What's queer at the 2025 Reel Asian Film Fest

Sexploitation, flower spas, rodent cam girls and a eulogy a now-closed iconic Edmonton gay bar... The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (AKA Reel Asian) returns for it's 29th season this November, and the content is giving!

Reel Asian our country's largest pan-Asian film festival, and runs Novemver 5th to the 15th (is also available online!) and thanks to some help from our pal Marguerite at the festival, we've assembled all the queer content in one spot for you to peruse. What a perfect way to spend a November day...

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Feature Films

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Montréal, Ma Belle‍
Dir. Xiaodan He
Friday, November 7
TIFF Lightbox Cinema 3

"Feng Xia, 53, lives a modest but decent life in Montreal: She has a house and is married with two children. But she finds herself growing dissatisfied with her loveless marriage and cloistered life of obligation. After taking a conversational French class, Feng Xia finds the city has opened up to her in new ways, including curious dalliances with dating apps. There, she meets Camille, a Quebecois woman who challenges her spiritually and sexually. Their affair awakens Feng Xia’s long-buried desires during a glowing Montreal summer."

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Fucktoys

‍Dir. Annapurna Sriram
Saturday, November 8
TIFF Lightbox Cinema 3

"A sex worker’s odyssey through pre-millenium Trashtown, U.S.A., where the grass is brown and the cops are kinky. Fucktoys is a darkly humorous tale about the uphill battle of carving out a new life for oneself and the risks it takes to do it. Sriram’s directorial debut kicks down the door for a new wave of American sexploitation films, while its anarchist spirit is a call to challenge mainstream American filmic conventions."

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Manok

Dir. Yu-jin Lee
Saturday, November 8
TIFF Lightbox Cinema 4

"Pride celebrations are coming up, and Manok, the feisty owner of a venerable lesbian bar in Seoul, is preparing for the annual party. Except the younger organizers want a new vibe, leaving Manok’s bar on the fringes. Irritated at her obsolescence, Manok closes the bar out of spite and moves back to her rural hometown with a fresh start on her mind. But is that possible in a town run by her ex-husband? If anybody can do it, Manok can."

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SHORTS

LET'S DO THE TIMEWARP AGAIN! Showcase

Co-curated by Lu Linares, Programming and Industry Manager at the Inside Out 2sLGBTQ+ Film Festival.
Thursday November 6
TIFF Lightbox Cinema 4

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I am a Flower

"A deviant artist and proud flower person, is spending one last day in a flower spa with his mother before his final performance act.

‍Misery Loves Company

‍One night, while Seolgi is lying on a grass field with friends, a shooting star falls and dark intrusive thoughts hit her, bursting with movement and blooming bright colours.

Hey Dad

‍I’ve practised these words for 20 years now, but maybe being candid isn’t the best idea. I’m starting my countdown again — another 20 years. Maybe it will be the right time by then.
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Acid Green

‍One night, a person brushes a dog's teeth and turns into a bus.

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Adorable

‍Comprising over 2,000 hand-painted frames, Adorable presents a journey of a queer person, illustrating modern queer society, where discrimination, freedom, and love coexist.
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Reviving The Roost

‍With pulsating neon-light animation, Reviving the Roost is about community complexity and longing — an elegy to a lost space as much as it is director Vivek Shraya’s ode to a now-closed iconic Edmonton gay bar.

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Well Wishes My Love, Your Love

Newly orphaned and freshly wounded from a loss, a boy lends his companion a prosthetic arm for the day. This is a slow and meditative film about everyday gestures of love, communicated through our universal understanding of body language.

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Passing By

A girl unexpectedly bumps into her childhood best friend and finds herself torn between rekindling their lost connection or letting the moment slip away forever.

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UNQUENCHABLE Showcase

Saturday, November 8
TIFF Lightbox Cinema 4

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Thank you for your love

Two dogs timidly try to seek intimacy.

Stubble (director is attending)

Merging reality and staging scenes to develop settings of fantasy where subjects play, each person explores the longing for one’s softness and roughness, and what it means to hold both at the same time.

‍Automagic

On his return home, androgynous-looking Madhu attempts to seduce Ratnakar, his rickshaw driver, who is staying celibate in preparation for a religious pilgrimage.

‍CHARGED UP Showcase

Saturday, November 8
TIFF Lightbox Cinema 4

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RAT+CAMMIE=FOREVER (director is attending)

Cammie, a personified webcam that dreams of becoming a livestreamer, and Rat, an introverted rodent girl, are brought together on the digital self-help app, BetterHell. So unfolds this love story of two unlikely beings united by their fears of unrealized dreams and alienation.

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Water Sports

Jelson and Ipe, two students deep in love, undergo trials of mind and body as they prepare to survive a world devastated by climate change.

Take Care, Till Springtime (cast is attending)

After a Chinese medicine practitioner is brutalized by police at a recent protest, his community comes together in quiet acts of healing.

Correct Me If You're Wrong

Caught in a struggle of love, legacy, and belief, a filmmaker undergoes a series of home remedies and spiritual rituals as their Southwest Chinese family seeks to rid their queer heir of what they perceive as an unwanted entity.

‍Otherworlds Showcase

Saturday, November 8
TIFF Lightbox C4

Strawberry Shortcake

Sixteen-year-old Lolo becomes entangled in a Freudian loop centered on a strawberry shortcake and her mother, Norma. As Lolo sinks into the loop, the boundary between reality and the dreamscape becomes increasingly blurred.

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Unsung Voices 14 Showcase

Sunday, November 9
TIFF Lightbox C4

Same Time Next Year? (director is attending)

Expecting another uneventful Jummah, Safa finds herself trapped with her overbearing family and an angry ex.

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Check out the Official Website for all listings, and happy movie watching!