This year’s theme for Vancouver Asian Film Festival (VAFF), “Homecoming” provides a glimpse into the future and how society celebrates diversity. The festival runs November 3 to 6.

Three entries are nominated this year for VAFF’s new award Best Canadian Feature Film. Seven filmmakers are vying for the Best Canadian Short Award. People’s Choice Awards, will be presented during the closing night screening and awards ceremony.

“ We are extremely excited for this year’s 20th festival,” stated Grace Chin, Festival Director.

The lineup includes 35 feature-length and short films of all genres, with English dialogue and/or English subtitles from all over the world.

Four world premieres will be screened including the Canadian documentary feature “All Our Father’s Relations” profiling Musqueam Nation elders from the Grant family in BC, as they explore their mixed race Canadian Chinese and First Nations heritage and visit their father’s village in Guangdong, China for the first time; two North American premieres, and 10 Canadian premieres. Six films are Vancouver premieres. Forty filmmakers and panelists, from Canada and internationally, are expected to attend. Organizers anticipate close to 4,000 audience and industry members to come.

 For more information, visit  http://www.vaff.org/

Pali Road

Directed by: Jonathan Lin

Length: 92 Mins

Country: USA / China

Screen date & Time: Nov 3, 2016 (Thursday) 7:00pm

http://festival.vaff.org/2016/events/nov-3-program-1/

A young doctor wakes up from a car accident and discovers she is married to another man, and living a life she can’t remember ever having. Her search for clues to her “past” life will lead her to question everyone around her and her entire existence, demanding a leap of faith (“pali” means “cilff” in Hawaiian) to find the truth. Starring Chinese superstar Michelle Chen; Jackson Rathbone (Twilight); Sung Kang (Fast Five); and Henry Ian Cusick (The 100, Lost).

The Last Smile

Directed by: Shankey Srinivasan

Length: 87 min

Country: USA \ Hindi with English subtitles

Screen date & Time: November 4, 2016 (Friday) 9:45pm

http://festival.vaff.org/2016/events/nov-4-program-4/

Inspired by a book based on true events, noir-style film The Last Smile from Indo-American director Shankey Srinivasan is the compelling story of Kapil, a grieving Kashmiri-American father who is driven to investigate the untimely, mysterious death of his 30-year old son Amit, shining a light on the unregulated American health supplement industry—and on the depths of an immigrant father’s love and grief.

The Tiger Hunter

Directed by: Lena Khan

Length: 94 min

Country: USA

Screen date & Time: November 6, 2016 (Sunday) 7:00 pm

http://festival.vaff.org/2016/events/nov-6-program-11/

A young Indian man relocates to 1970s Chicago to become an engineer, but when his job falls through, resorts to an elaborate charade with misfit friends in order to woo his childhood sweetheart. This Kickstarter-funded project from director Lena Khan features Danny Pudi (Community), Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite), Karen Malik, Rizwan Manji (Outsourced), and won the Grand Jury Prize for Narrative Feature, at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival 2016.