“Let This Acceptance Take” (U.S. version)
Friday, October 10 at 10:00 AM and 12:30 PM
Virtual At-Home Screening from October 4 to 19
As part of this year’s High School Student’s Day screenings, and welcomed for general audiences, this short film set boasts an array of filmic approaches. From animation and live-action to documentary and narrative, these films serve as examples of works that achieve incredible emotional and thematic depth in spite of logistical and structural constraints of the short film form.
This first half of this set begins with three women-led narratives in Someone Special (Một người đặc biệt), Little Bird, and Thru the Wire. Every work in the opening half of “Let This Acceptance Take” remarks on presenting one’s genuine self – whether to strangers or persons we consider to be friends. From an inventively animated piece, an inspiring work of social justice, and a portrait of digital youth, our protagonists realize that this is no easy life lesson to learn.
Like its fellow French animated short Someone Special, The Boy Who Cheated Death is the experimental, riotously-styled midpoint, transitioning into two films that more literally take this set’s title (and the idea of accepting oneself or others as they are at present) into account. From Me to You reflects upon the difficult relationship between daughter and mother – the tension heightened due to the former’s impending departure for university. Finally, Threads, the sole documentary short here, looks at the Montagnard (the indigenous people of Vietnam’s Central Highlands) refugee community as they have rebuilt their lives in North Carolina. For our filmmakers, in your fair minds, let this acceptance take.
By Eric Nong
“Let This Acceptance Take” (non-U.S. version)
Virtual At-Home Screening from October 4 to 19
As part of this year’s High School Student’s Day screenings, and welcomed for general audiences, this short film set boasts an array of filmic approaches. From animation and live-action to documentary and narrative, these films serve as examples of works that achieve incredible emotional and thematic depth in spite of logistical and structural constraints of the short film form.
This first half of this set begins with three women-led narratives in Someone Special (Một người đặc biệt), Little Bird, and Thru the Wire. Every work in the opening half of “Let This Acceptance Take” remarks on presenting one’s genuine self – whether to strangers or persons we consider to be friends. From an inventively animated piece, an inspiring work of social justice, and a portrait of digital youth, our protagonists realize that this is no easy life lesson to learn.
Like its fellow woman-driven animated short Someone Special, Re:connection is this set’s midpoint, as it signifies the moment where these films begin to more literally embody this set’s title (the idea of accepting oneself or others as they are at present) into account. From Me to You reflects upon the difficult relationship between daughter and mother – the tension heightened due to the former’s impending departure for university. Finally, Threads, the sole documentary short here, looks at the Montagnard (the indigenous people of Vietnam’s Central Highlands) refugee community as they have rebuilt their lives in North Carolina. For our filmmakers, in your fair minds, let this acceptance take.
By Eric Nong
“Phim Femme”
Friday, October 10 at 4:00 PM
The concept of Vietnamese femininity is as charged with idyllic possibility as it is with prescribed notions of place and role. “Phim Femme” challenges this tension by celebrating the ongoing act of reimagining and expanding what the feminine can be. The set opens with Becoming Ruby, an inspiring documentary about Ruby Chopstix, Canada’s first drag artist-in-residence. As Ruby prepares for a major showcase, the film reveals a powerful convergence of queerness, culture, and community. From performance to intimacy, Cafuné offers a tender portrait of the solitude found within the world of exotic dance, and the quiet courage required to stay open in the pursuit of connection. That thread of vulnerability continues with Clementine, where a late-blooming trans woman gently confides in her friends, revealing long-held desires and evolving questions of womanhood.
In a spirit of solidarity, My Sister honors the act of uplifting one another — bridging the feminine in communities across the globe. This sisterhood deepens in Yellow Balloon, where a young girl’s turbulent childhood unfolds into something universally resonant. The set closes with kitty_kitty_katxxx, a bold meditation on how one’s sexual freedom and self-expression can be hindered by its conflict with external perception. Through diverse visual languages, these filmmakers chart the map of the Vietnamese feminine, offering expansive and transformative ways of being within its ever-evolving terrain.
By Jenn Thảo Nguyễn
“Phim Femme” (Virtual)
Virtual At-Home Screening from October 4 to 19
The concept of Vietnamese femininity is as charged with idyllic possibility as it is with prescribed notions of place and role. “Phim Femme” challenges this tension by celebrating the ongoing act of reimagining and expanding what the feminine can be. The set opens with Yellow Balloon, a quiet yet powerful portrait of a young girl navigating a turbulent chapter of her childhood — inviting us to see the universal through the deeply personal. From girlhood to young adulthood, Sex, Baseball & All Pussibilities shifts the tone with a vibrant buddy comedy, following two friends as they gain confidence in their sexuality through the playful metaphors of the game. Expanding the possibilities of femininity even further, Becoming Ruby spotlights Ruby Chopstix, Canada’s first drag artist-in-residence, whose preparations for a showcase reflect a joyful convergence of queerness, culture, and the sustaining power of community.
