2025 Vietnamese film Ky Nam Inn (Quán Kỳ Nam) in Pittsburgh, September 21 for SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Fest.

The 2025 Vietnamese film Ky Nam Inn (Quán Kỳ Nam) will play in Pittsburgh on September 21 as part of the SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Fest. A synopsis, from SCREENSHOT:

Ky Nam Inn, a romance set in 1980’s Saigon, explores the frustrations of desire when cast against duty, community, expectation, and authoritarianism. Khang (Liên Bỉnh Phát) wants to prove himself to be a skilled translator, even though he may have gotten his job translating The Little Prince from nepotism. Meanwhile, his neighbor Ky Nam (Đỗ Thị Hải Yến) caters lunches out of her kitchen while suffering from judgement because of her deceased husband’s southern associations. Though the film and its characters are unabashedly beautiful, the love story is rooted in literature and language. Their relationship grows because of—and in spite of—how languages cannot close the gaps between cultures, classes, and regions. Shot on luminous 35mm, the lyrical film explores what can and cannot be said in a world with duties, rules, and expectations.

Best film: Beijing International Film Festival (2026)

It plays at 6:30 pm in Public Health G24 on the University of Pittsburgh campus (map) and tickets are available onilne. Tickets are free for CMU students and for University of Pittsburgh students, faculty, and staff.

Queer Taiwan: Works from Jo-Fei Chen, with films Where is my Love? (強迫曝光) and Incidental Journey (海角天涯), September 20 at Carnegie Museum of Art.

The Carnegie Museum of Art will screen two films, Where is my Love? (強迫曝光) and Incidental Journey (海角天涯), on September 20 for SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Fest's "Queer Taiwan: Works from Jo-Fei Chen" programming. A synopsis, from SCREENSHOT:

SCREENSHOT: Asia is excited to bring two rarely-seen works of queer filmmaker Jo-Fei Chen to Pittsburgh. These two works offered a nuanced portrayal of gay love in Taiwan at a time when few films did.

Where is My Love, Taipei in the 1990s: Ko (Wen Jixing) is a young gay writer who has written a story about his sexuality, and is encouraged by his mentor to enter it into a prestigious writing competition. But that would mean publicly revealing his homosexuality, so Ko must decide whether or not to remain in the closet.

Incidental Journey, after breaking up with her girlfriend, student Ching (Wu Su-Li) goes on a road trip around Taiwan. On the island’s east coast, she encounters hitchhiker Hsiang (Wang Wan-Jung), an older, solitary artist. Hsiang takes Ching to visit her friend Ji (Vicky Chiang), who lives on a peaceful rural farm with her husband.

Presented by SCREENSHOT: Asia, Jaded Collective, AQUARIUS, Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Office of Institutional Engagement and Wellbeing.

The event starts at 3:00 pm and tickets are free, though reservations are required. The Carnegie Museum of Art is located at 4400 Forbes Ave. in Oakland (map), accessible by a number of city buses.

Music at Main: Album Listening Club – “KPop Demon Hunters” Movie Soundtrack, September 26 at Carnegie Library in Oakland.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Main Branch is hosting "Music at Main: Album Listening Club – “KPop Demon Hunters” Movie Soundtrack" on September 26.

It’s like a book club, but for music! This month’s album is the “KPop Demon Hunters” Movie Soundtrack. We’ll play some tracks, talk about its history and share what the album means to us. Held in the North Wing Music Room.

It runs from 2:00 to 3:00 pm and is free and open to the public. The Main branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is located at 4400 Forbes Ave. in Oakland (map), accessible by numerous city bus lines.

The Music of Studio Ghibli with Butler County Symphony Orchestra, October 3.

The Butler County Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Moon Doh will present "The Music of Studio Ghibli" on October 3.

