Hi! Here's a list of some Asian-Led/Starring or Asian Story Short Films and Movies that you should add to your watchlist for AANHPI heritage month. ✽
(NOTE: Please recommended additions, especially for PI and NH films. There are a couple of queer short films here. To all the queer Asians out there still seeking fellowship: you'll find it.)
OMAKASE (2024), dir. Tristan Au
Starring: Mika J. Nakano, William Poole, Emily Fan and Tomoko Takahasi-Lin.
Media: Short Film.
Duration: 26:25.
Topics/genres: Culture and societal pressure, aging and feeling like life is fleeting, and queer identity.
Language(s): English, Japanese.
Location: YouTube.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Japanese.
Halmeoni | 할머니 (2023), dir. Kevin Jin Kwan Kim
Starring: Cici Ting, Haze Ham, Hazel Kim, Maki Yi.
Media: Short film.
Duration: 1:56.
Topics/genres: Forgetting your mother tongue/ethnic language, death and grief, familial love and strength.
Language(s): Korean.
Location: YouTube.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Korean.
Lucky Fish (2023), dir. Emily May Jampel
Starring: Lukita Maxwell and Anna Mikami.
Media: Short film.
Duration: 8:24.
Topics/genres: Culture and family, growing up and finding your path on your way to college, and queer identity.
Language(s): English.
Location: YouTube.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Chinese, Japanese.
Hold Your Back (2026), dir. Zack Fonzovs
Starring: Hudson Williams and Zack Fonzovs.
Media: Short film.
Duration: 5:00.
Topics/genres: (TW) Domestic violence, queer love and building a family in an echochamber of toxicity.
Language(s): English.
Location: YouTube.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Asian-starring, not an Asian story (irrelevant to the plot).
Maneki (2023), dir. Brandon Okumura
Starring: Iris Liu, Elsie Wang, Garth Sodetani and Cory Wong.
Media: Short film.
Duration: 12:53.
Topics/genres: Sapphic 'meet-cute', hopeless romantic with a crush on a straight girl, rejection with a light-hearted ending.
Language(s): English.
Location: YouTube.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Japanese.
How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies (2024), dir. Pat Boonnitipat
Starring: Billikin/Puttipong Assaratanakul, Usa Semkhun and Tontawan Tantivejakul/Tu.
Media: Movie.
Duration: 2:06:37.
Topics/genres: Grief of a terminally ill grandparent, familial love, aging and family, wanting better for yourself and motivation, the dramedy that is life.
Language(s): Thai.
Location: Netflix, Prime Video.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Thai.
PERSUASION (2018), dir. Alex Lukas
Starring: Christina Hsu, Connor Storrie, Jarrol Taylor Jr. and Tanya Raisa.
Media: Short film.
Duration: 5:02.
Topics/genres: Fetishisation in the work place, type casting and stereotyping, frustration of an Asian actress trying to be taken seriously in between takes.
Language(s): English.
Location: YouTube.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Chinese.
SHAPELESS | 形のない (2026), dir. Ameya
Starring: Ameya, Aoi, Sagar Daryani, Ananya Donapati, Chai Menghwani and Wataru Narita.
Media: Short film.
Duration: 21:18
Topics/genres: Growing up in Japan being a South Asian woman, queer love and yearning, navigating family ties and existing.
Language(s): English, Japanese, Telugu, Tamil, ASL, JSL.
Location: Currently a private limited run on Gumroad for $7+ USD, the money goes to fundraising to have it featured (linked here and in the title).
Centered cultures/ethnicities: (Unspecified) South Asian, Japanese.
More Dead Than Living (2026), dir. JT Doran
Starring: Joe Chan, Emily Fan, Dominic Wong, Xiao Ping Wang, Mia Yu.
Media: Short film.
Duration: 17:36.
Topics/genres: Death and grief, existentialism and nihilism, reconnection with your estranged family, seeing the world in a different light.
Language: English.
Location: YouTube.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Chinese.
RANG DE (2026), dir. Tillottam
Starring: Harshita Shekhar Gaur, Ankita Dipti and Aniket Kadam.
Media: Short film.
Duration: 2:43.
Topics/genres: Holi, queer love in a festive season, the colours of love and how it stands out in a crowd.
Language: No speaking.
Location: Instagram.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Unspecified.
The Walls (2022), dir. Jack Bradley
Starring: Hudson Williams, Jeff Mohs and Veronica Nesbitt.