Carrying forward this spirit of kinship, My Sister offers a call for global solidarity — bridging feminine experiences across borders. That thread of care continues in Clementine, where a late-blooming trans woman opens up to her closest friends, sharing long-held desires and evolving questions of identity in a space defined by compassion. The program closes with Saigon Kiss, a smoldering romance between two women whose fleeting motorbike encounters stir longing and connection within the charged rhythm of the city. Through their visual language, these filmmakers trace the map of the Vietnamese feminine, offering expansive new ways of being within its ever-evolving terrain.
By Jenn Thảo Nguyễn
“Remember My Forgotten Man”
Friday, October 10 at 4:00 PM
Virtual At-Home Screening from October 4 to 19
Masculinity is transforming as gendered norms and roles evolve. Sometimes, when considering a pressing sociopolitical issue, men are deemed “the problem” – ending a conversation without further contextualization, nuance, or a suggested remedy. This set – which involves male protagonists and subjects (We Were the Scenery’s co-subjects are a husband and wife) – depicts men pushed to the margins of society for reasons beyond their control. How do their notions of masculinity inform their responses to a situation and how is masculinity – especially in a Vietnamese diasporic context – evolving?
Vietnamese men find themselves adrift, far from home, in Visa, Land of Opportunity, and From a Distance. In Visa, A Vietnamese student is desperate to extend his stay in America and resorts to desperate measures. The desperation is quieter, less urgent in Land of Opportunity and From a Distance (their subjects contending with alienation in Hong Kong and Germany, respectively) – but it remains just as potent as in the set opener. The Journal and We Were the Scenery examine Vietnam War-related trauma that manifests differently within an American veteran and a Vietnamese refugee couple. With the former film reopening unseen wounds, the latter recalls the couple’s experiences reenacting violent scenes for Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979) – a film unconcerned about Vietnamese suffering. The animated Xanh concludes this set, as a daughter asks her father why he refused to challenge a racist remark hurled towards him.
Like its fellow VFF short film sets, this set does not pretend to offer clear answers to its central question, but exists to further a necessary conversation.
By Eric Nong
“A Place at the Table”
Saturday, October 11 at 9:45 AM
Virtual At-Home Screening from October 4 to 19
This flavorful set explores the intricate relationships between food, memory, and identity. Through diverse storytelling techniques – documentary, animation, and poetic realism – each film reveals how culinary practices serve as acts of survival, connection, and self-definition.
This set’s bookends, Teb Chaw (Land) and The Market, document the resilience of Asian diaspora communities rebuilding their lives after war and displacement. Teb Chaw offers a collective portrait of Hmong refugee farmers in Minnesota who, after surviving the Secret War in Laos, enrich Minnesotan cuisine and cultivate new livelihoods. The Market brings us to the Southeast Asian Market in Philadelphia’s FDR Park, a vibrant, refugee-founded space where ancestral cuisines nourish both body and community.
These Yellow Stars of Ours and Vegetarian Beef Skewers shift focus to the domestic kitchen, where intergenerational dialogues reveal the weight and beauty of diasporic inheritance. The former is a multimedia documentary combining interviews, archival footage, and animation to chronicle a Vietnamese couple’s migration story. In the latter, a mother teaches her son to make a family dish, while sharing memories of exile and displacement.
By contrast, Today Is My Day Off (Von 0 auf 180) explores emotional distance rather than intimacy. In their sparsely-attended restaurant, a daughter and father struggle with estrangement, rendering a quiet portrait of intergenerational disconnect and reconciliation. Finally, the animated Little Persimmon animates the story of a little girl who mourns her grandfather through his favorite fruit-persimmon. Alongside imagination and scent, love persists—sweet and enduring, like the persimmon itself.
Together, these films celebrate food as a portal to heritage, healing, and (re)connection.
By Xiangu Qi
Best Short Film nominees
Saturday, October 11 at 10:45 AM
This set of films includes the nominees for the Grand Jury Trống Đồng Award for Best Short at Viet Film Fest 2025. Each short is an exemplar of artistry and/or thematic depth – each offering fresh insight into identity, memory, and belonging.
