The Austin Asian American Film Festival is one of the city’s quiet treasures: small enough that you end up talking, in the lobby, to the very people who chose every film — big enough that those films arrive from twenty countries and the filmmakers fly in from Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York, and Taipei to sit in a dark room with you.
Founded in 2008, AAAFF is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit that champions Asian, Asian American, and Middle Eastern cinema, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the City of Austin’s Cultural Arts Division, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and Humanities Texas. Its 18th edition ran June 24–28, 2026 at the Austin Film Society’s AFS Cinema — 34 films, filmmaker Q&As, food-stop socials, and the festival’s first-ever Taiwan VR activation. It opened with Honeyjoon, anchored on the Friday centerpiece Traces of Home, and closed with Gloaming in Luomu.
We talked with nearly everyone who makes the festival run — its artistic director, its programmers, its jurors, its event lead — and with the filmmakers behind the weekend’s standout films. Below is the best of it, and everything we published links out at the bottom.
Red-carpet interviews
A few highlights from our 29 video interviews on Centerpiece Night. You’ll meet Mahnoor Euceph, whose proof-of-concept short 11:11 comes backed by Cate Blanchett; Tony Nguyen, who runs Dallas’s first microcinema; Fantastic Fest’s Austin King on the narrative jury; and Gunwant Kaur on the centerpiece Traces of Home.
Watch all 29 interviews → Read “Voices from the Red Carpet”
On the carpet
A glimpse of Centerpiece Night — “The Mane Event” carpet, the filmmakers, and the Texas-chic crowd at AFS Cinema. The full gallery of 89 photos is on our red-carpet page.
The films
The festival’s most talked-about title was The Gas Station Attendant, journalist Karla Murthy’s documentary portrait of her father — from poverty in India to the overnight shift at a Texas gas station, built from home movies and recorded phone calls. Devastating, surprising, and deeply human, it played the closing Sunday with a Q&A after a festival run that swept best-doc honors and a CAAMFest centerpiece slot.
Friday’s centerpiece, Traces of Home, was Colette Ghunim’s documentary about her father, who fled Palestine, and her mother, who left a difficult home in Mexico — two refugees whose daughter turns inheritance into an act of repair. And the festival’s breakout personality may have been Mahnoor Euceph, the USC-trained, Oscar-long-listed filmmaker whose 11:11 is the kind of sharp, funny, deeply personal work AAAFF exists to platform.
“Enough to make my film. I just need a few million.” — Mahnoor Euceph, asked what it would take to move to Austin
Mahnoor Euceph — full profile → The Gas Station Attendant Traces of Home
Everything we published
- Full coverage hub — tvawardshows.com/festivals/aaaff
- Red carpet: 89 photos + 29 videos — the red-carpet page
- Voices from the Red Carpet — the people who make the festival, in their own words
- Centerpiece Night, start to finish — a diary of the evening
- Mahnoor Euceph — dedicated filmmaker profile
- Full schedule & guide — every screening, party, and VR activation
- The Gas Station Attendant (Austin Hangout) — feature
- On the Austin festival calendar — listing
Coverage by TVReviewer.com and the WholeTech network of Austin culture and screen sites. Videography by Pedro Gonzales. We are an independent outlet and are not affiliated with the festival; tickets and the official schedule are at aaafilmfest.org.