Media: Short film.
Duration: 6:49.
Topics/genres: Absurd comedy, workplace shenanigans (?).
Language(s): English.
Location: YouTube.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Asian-starring, not an Asian story (irrelevant to the plot).
HER CURSE (2025), dir. Corey Totten
Starring: Emily Fan and Sara Gutierrez.
Media: Short film.
Duration: 12:14.
Topics/genres: Comedy through "witchcraft," queer heartbreak and chaos, getting over your ex.
Language(s): English.
Location: YouTube.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Asian-starring, not an Asian story (irrelevant to the plot).
THIS OLD DOG (2020), dir. Christina Xing
Starring: Alan Chikin Chow, James Tang, Anthony A. Kung.
Media: Short film.
Duration: 15:03.
Topics/genres: Absent parent and family reconnection, hope and/for familial love, hurt and attempted reconciliation.
Language(s): English.
Location: YouTube.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Chinese.
Cactus Pears/Sabar Bonda (2025), dir. Rohan Parashum
Starring: Bhushaan Manoj and Suraaj Suman.
Media: Movie.
Duration: 1:53:00.
Topics/genres: Closeted queerness in a conservative country, death and grief, romance later in life and societal pressure, family and acceptance.
Language(s): Marathi.
Location: YouTube (subscription), Google TV, Fandango At Home and Prime Video all for ($3.99 USD).
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Indian.
HOW THE MOON FELL FROM THE SKY AND NO ONE EVEN NOTICED (2018), dir. Christina Xing
Starring: Nick Trivisonno, Peter Karrol and Kat Wanger.
Media: Short film.
Duration: 40:11.
Topics/genres: Musical drama, coming out, growing up queer in the middle of nowhere, coming-of-age.
Language(s): English.
Location: YouTube.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Asian-led, not an Asian story (irrelevant to the plot).
Aiga (2019), dir. Isack Hoppitt Seumanutafa
Starring: Maz Patau, Tuutasi Jessica Taulaga and Elena Sione.
Media: Short film.
Duration: 8:10.
Topics/genres: Grieving the death of a parent, sibling reconnection, the cultural love language of food.
Language(s): Samoan, English.
Location: YouTube.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Samoan.
KTFO (2024), dir. Ethan Wingrove
Starring: Ethan Wingrove, Shorya Lamba, Hudson Williams and Aaron Tripp.
Media: Short film.
Duration: 3:14.
Topics/genres: Friends comedy, occupational obstacles.
Language(s): English.
Location: YouTube.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Asian-Led and starred, not an Asian story (irrelevant to the plot).
yum cha | 飲茶 (2021), dir. & ill. Yushan Li/@itsmieille
Starring: Yushan Li, "Family," Jeffrey Wu, the Sheridan Sound Library (music by Kevin Song Xian Lau).
Media: Animated short film.
Duration: 3:33.
Topics/genres: Playful youth and food in cultures, comedy.
Language(s): Cantonese.
Location: YouTube.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Chinese.
Papaya (2019), dir. Kayleb Lee
Starring: Safinah Cháu, Liam Hendrix Tay, Amelia Faye Luong, Katherine Nguyen, and Brandon Tay.
Media: Short film.
Duration: 10:00.
Topics/genres: The little moments that make us who we are and memory, turbulence and unhealed trauma, togetherness and culture.
Language(s): Minimal speaking, but English and features of many other Southeast Asian languages.
Location: YouTube.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Cambodian, Laotian, Vietnamese, etc.
When The Sun Goes Down (2026), dir. Mia Frank
Starring: Neetika Knight and Ayan Philip.
Media: Short film.
Duration: 19:05.
Topics/genres: Childhood reconnection in adulthood, romance, metaphors of the sun, generational cycles and pressure, we learn from those we love.
Language(s): English.
Location: YouTube.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: (unspecified) South Asian.
(To close this out. Last, but not least:)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), dir. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu.
Media: Movie.
Duration: 2:19:00.
Topics/genres: Generational trauma and familial love, philosophical ponderings like nihilism vs. existentialism, acceptance of life and its absurdity.
Language(s): English, Mandarin.
Location: Rakuten Viki, HBO Max, Hulu, YouTube TV, Prime Video.
Centered cultures/ethnicities: Chinese.
Once again❕please recommend additions in the reblogs or comments, especially for South Asian, West Asian, Central Asian, Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian representation. Thank you so much: enjoy the films!