Opening the set, Saigon Kiss takes viewers on a queer motorbike ride through bustling Saigon, capturing the vibrancy and evolution of LGBTQ+ life. Following that is Threads, a documentary spotlighting the Montagnard refugee community in North Carolina and expanding the scope of diaspora to include Indigenous displacement – an often overlooked but vital piece of Southeast Asian diasporic history. Someone Special (Một người đặc biệt), in its whimsical animation, redirects our attention to queer characters navigating love and identity. This set delves deeper into the surreal in Long’s Long Lost & Mini Mart. The film follows a young man, grieving his father’s death, seeking final conversations in a convenience store, and unearthing another mourner’s silent pain.
Oral histories close this set. Xanh unfolds in an Asian fast food restaurant, where a daughter and her father speak about a racist incident the father encountered. The father’s memories of life in Germany illuminate how injustice shapes diasporic identity. Lastly, On Healing Land, Birds Perch (Đất lành chim đậu) concludes this set with its revisiting of a haunting Vietnam War photo. By interviewing people on both sides of history, it offers a rare, poignant meditation on grief, memory, and moral reckoning.
Together, these films offer a layered, powerful reflection on how we live with love, loss, and legacy.
By Xiangu Qi
“Drawn to the Screen” (In-Person)
Saturday, October 11 at 1:30 PM
Virtual At-Home Screening from October 4 to 19
For two consecutive years, Viet Film Fest has broken its own record number of animated short film submissions and acceptances. This in-person version of “Drawn to the Screen” will showcase seven of the ten animated shorts that were accepted to VFF this year (the exceptions: The Boy Who Cheated Death, Someone Special, and Xanh – all of which are playing in other short film sets). Prior to VFF 2024’s quartet of accepted animated shorts, no edition of the festival had ever more than two animated shorts at a time. VFF 2025 also marks an unprecedented third festival in a row in which at least one animated short was nominated for the Grand Jury Trống Đồng Award for Best Short Film – with Mai Phuong Nguyen’s Chez Moi (VFF 2016) being the sole animated winner in that category.
From student films such as Conductor’s Crescendo, Re:connection, and These Yellow Stars of Ours; independent works like Ba Noi and Little Persimmon; truly avant garde pieces in The Tale of Trần Thanh Dương; and a film from a major Vietnamese animation studio in Zombie Lag – 15 Minutes Before Apocalypse, animators of Vietnamese descent have been breaking into the world of animated cinema on their own terms. Together, these films will remind audiences of the versatility of animated moviemaking, and how animation can express ideas unbounded by our reality.
A special panel on the experiences, inspirations, and artistry of animation filmmakers of Vietnamese descent will follow this screening.
By Eric Nong
“Drawn to the Screen” (virtual)
Virtual At-Home Screening from October 4 to 19
For two consecutive years, Viet Film Fest has broken its own record number of animated short film submissions and acceptances. This virtual version of “Drawn to the Screen” will showcase six of the ten animated shorts that were accepted to VFF this year. Prior to VFF 2024’s quartet of accepted animated shorts, no edition of the festival had ever more than two animated shorts at a time. VFF 2025 also marks an unprecedented third festival in a row in which at least one animated short was nominated for the Grand Jury Trống Đồng Award for Best Short Film – with Mai Phuong Nguyen’s Chez Moi (VFF 2016) being the sole animated winner in that category.
From student films such as Conductor’s Crescendo, Re:connection, and These Yellow Stars of Ours; independent works like Ba Noi and Little Persimmon; and a film from a major Vietnamese animation studio in Zombie Lag – 15 Minutes Before Apocalypse, animators of Vietnamese descent have been breaking into the world of animated cinema on their own terms. Together, these films will remind audiences of the versatility of animated moviemaking, and how animation can express ideas unbounded by our reality.
A special panel on the experiences, inspirations, and artistry of animation filmmakers of Vietnamese descent will follow this screening.
By Eric Nong
“Where the Heart Settles”
Saturday, October 11 at 9:50 PM
Virtual At-Home Screening from October 4 to 19
This short film set awakens the quiet sentience of place, honoring its sacredness and subtle influence in our lives. It opens with We Used to Take the Long Way Home, following a protagonist’s return from studying abroad and revealing – through moments of reunion – how both she and her homeland have quietly changed. These shifts echo in Little Bird, where home becomes a fragile background: a disheartened woman must choose between evicting tenants from a crumbling unit or risking her job to stand in solidarity with fellow refugees. Surrender continues this exploration of displacement within the confines of a hospital ward, as a mother and daughter confront separation while navigating care systems rarely honoring the complexities of Asian American life.
