Asian Pop-Up Cinema has announced the full program for its 19th edition, running March 20 – April 13, 2025. The Festival is dedicated to showing works from regions throughout Asia, with films screened at the AMC NEWCITY 14 (1500 N. Clybourn Ave.), and select presentations at the Chinese American Museum of Chicago and the Shultz Auditorium at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Opening the 19th edition of the film festival on March 20 is Taiwan’s DEAD TALENTS SOCIETY, a supernatural comedy with director John Hsu appearing in person alongside star Chen Bo-Lin, who is set to receive the Festival’s Bright Star Award.
The Festival’s Centerpiece presentation is the U.S. premiere of director’s cut of Hong Kong drama THE LAST DANCE on April 4, featuring a career-defining performance from star Michelle Wai, who will receive the Festival’s Extraordinary Actors Award.
The Closing Night on April 13 presents the first, and last, film by Keizo Murase, BRUSH OF THE GOD, with producer Daisuke Sato accepting the Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award for director Murase posthumously.
Other highlights of this year’s edition include:
From Japan:
A SAMURAI IN TIME, with director Junichi Yasuda and star Yuno Sakura in attendance;
TEKI COMETH, the most acclaimed Japanese film of 2024 following a retired professor facing an unseen enemy, directed by Daihachi Yoshida;
From South Korea:
World Premiere of THE BEETLE PROJECT, director Kim Kwang-kyo‘s sweet family film featuring a beetle who becomes an unlikely catalyst in bringing the two Koreas together;
U.S. Premiere of Park Ri-woong‘s THE LAND OF MORNING CALM, winner of the New Currents Award at the Busan International Film Festival, an angry expose of prejudice and xenophobia in modern Korea;
From Mongolia:
North American Premiere of SILENT CITY DRIVER, Sengedorj Janchivdorj‘s compelling and deliberately paced study of an outcast pushed to the edge by society’s plagues;
Zoliargal Purevdash‘s IF ONLY I COULD HIBERNATE, the first Mongolian film to screen at the Cannes Film Festival;
From Taiwan:
North American Premiere of THE UNIFORM, director Chuang Ching-shen‘s coming of age drama exploring the obsession with elitism and privilege in an education system riddled with inequalities.
From Hong Kong:
LOVE LIES, a look at online dating scams that explores the bonds forged in deception with empathy for both the target and the scammer, from writer / director Ho Miu-Ki.
The 19th edition of Asian Pop-Up Cinema is the first to feature a juried competition. 16 films will compete in competitions including the Grand Jury Feature Film Award in both narrative and documentary categories; the Best Short Film Award in narrative/animated and documentary categories; and the Francis Kwong Memorial Award, recognizing an emerging director for their first or second feature film.
This year’s Jury includes former Hong Kong International Film Festival director and film producer Roger Garcia; former Gene Siskel Film Center Director of Programming Barbara Scharres; and Tokyo-based journalist and film critic Mark Schilling, whose work appears in The Japan Times, Screen International, Variety, and more