Step into the imaginative worlds of Studio Ghibli through the unforgettable music of Joe Hisaishi, the composer behind My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and a remarkable run of Ghibli favorites across decades. Studio Ghibli’s official film pages credit Hisaishi on titles stretching from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Castle in the Sky through My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, The Wind Rises, and The Boy and the Heron—a body of work that has helped define the emotional sound of the studio’s films. This program brings that music into the concert hall for an evening of wonder, nostalgia, tenderness, and adventure that will speak to longtime fans and first-time listeners alike.

Pre-Sale: Adults $39 Children/Students $20
At Door: Adults $45 Children/Students $25

All performances are held at the Butler Intermediate High School: 551 Fairground Hill Rd., Butler, PA, 16001

Contact the office at (724) 283-1402 to learn about discounts for groups of 10 or more. We also offer discounts for seniors, active or retired military, first responders, and educators.

The show runs from 7:30 to 9:30 pm and tickets are available online.

1998 Taiwanese drama-musical film The Hole (洞) in Pittsburgh, September 21 through 24.

The 1998 Taiwanese drama-musical film The Hole (洞) will play in Pittsburgh from September 21 through 24.

Set on the eve of the 21st century, Tsai Ming-liang’s fourth feature turns a crumbling Taipei apartment block into one of cinema’s strangest and most tender end-of-the-world romances. Perennial muse Lee Kang-sheng (“the man upstairs”) and Yang Kuei-mei (“the woman downstairs”) are among the building’s last holdouts, refusing evacuation as a mysterious epidemic spreads outside and rain batters the city without end. When a plumber leaves behind an unfinished repair, the man’s floor opens into an accidental passage between two sealed-off lives, turning leaks, trash, pesticide, and petty territorial warfare into a strange form of courtship. Among the most disarmingly funny and cathartic entries in Tsai’s filmography, The Hole finds hope in a world that seems to be falling apart, breaking its deadpan plague scenario open with splendorous Grace Chang musical numbers and poker-faced slapstick.

The film plays at the Harris Theater in downtown's Cultural District (map) and tickets are available online.

2026 film Filipiñana in Pittsburgh for SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Fest, September 19.

The 2026 Filipino film Filipiñana will play in Pittsburgh on September 19, part of this year's SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Fest. A synopsis, from SCREENSHOT:

In Filipiñana, Isabel (Jorrybell Agoto) — a new “tee girl” at a luxury golf course – attempts to navigate the quiet luxury and ruthless hierarchical structure of Manila’s wealthy elite. Even as Isabel becomes increasingly entranced with the club’s president Dr. Palanca, she also seems to know secrets that point to Palanca’s dark history. The film’s highly artificial shots of composed pastel symmetries and minutely choreographed workers paint a portrait of Manila’s high society as simultaneously banal and terrifying. The luxurious facility echoes the country’s instabilities: its challenges from climate upheaval amid an increasingly wealthy elite, its history of violence, and its underlying class conflicts. First-time feature director Rafael Manual’s confident artisanship and darkly funny writing are remarkable, but Agoto is the standout star of the film, as a young woman who wants a different life than has been allocated to her. Her relationship with Dr. Palanca maps the Philippines’s past onto its present, showing how even the most elite can’t escape the realities in which they live.

It plays from 7:00 pm at the Harris Theater in downtown's Cultural District (map) and tickets are available online. University of Pittsburgh students, faculty, and staff can use promo code ASIAN2026 to get free tickets, but must show valid university ID at the door.

An Evening With the Incredible Ming-Na Wen, October 8 in Shadyside.

Riverstone Books will present "An Evening With the Incredible Ming-Na Wen" on October 8 at Third Presbyterian Church in Shadyside (map).

Join us for an unforgettable evening with beloved actress and Pittsburgh's own , Ming-Na Wen!

Join us on Thursday, October 8th to celebrate the release of Ming-Na Wen's cookbook, Have You Eaten Yet?