The theme of place and identity deepens in Today Is My Day Off (Von 0 Auf 180), where a father and daughter face the imminent closure of their family bistro – a space that has long sustained both their bond and their livelihood, and whose loss surfaces long-buried emotions. The set closes with Goodbye My Dove, a quietly resonant story in which two siblings search for their mother and, in the process, find a deeper connection with the land itself – a place where peace and conflict quietly coexist. Across city streets, rustling leaves, and four enclosing walls, these films transform space into a living character – its rhythms woven into the fabric of the everyday.
By Jenn Thảo Nguyễn
“VFF Underground”
Saturday, October 11 at 9:45 PM
Inspired by the tradition of arthouse movie theaters and cable movie channels showcasing not-safe-for-primetime movies in the dead of night, “VFF Underground” offers a sample of five short films exemplifying a desire to experiment, with many of them unafraid of exploring sexuality and violence in ways that some might consider lurid and sensationalistic. Though not quite a midnight screening, these five films together exemplify the sort of tone and attitude cinephiles adore from such screenings.
The set opens with a sexual education. Sex, Baseball, & All Pussibilities is Aimee Pham and Kai Sampadian’s spiritual follow-up to their darkly funny House Rules (VFF 2023) as a young woman, following a year of celibacy, learns about rounding the bases. Following that, Diệu An’s kitty_kitty_katxxx (pronounced “kitty kitty cat”) unabashedly advocates for all women – regardless of age – to be proud of their own bodies and sense of intimacy. Mannequin, directed by Mark Tran, is the short that bridges the set’s grounded first half with its fantastical second, when a lonely father dresses up a mannequin as his wife.
Sally Tran’s Don’t Fuck with Ba heralds the fantastical homestretch of this set. There, in a neon-bathed Chinatown, a group of femmes will defend their beloved community. “VFF Underground” closes with Hachul Le Do’s The Tale of Trần Thanh Dương, an experimental animated short that reimagines the legend of Thánh Gióng – a Vietnamese folk hero known as one of the Four Immortals – using Xẩm and Chèo musical influences, and interpreted through Do’s transgender identity.
Following The Stringer, stay up with Viet Film Fest on Saturday night.
By Eric Nong
“Ethe(real)” (U.S. version)
Virtual At-Home Screening from October 4 to 19
This short film set explores how the “real” is woven into the ethereal, celebrating the phantasmatic nature of Vietnamese storytelling. The supernatural and spiritual have long served as spaces for divining deep truths – insights the everyday often overlooks. The program opens with Don’t Fuck with Ba, a neo-noir revenge tale set in a polyglot world that reveals the layered tensions against the homogenization of Asian identity. Flightpaths follows with a tender story of two brothers journeying through space in search of home and a connection to their father. This same pursuit is then subverted in Mannequin where a husband’s desperation for the return of his wife drives him into a hallucinatory somnambulance.
This otherworldly current continues in The Boy Who Cheated Death, a visually rich dreamscape that abstracts history to chart a path toward healing the unbearable. Healing becomes central in the final two shorts: Out of Time (Hor du Temps) offers a wishful prayer to reclaim what has been lost, while Long’s Long Lost & Mini Mart grants a fleeting reunion with those who have passed. Together, these films excite, unsettle, and tap into the magic of imagination — reminding us that through these immersive portals, we often fall inward and return, quietly and wholly, to the core of who we are.
By Jenn Thảo Nguyễn
“Ethe(real)” (non-U.S. version)
Virtual At-Home Screening from October 4 to 19
This short film set explores how the “real” is woven into the ethereal, celebrating the phantasmatic nature of Vietnamese storytelling. The supernatural and spiritual have long served as spaces for divining deep truths — insights the everyday often overlooks. The program opens with Don’t Fuck with Ba, a neo-noir revenge tale set in a polyglot world that reveals the layered tensions within the homogenization of Asian identity. Flightpaths follows with a tender story of two brothers journeying through space in search of home and a connection to their father. This same pursuit is then subverted in Mannequin where a husband’s desperation for the return of his wife drives him into a hallucinatory somnambulance.
This otherworldly state of listlessness opens the door to healing – a theme that comes to the fore in our final two shorts. Out of Time (Hor du Temps) offers a wishful prayer to retrieve what has been lost, while Long’s Long Lost & Mini Mart grants a fleeting reunion with those who have departed. Together, these films excite, unsettle, and tap into the magic of imagination — reminding us that through these immersive portrays, we often fall inward and return, quietly and wholly, to the core of who we are.
