Official Selections: LA Asian Film Festival
Congratulations to our accepted filmmakers!
Films are listed in alphabetical order, index to the left.
Scroll Down to learn more about each film
Ocher
Short (Animated)
USA Premiere
“Ocher” is the story of the world’s first visual storyteller: the discovery of painting, and the original artist’s hand. Because sometimes you have to leave the tribe, in order to lead.
Ocher is the story of vision, evolution… and destiny.
Writer: Chee Ho
Producers: Chee Ho, Sean Kim
Production Design, Lead Animation: Sean Kim
Director: Chee Ho
Editor: Kira Robertson
Pilot
Short
Los Angeles Premiere
Pilot is inspired by a true story from rural India, capturing the silent crisis of farmer suicides and their shattering impact on families left behind. In a remote, orthodox village, a young widow refuses to let grief dictate her son’s future. Defying tradition and social scorn, she sets out to learn an unforeseen skill - riding a bicycle, to carry her child to school 20 kilometres away.
At its heart, Pilot is an ode to the courage of women who transform despair into determination, and to the quiet power of education to break cycles of hardship.
An initiative of Touching Lives Welfare Trust and shot in ProtoVillage, a resilient village community, the film bridges art and social impact, bringing to screen a story that speaks to the shared conscience of humanity, inviting empathy, awareness, and a deeper humility towards the struggles of rural communities.
Director: Sonia Mackwani
Producer: Sadik Keshwani, Sonia Mackwani
Writer: Sonia Mackwani
Cast: Pallavi Kedia, K. Danish Mohammed, Kallur Basha, Kalyan Akkipeddi, M. Mujamill, G. Ganesh, K. Naveen Kumar, Lakshminarayan
Cinematographer: Jaskirat Bhatia
Editor: Kanupriya Gupta, Suraaj Gunjal
Best Director Award in Symbiosis Film Festival, Pune 2025
Best Script (2 Prize) - HessenLab, Frankfurt 2024
Process And Social Impact - The film is an initiative of Touching Lives Welfare Trust, a nonprofit organization in Mumbai, India that works to support education, mental health, and arts for children and communities for more than 20 years.
Shot in ProtoVillage, a self-sustaining community and a non-profit too in Andhra Pradesh, the collaboration was an experiential and impactful process as the children and the members of both the organizations became an active part for making the film.
Through the film, our team has sought to integrate the purpose of art and social impact. The prize amount received from HessenLab2024 was offered as a contribution to ProtoVillage for their commitment towards their vision.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonia_mackwani/
Director’s Note : As a filmmaker, therapist, and social entrepreneur, I made Pilot to honour stories that pass quietly through generations, yet carry the power of seeking and relentless human spirit. The immortality of storytelling can inspire transformation and healing in making our mortal lives more humane and that is always my aim with camera, words and cinema.