Now in its 24th year, NYAFF is a staple for filmmakers, actors, and moviegoers to convene and enjoy the latest and best upcoming films from Asia. Although it calls New York home, the festival has also expanded its connection to the film industry in South Korea, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.
Cold Tea Collective is a proud media partner of New York Asian Film Festival 2025 (NYAFF). This year’s festival runs from July 11-27, 2025, with screenings across six venues in Manhattan.
To celebrate NYAFF 2025, Cold Tea Collective chatted with Samuel Jamier, NYAFF executive director, about the evolution of NYAFF, its global reach, and his hopes for Asian cinema.
The early days of New York Asian Film Festival
For Jamier, when he first joined the festival, he described NYAFF as very much a renegade operation: raw, passionate, and chaotic in the best ways. “The organization was essentially a group of cinephiles dedicated to bringing the wildest, boldest, most bizarre, and overlooked Asian films to New York audiences,” he says. “The festival was all about dragging in films no one else dared or cared to show. We didn’t have a long-term roadmap or a business model—just instinct, passion, and credit cards. We hoped for the best and mainly that we wouldn’t go broke.”
Jamier shares how, over the years, NYAFF evolved from a “scrappy underdog into a recognized cultural institution.” “The programming became sharper and more expansive, not just about flicks where fists break bricks,” he shares. “Our partnerships became more strategic, and our ambitions more global.” Despite the festival’s evolution and popularity among Asian stars, it has never lost its core: an unapologetic, no-holds-barred spirit. For Jamier, he reflects on how the festival is “just louder, better dressed, and more deeply connected to our communities than ever — the most important…
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