Su 9 Mar

My First of May - CinemAsia

A squash champion’s family shatters after his newborn daughter is diagnosed with a rare disease. A decade later, a turn of events forces him to face his grief and reconnect with his daughter.

Su 9 Mar - Su 9 Mar

Fly Me to the Moon - CinemAsia

Intimate story, spanning two decades, about a family driven apart by circumstances and about the volatile bond of two sisters and their relationship with their father.

Su 9 Mar - Su 9 Mar

A Traveller's Needs - CinemAsia

A French woman lives in South Korea and teaches French to make ends meet. She spends her days lying on rocks and drinking alcohol. A portrait of everyday life by master filmmaker Hong Sang-soo.

Su 9 Mar - Su 9 Mar

Girls Will Be Girls - CinemAsia

At a boarding school in the Himalayas, Mira falls in love with the new boy in class. However, as she explores romance and desire, her coming of age is interrupted by her mother, who never got to come of age herself.

Mo 10 Mar - Mo 10 Mar

My Girl - CinemAsia

A nostalgic film offering a heartwarming and bittersweet portrait of childhood friendship between a boy and a girl as they navigate friendship, pain, and personal growth in a small Thai town in the 1980s.

Tu 11 Mar - Tu 11 Mar

Tale of the Land - CinemAsia

After losing her parents and their land, May lives with her grandfather in a house floating on water. As soon as she enters solid ground, she faints, leading the villagers to believe she is cursed.

Mo 10 Mar - Mo 10 Mar

Single8 - CinemAsia

Semi-autobiographical ode to the old days of analogue filmmaking. A high school student makes a science fiction masterpiece for his school project with his classmates... on no budget.

Mo 10 Mar - Mo 10 Mar

The Paradise of Thorns - CinemAsia

Set in northern Thailand, Thongkam and Sek build their paradise within a durian orchard. When a tragedy takes Sek away from Thongkam, he has no option but to fight for the fruits of his labour and love.

Mo 10 Mar - Mo 10 Mar

Happyend - CinemAsia

In a future Tokyo plagued by earthquake fears and political unrest, two school friends are forced to take divergent paths after a prank leads to strict surveillance. They must make choices.

Sa 8 Mar - Sa 8 Mar

Bona - CinemAsia

Filipino film classic about young Bona and her obsessive worship of the relatively unknown actor Gardo. He sees her only as a maid.

Su 9 Mar - Tu 11 Mar

In the Nguyen Kitchen - CinemAsia

An aspiring French-Vietnamese actress, dreaming of a career in musical theatre, starts working with her mother in their family restaurant, where tensions boil and resolve in this heartwarming diasporic family musical.

Fr 7 Mar - Fr 7 Mar

Spirit World - CinemAsia

Legendary singer Claire flies to Japan for a final sold-out concert before her retirement. When the show ends, so does Claire’s life on Earth. But an unexpected new life in the spirit world—where she is guided by Yuzo, one of her biggest fans—awaits.

Sa 8 Mar - Sa 8 Mar

Don't Cry Butterfly - CinemAsia

When Tam discovers that her husband has been having an affair and that it has been captured on live television, she turns to mystical means to win her husband back.

Sa 8 Mar - Sa 8 Mar

Pierce - CinemAsia

When his older brother Zihan is released from prison, high school fencer Zijie believes in Zihan’s innocence and secretly helps him, only to question if his idealised image of his brother is just a fantasy.

Sa 8 Mar - Sa 8 Mar

In the wake of his wife’s passing, a widowed Korean father moves to rural Canada with his teenage son and young daughter in search of a new start to their lives.

Su 9 Mar - Su 9 Mar

The Glassworker - CinemAsia

A gifted young man, who runs a glass workshop with his father, finds his life upended by war and a budding romance with an army colonel’s daughter, a story told in exquisite detail in Pakistan’s first hand-drawn animated film.

Fr 7 Mar - Sa 8 Mar

This City Is a Battlefield - CinemAsia

Jakarta, 1946: teacher Isa, a powerless war hero, joins the resistance against Dutch colonial rule. The arrows are aimed at a cinema.

Sa 8 Mar - Sa 8 Mar

Girls' School - CinemAsia

Chih-ting and Chia-lin are inseparable best friends at an all-girls high school, but when a rumour that they are a couple begins to spread, their relationship comes under scrutiny and starts to falter.