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The Asian Film Festival of Dallas (AFFD) turns 25 this year, and it’s marking the occasion with arguably its strongest lineup yet. This weekend, the festival returns to the Angelika Film Center in Mockingbird Station with 27 films, several premieres, cult classic screenings and a full slate of events from now through July 26.
This year’s edition brings films from seven countries and regions to Dallas screens, a milestone that carries real weight for the people who built it.
“Since 2002, AFFD has showcased more than 600 films from across Asia and the Asian diaspora, connecting filmmakers, artists and audiences through the power of storytelling,” co-executive director David Chong said in a release.
The festival bookends its weekend with heavy hitters, and it starts — and ends — with the same filmmaker. Thursday’s opening night belonged to “Colony,” the new zombie epic from Yeon Sang-ho, the same mind behind “Train to Busan.” This time, the terror climbs a skyscraper instead of riding the rails, complete with a hive-mind of undead that learns as it hunts. If you loved what Yeon did on a bullet train, wait until you see what he does with 30 floors of infected chaos. Then, on closing night, the festival circles back to where it all began: “Train to Busan” returns to the big screen for its 10th anniversary — a relentless, emotionally charged ride that helped reshape what the genre could be.
The centerpiece slot goes to Dave Boyle’s “Never After Dark,” an atmospheric Japanese psychological horror fresh off winning the Midnighter Audience Award at South by Southwest. Picture an isolated setting, a slow-tightening dread and characters whose own paranoia may be scarier than whatever waits in the dark. If you like your scares to linger, put this one at the top of your list.
Speaking of legends, “Ichi the Killer,” Takashi Miike’s notoriously gonzo 2001 cult classic, returned for a special anniversary screening on Thursday. It also played during AFFD’s inaugural year, making this a full-circle moment for longtime fans.
Genre lovers get plenty more to chew on. The world premiere of “Gamaland” spins a VHS-fueled J-horror mockumentary, while the U.S. premiere of “AnyMart” turns a soul-crushing supermarket into a corporate horror-satire. Add Thailand’s darkly funny “Human Resource,” Malaysia’s slick neo-noir “Macai” and China’s wuxia epic “Drunken Blade,” and you’ve got a passport that never sits still.
The lineup is far more than fright night, too. “3670” offers a tender, urgent Korean drama about a gay North Korean defector searching for belonging. “Lucky Lu” follows a New York City delivery rider fighting to hold his American dream together. Two documentaries arrive with filmmaker Q&As: “Year of the Cat,” a deeply personal quest to solve a mystery rooted in the Fall of Saigon, and “Diamond Diplomacy,” which explores how baseball bridged the U.S. and Japan.
To see the full lineup and screening times, see the full schedule online. Individual tickets run $15 for general admission and $20 for the opening, centerpiece and closing films, with festival badges available for $250.
