We are all looking for someplace to belong. Sometimes we look for it in our family. Sometimes we look for it in ourselves. This series of endearing, heartwarming, and witty short films explore what it means to be in search of us. This program is only available to view in Washington state.

This docufiction follows six-year-old Sihyeon after his move to southwest Idaho. Amidst the summer's malaise, he journeys across Idaho's foothills and rivers in search of his favorite ice cream.

English

Sihyeon's Summer Day (시현이의 여름 날)

When the filmmaker becomes a first-time uncle, he quickly realizes that he never wants to be a dad. He decides to write a letter to his baby niece, Lily, hoping to pass on valuable life lessons to her. As he writes his letter to Lily, the filmmaker increasingly struggles to find the answers to his own questions on his own identity and morality. Dear Lily is a film that is as much of a letter of love as it is the filmmaker’s journey to discover what life events led him to become the person he is today.

Some discussion of death, identity-based prejudice

Dear Lily

As he prepares to leave home for college into a promising Ivy League future, Christian, a first generation Indonesian American teen, returns home to face the complicated ties that shaped him. When a restaurant paycheck goes missing, buried resentments and unspoken expectations rise to the surface between him and his immigrant father, a restaurant waiter whose quiet sacrifices have carried the family, forcing them to confront what success has cost them both. Moving between sharp humor and emotional honesty, the film honors imperfect love and the unseen labor behind the facade of achievement, revealing how ambition can strain the very bonds that make it possible.

Something Good Going On

In the seedy back rooms of a Little Saigon convenience store, a young customer reanimates his dead father for one last conversation... awakening phantoms of unspoken grief.

Long's Long Lost & Mini Mart

An insecure Korean American woman confronts the beauty standards that have quietly shaped her sense of worth. Areum, whose name means beautiful, grows up feeling that she has fallen short of the ideals held up around her. She learns to endure constant comparisons with her striking best friend, Jane. Though she tells herself the comments do not sting, a public humiliation forces Areum to confront the resentment and shame she has long buried beneath comparison and self-denial. The incident exposes how deeply external standards have shaped her confidence and strained her friendship with Jane. As old wounds resurface, Areum must decide whether to continue measuring herself against an impossible ideal or finally challenge the beliefs that have defined her self-image for years.

I Wish I Were Pretty

In this dark comedy inspired by a true story, an eight-year-old girl is forced to grow up quickly during a tense car ride through a racially hostile town in 1985.

Somewhere To Be

Two Asian American grandmas blaze through California on a wild crime spree—one discovers a new purpose, while the other hides a secret that could shatter everything.

Chowmein Holiday

Washington

In Search of Us (Free Program)

Virtual Ticket

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2026 Seattle Asian American Film Festival

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The 14th annual Seattle Asian American Film Festival is continuing our hybrid model this year at the Wing Luke Museum and Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute from May 29-31, 2026. Online programming will be available from June 1-7, 2026. All films are only available to viewers within the United States, while some films are geo-blocked to Washington State only. Select films will not be available online. Please check each film program for viewing windows and geographic restrictions. Watch all the films with the purchase a Hybrid Festival Pass or Virtual Only Festival Pass {{link|https://saaff2026.eventive.org/passes/buy|here}}. To learn more about the festival and other events, please visit {{link|website|www.seattleaaff.org}}

SAAFF is the only film festival to provide a space for pan-Asian American voices, perspectives, and histories told through multimedia arts and independent films in Seattle.

Here's what's coming up soon. Can't make it? No sweat. Many live streams will be available for on-demand viewing as well.