By Jenn Thảo Nguyễn
“The Fairest Trees Are Grown in Solid Ground”
Sunday, October 12 at 1 PM
Virtual At-Home Screening from October 4 to 19
Ideals and inspirations can motivate one to achieve personal goals or adopt the beliefs that uphold an ideal. Sometimes, that ideal or inspiration – whether in the form of a person, a relationship with someone else, or some intangible belief that fuels a drive to be the best possible versions of ourselves – falls to the wayside, leaving us unsure why we regarded that ideal so highly in the first place.
Cú Nhảy –The Jump and From a Distance (Aus der Ferne) examine difficult father-child relations that upend the intoxicating promises of mass media or a new, safer homeland. Elsewhere, Re:connection and We’re Only Strangers ask how a friendship or a relationship continues – or dissolves – when fissures appear. To conclude, Ba Noi and Rooftop Lempicka cast off youthful perceptions to acknowledge the varying ways others leave lasting imprints on a life, and the unease that lingers when their absence leaves questions unanswered.
Amid the remnants of a broken ideal, there springs these notions: that life need not be spectacular, that its beauty can be found (and shared with others) through our labors and mundane experiences. The manner in which the characters and subjects in these films learn to recover from their disappointments, though varying across cultures and continents, are fundamentally the same. Their paths to self-renewal are all at different points: a traumatized stasis, a greater appreciation for everyday familial love, and genuine reconciliation.
By Eric Nong
“We Who Are Making Waves” (U.S. version)
Virtual At-Home Screening from October 4 to 19
In keeping with Viet Film Fest tradition, this set highlights cinematic representations of LGBTQ+ voices, feelings, and experiences. Spanning a range of genres and audiovisual styles, these films collectively assert the importance of acknowledging and embracing difference.
This set opens with the documentary Becoming Ruby. It introduces Ruby Chopstix, Canada’s first drag artist-in-residence and its only Vietnamese drag queen. Brilliant and delicate cinematography complements a powerful narrative about visibility, resilience, and the challenges faced by underrepresented drag performers. From Me to You shifts the focus to family tensions roused when a Vietnamese girl navigates her identity at the intersection of queerness and kinship.
In lighter tones, Clementine follows a series of heartfelt conversations between a trans woman and her close friends. The film radiates rosy warmth as it navigates questions of gender, womanhood, and support within queer communities.
The remainder of this set – Someone Special (Một người đặc biệt), Divine Intervention and Saigon Kiss – present varied forms of sapphic romance. Someone Special animates a tender, joyful dating story between two Vietnamese women in the diaspora, exploring the intersections of language, identity, and intimacy. In Divine Intervention, a touch of fantasy repairs a relationship between former friends, emphasizing the slow, magical process of healing and emotional reconnection. Saigon Kiss captures the dynamic queer culture of Saigon through a motorbike journey.
With pride and care, this set invites audiences to celebrate queer presence, reflect on belonging, and recognize the beauty of difference.
By Xiangu Qi
“We Who Are Making Waves” (non-U.S. version)
Virtual At-Home Screening from October 4 to 19
In keeping with Viet Film Fest tradition, this set highlights cinematic representations of LGBTQ+ voices, feelings, and experiences. Spanning a range of genres and audiovisual styles, these films collectively assert the importance of acknowledging and embracing difference.
This set opens with the documentary Becoming Ruby. It introduces Ruby Chopstix, Canada’s first drag artist-in-residence and its only Vietnamese drag queen. Brilliant and delicate cinematography complements a powerful narrative about visibility, resilience, and the challenges faced by underrepresented drag performers. From Me to You shifts the focus to family tensions roused when a Vietnamese girl navigates her identity at the intersection of queerness and kinship.
In lighter tones, Clementine follows a series of heartfelt conversations between a trans woman and her close friends. The film radiates rosy warmth as it navigates questions of gender, womanhood, and support within queer communities.
This set concludes with Someone Special (Một người đặc biệt) and Divine Intervention, both of which present different forms of sapphic romance. Someone Special animates a tender, joyful dating story between two Vietnamese women in the diaspora, exploring the intersections of language, identity, and intimacy. In Divine Intervention, a touch of fantasy repairs a relationship between former friends, emphasizing the slow, magical process of healing and emotional reconnection.
With pride and care, this set invites audiences to celebrate queer presence, reflect on belonging, and recognize the beauty of difference.
By Xiangu Qi
