List of Online Festivals and Virtual Releases

The list itself starts here. I've split my introduction, lists and how-to guide across the first six posts of this thread, as one giant post was too much for my computer to edit without the tab crashing.

I've been lurking about MDL for years, using it for information and recommendations, but have finally been motivated to make an account so that I can start a thread on this subject.

Though cinemas have been opening again recently, many of the world's film festivals continue to be held online instead of (or, increasingly, as well as) in cinemas, to make them more accessible despite reduced audience capacities, and allowing people to attend without having to travel between and around countries.

The upshot of this for fans is an unprecedented chance to see movies which might not otherwise ever be officially available in your country without needing to be in the city in which a festival is held – or, in some cases, even the same country. Yet, it doesn't seem to have registered within Asian TV drama fandom, even on sites like MDL that also cover cinema. In the news on MDL, and also more news-focused sites about East Asian pop culture, I see lots about upcoming movies, but rarely anything about how someone can see them for themselves with English subtitles once they have premiered.

Listed below are any festivals I know of which (a) have some live-action, dramatic content from East or South East Asia and (b) have English subtitles for it, if it's not already in English. I won't list all the relevant titles in each festival because I just don't have time to, but there is at least one in each.

There's some great animation and documentaries from East and SE Asia being made available, too. But, for the sake of getting this list posted before I miss any more of the festivals I wanted to include on it, I'm not including festivals which have only those, at least for now.

And I know that there might well be readers here for whom English isn't their first language. But I cannot cover all festivals in all languages on my own, partly due to time and partly due to the difficulty for me to identify information in other languages. But please feel free to mention any festivals internationally in posts to this thread. It might also be worth looking through the lists of festivals here and here, or searching with Google yourself, to identify ones in your region which are running online editions.

Two related phenomena which I am including are longer curated seasons of cinema which, like festivals, are also available online instead of in the buildings themselves, and virtual cinema releases. The latter are more expensive than normal VOD rentals but are a way of seeing new releases that would under normal circumstances only become available for home viewing some months after a cinema release. And, like the festivals and seasons, they support not only the makers and subbers of the movies but also independent cinemas, so that they can continue playing international cinema when it's possible for them to open again.

I must credit the SNS accounts of blog Windows on Worlds, distributor Cine Asia, festival Queer East and retired website (but still active on Facebook) Midnight Eye for being my most frequent sources for learning of these festivals. I'm sure that around the world there must be more festivals and virtual releases meeting the above requirements, so please reply with any I've missed, or with any corrections to what I've written (particularly regarding regional restrictions, which are sometimes not clearly stated on websites, and I can't test the sites for anything other than my region). Also suggestions on how I might make things clearer (provided they don't require too much restructuring). I will try to add all those at some point, but at least if they're in the thread, then they're here for anyone to read.

Virtual cinema releases

22 May 2020

Lucky Grandma (幸運的奶奶 Xìngyùn de nǎinai) (US production starring TSAI Chin)


Available in: USA, Canada

Platform: Kino Marquee (support), Alamo on Demand (support)

5 June 2020

Yourself and Yours

Available in: USA, Canada

Platform: Web (support)

12 June 2020

Hill of Freedom

Available in: USA, Canada

Platform: Projectr (support)

19 June 2020

Woman on the Beach

Available in: USA, Canada

Platform: Projectr (support)

26 June 2020

House of Hummingbird

Available in: USA, Canada

Platform: Kino Marquee (support)

3 July 2020

Family Romance, LLC (US-produced semi-documentary)

Available in: UK, Ireland

Platform: Web (support)

Note: In many other regions, it has not had a virtual cinema release but instead went straight to MUBI on 4 July.

10 July 2020

WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES

Available in: USA, Canada

Platform: Web (support) + screenings in cinemas

Note: From the makers of And so we put goldfish in the pool., which can be seen for free officially with English subs on Vimeo.

26 July 2020

Shanghai Triad (25th anniversary restored rerelease)

Available in: USA, Canada

Platform: Film Movement Plus (support)

31 July 2020

A Girl Missing

Available in: USA, Canada

Platform: Film Movement Plus (support)

Coming soon

The Woman Who Ran

Available in: USA, Canada

Platform: Web (support)

Note: It's not yet clear if the release in the USA and Canada will include a virtual cinema one, or if enough actual cinemas will be open by then for it to be in them instead. In the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand it's currently set to have a conventional cinema release, also at some time in late 2020 or early 2021 still to be decided upon.

Gone, but not forgotten

The movies that played in these might no longer be accessible from the sites linked to, but they are still of interest for looking up if any shorts selected for them are now available on Vimeo or YouTube, and for exclusive extras such as introductions and interviews that are still accessible on any one of more of their own website, their viewing platform, their Facebook Page, or their YouTube channel.

• 1 March – 31 May 2020: JFF ONLINE, Vol. 1: MOOSIC LAB × Japanese Film Festival
• 18 April – 17 May 2020: Queer East: HomeSexual
• 8 May – 5 June 2020: Korean Film Nights: On the Front Line
• 29 May – 7 June 2020: We Are One
• 8–14 June 2020: Cheltenham International Film Festival
• 9–14 June 2020: Nippon Connection
• 17–30 July 2020: Japan Cuts
• 17 July – 23 August 2020: Best of the Toronto Japanese Film Festival
• 17 July – 27 August 2020: Korean Film Nights: Trapped! – The Cinema of Confinement
• 24 July – 2 August 2020: Wicked Queer
• 24 July – 8 August 2020: New Zealand International Film Festival
• 31 July – 12 August 2020: Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival
• 5–15 August 2020: Locarno Film Festival
• 14–21 August 2020: Sarajevo Film Festival
• 19 August – 2 September 2020: Japan-Filmfest Hamburg
• 20 August – 2 September 2020: Fantasia International Film Festival
• 21–30 August 2020: Taiwan Film Festival Berlin
• 28 August – 12 September 2020: New York Asian Film Festival
• 1–22 September 2020: Venice International Film Festival
• 4–11 September 2020: #HRFF31 Award-Winning Shorts
• 7–13 September 2020: Wiz-Art Short Film Festival
• 18–27 September 2020: Taiwan Film Festival Edinburgh