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Toronto Chinese Canadian Film Festival
Past Festivals · Second Edition
October 17–19, 2025 · Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto — two screens
Year two answered the whiteboard. Submissions tripled, a second screening room opened, and the line outside knew where it was going this time.
Chapter One · Friday Evening
The second opening night had a different sound to it. Less nervous laughter, more reunion — people greeting each other by name, comparing which screenings they had circled, holding programmes that no longer needed to explain what TCCFF was.
The chairs were counted correctly this time. It didn't matter; the room sold out anyway, and the overflow watched the opening feature on the brand-new second screen down the hall — which is exactly what the second screen was for.
Chapter Two · The Programme
Submissions went from forty to over a hundred and thirty, and the programming team spent the summer doing the hardest thing a young festival does: saying no to good films. What survived was a slate of twenty-six — features, shorts, and the festival's first dedicated documentary block.
Two rooms meant choices, and choices meant the lobby filled between screenings with the best kind of argument: what did you see, what did I miss, what are we both skipping dinner for.
dir. Michelle Duan
Three generations of women, one funeral banquet, and the recipe nobody wrote down.
dir. Howard Lam
A documentary on the final Chinese-type print shop in Toronto's Chinatown.
dir. Karen Siu
A comedy of one family's weekly table, and the empty seat everyone pretends not to see.
dir. Joseph Quan
A night-shift radio host takes one last call from a hometown that no longer exists.
dir. Evelyn Lau
Four strangers, one basement parlour, and the tiles that say what they can't.
Chapter Three · Saturday
Saturday brought the festival's first masterclass — a veteran cinematographer walking a packed room through thirty years of lighting other people's memories. Phones stayed in pockets for two straight hours, which in 2025 counts as a standing ovation.
Down the hall, the new student showcase gave six high-school and undergraduate shorts their first public screening — first credits, first laughs in the right places, first time hearing a room react to something cut alone at 2 a.m.
“Last year I sat in the audience wondering if I belonged here. This year my film played on that screen.”
Chapter Four · Sunday Evening
Five Jade Maples this year — the categories grew with the programme, adding Best Documentary and an Emerging Voice award reserved for a first-time filmmaker. The spotlight was still the only one the theatre owned. It had company now: a second one, borrowed from the new screen.
Jade Maple · Best Feature
Peonies· Michelle Duan
Jade Maple · Best Documentary
The Last Typesetter· Howard Lam
Jade Maple · Best Short
Mahjong at Midnight· Evelyn Lau
Emerging Voice
Signal Fires· Joseph Quan
Audience Choice
Sunday Dim Sum Rebellion· Karen Siu
Chapter Five · The People
Twelve on the core team now, and more than fifty volunteers — including a striking number of people who had simply been in the audience in 2024 and come back asking to help. That pipeline, more than any attendance figure, is how the team knew the first year had worked.
Festival Director
Head of Programming
Documentary Programming
Operations & Venue
Partnerships
Marketing & Design
Student Showcase Lead
Technical Director
Guest Relations
Volunteer Coordinator
Finance & Box Office
Communications
Chapter Six · Sunday Night
No whiteboard this time. Instead, the closing montage ended on a single title card: October 16–18, 2026 — the next edition's dates, announced before the current one had even finished. The room cheered a festival that was still happening around them.
Then the chairs got stacked, the egg tarts disappeared on schedule, and the second Toronto Chinese Canadian Film Festival turned its lights up on a crowd already talking about the third.
The Archive
The 2024 edition ran under our former name, the Toronto Chinese Film Festival (TCFF); from 2025 the festival became the Toronto Chinese Canadian Film Festival.