This cookbook is a heartfelt collection of stories and recipes from Ming-Na Wen, weaving together her childhood in her family’s Pittsburgh Chinese restaurant with the dishes she now cooks at home for loved ones and friends.

We are excited to announce that author Jim Rooney (A Different Way to Win: Dan Rooney’s Story from the Super Bowl to the Rooney Rule), member of the legendary Rooney family, will be our moderator for the evening!

See below for all details regarding the event and please reach out to us if you have any questions.

2025 Japanese film Two Seasons, Two Strangers (旅と日々), starring Shim Eun-kyung, in Pittsburgh on September 20, part of SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Fest.

The 2025 Japanese film Two Seasons, Two Strangers (旅と日々), starring Korean actress Shim Eun-kyung, will play in Pittsburgh on September 20, part of this year's SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Fest.

Inspired by two of Yoshiharu Tsuge’s manga short stories – A View of the Seaside and Mr. Ben and His Igloo – the film connects and contrasts two moments in time and space, exploring how lives and stories can be viewed, reviewed, and reimagined in cinema. In the first story, a damp, windswept summer by the sea provides the location where two young strangers exchange tentative glances and halting conversation. In the second, a screenwriter, Li, meets the enigmatic innkeeper Benzo at a remote snowy inn. In both, director Sho Mikaye (whose first film, Small, Slow but Steady screened at our 2023 festival) bridges connections between strangers to give us a beautiful, intimate, at times surreal, portrait of human connectivity.

It plays at the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium in Oakland (map) and tickets are available online. Tickets are free for CMU students and for University of Pittsburgh students, faculty, and staff.

2025 Chinese film Gloaming in Luomu (罗目的黄昏) in Pittsburgh, September 19, part of SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Festival.

The 2025 Chinese film Gloaming in Luomu (罗目的黄昏) will play in Pittsburgh on September 19, part of this year's SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Festival. A synopsis, from SCREENSHOT:

CONTENT WARNING: Addiction

When Bai (Bai Baihe) – a dancer with an alcohol problem – receives a postcard from her missing boyfriend that only says “Gloaming in Luomu,” she heads to the untouched, idyllic village to try to find out what happened to him. There, she connects with a host of interesting characters, all of whom help her as she feels increasingly more connected to her absent companion. In Gloaming in Luomu, Korean-Chinese filmmaker Zhang Lu offers a radical reworking vanished soulmate theme, with the Sichuan-set tale unfolding like a delirious dream, the mysteries of its complex characters and metaphysical conversations heightened by meticulous camerawork and imaginative sound design. The film captures the surreal disjuncture of searching while also lost and of looking for a shade of the past–someone who may or may not be a fever dream.

It plays in room 332 of the Cathedral of Learning (map) and tickets are available online. Tickets are free for students, faculty, and staff with a valid University of Pittsburgh ID card, and for Carnegie Mellon University students. 

Laurie Trok x Peel Open Session, debuting new menu, September 19 at Peel in Squirrel Hill.

Newish Squirrel Hill teahouse Peel is hosting an Open Session on September 19 where it will unveil its new menu.

Laurie Trok x Peel is a kinetic menu collaboration for play, translocal encounters, and rituals.

Laurie is a multidisciplinary artist whose work leans into our experience of the ephemeral and the ways time is made visible by entropy. Food is central to this practice and Laurie has sought to create menus that investigate our relationship to time.

Often sourcing directly from their own garden, Laurie’s and Peel’s practices are both particularly attuned to time and place-specificity. The collaboration approaches temporalities and inheritances as sites where play, locality and collaboration can generate speculative rituals for tasting, relating and gathering.

Your ticket gives you access to the space from 12-5pm, with unlimited menu offerings available throughout the session (menu below). Once the reservation is made, there are no additional charges at Peel.

Tickets are available online for $38. More information is on Peel's Instagram post. Peel opened in February at 5806 Forbes Ave., second floor, above Uncle Sam's (map).