User:Nceniza/sandbox

The New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) is a critically acclaimed film festival held in New York City, dedicated to the display of Asian Film Culture. The New York Asian Film Festival generally features exhibitions of contemporary premieres and classic titles from Eastern Asia and Southeast Asia (particularly Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, China, Philippines, and Thailand), though South Asian cinema has also been represented via films from India and Pakistan. The NYAFF displays many of its films as a first-and-only screening in the country, giving audiences the chance to see these films, although they would not be normally distributed in the United States. The up-and-coming actors and directors of the exhibited films are brought over as special guests of the NYAFF every year. Genres featured in the film festival includes Horror film, Gangster/Crime, Martial Arts, and Action.

From its inception in 2002 through 2018, the festival was programmed and operated by Subway Cinema. The Film Society of Lincoln Center has worked in collaboration with Subway Cinema to operate the annual festival since 2010. In 2019, Subway Cinema and the New York Asian Film Festival became wholly separate legal entities.The New York Asian Film Festival is now owned and operated by the nonprofit organization The New York Asian Film Foundation Inc. Every year the annual film festival is curated by long time executive director Samuel Jamier, and programmers Claire Marty, David Wilentz, Karen Severns, and Koichi Mori. The festival is now attempting to stray away from curation and increase the amount of films that are directly submitted by filmmakers.

Until 2007, the festival was held annually at the Anthology Film Archives and/or The ImaginAsian, usually around the end of June and early July. In 2007, the festival moved to the IFC Center and Japan Society, and in 2010, the Lincoln Center became the festival's primary home, though select screenings are also held at School of Visual Arts.

Starting in 2008, in addition to the Audience Award, the festival also handed out a Jury Prize. In 2013, the Daniel A. Craft Award for Excellence in Action Cinema was added in memory of the festival's late director and treasurer. The festival is also a large engine for filmmakers and their films to be picked up by large name distribution companies in the United States and in Asia.