The full programme for the 20th Five Flavours Asian Film Festival is here! Tickets now on sale
The cinema that sparked it all, retrospectives of two masters of popular film, soothing works for the soul, a new section offering a glimpse of the world through the eyes of Asian artists based in Poland, and a return to films that have won audiences’ hearts over the years. We unveil a programme in which the latest releases meet restored classics, ambitious arthouse sits alongside explosive mainstream hits, and kinetic action cinema gives way to moments of stillness and inward reflection. The full programme for the 20th edition of Five Flavours is now available. Join us in cinemas and online!
The 20th Five Flavours in cinemas from 10 to 17 November, and online until 6 December!
This year’s line-up features a record 61 feature-length and short films. It brings together new works presented at the world’s leading film festivals and enduring classics of Asian cinema that have never before been screened in Poland. Alongside the New Asian Cinema Competition and Asian Cinerama, the programme features a number of themed sections: the long-awaited retrospective of Tsui Hark, a filmmaker who helped establish Hong Kong cinema as a major force in the 1980s and modernised the language of film, and a retrospective of Na Hong-jin, the Korean director known for eliciting extreme emotions from his audiences. The programme also makes room for contemplative cinema exploring the spiritual dimension of human existence, as well as a selection of films reflecting the dynamic developments in Vietnamese cinema in recent years. A new addition is Subverted Gazes, a section that gives a voice to Asian artists working in Poland. The online Anniversary Section invites audiences to revisit films that have won viewers’ hearts over the years and helped shape the identity of Five Flavours.
Five Flavours takes place simultaneously at three Warsaw venues — Muranów, Kinoteka and Kinomuzeum at the Museum of Modern Art — from 10 to 17 November, and online across Poland at piecsmakow.pl from 10 November to 6 December.
Festival screenings will also take place in Poznań, Wrocław and Łódź. Please visit the respective cinemas’ websites for dates and ticket information.
Warsaw screening schedule and film list, with the option to buy tickets for individual screenings:
List of sections
Screening schedule
Films available online
Online festival passes are also available until the end of the festival:
Buy a festival pass
Sections of the 20th Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
New Asian Cinema Competition
Ten films, ten unique stories. The New Asian Cinema Competition showcases some of the most exciting work in contemporary Asian cinema. The winner of the 20th edition of Five Flavours will be chosen by the People’s Jury, made up of Asian cinema enthusiasts travelling to Warsaw from across Europe. The Grand Prix of PLN 25,000 is funded by the Polish Film Institute.
Asian Cinerama
A counterpoint to the competition, Asian Cinerama focuses on more mainstream cinema, featuring everything from action films to stories exploring the full range of human emotions, all directed by masters of their craft. This is a section that brings fun and pure cinematic pleasure to the festival programme, while also offering a snapshot of what audiences are watching in cinemas across Asia.
Retrospective: Tsui Hark
The first retrospective in Poland devoted to Tsui Hark’s Hong Kong films, celebrating a visionary innovator and one of the most important figures in world popular cinema. This eight-film programme is a whirlwind of genres, ranging from lavish wuxia films and fantasy to a breakneck-paced historical costume comedy.
Retrospective: Na Hong-jin
A chance to revisit the work of one of the most uncompromising and distinctive auteurs of New Korean Cinema, who took audiences by surprise at this year’s Cannes Film Festival with his blockbuster Hope. His filmography comprises just four genre films, but each packs such a punch that this retrospective promises an intensely cinematic experience.
Poetics of Spirituality
The Poetics of Spirituality brings together a diverse range of films that explore experiences of transcendence and, in doing so, become vehicles for those experiences themselves. These films seek the spiritual in everyday gestures, human relationships, the rhythms of life, landscapes and the very language of cinema. This is cinema that invites contemplation, opens up space for the invisible and reminds us that the spiritual need not always be expressed explicitly.
Focus: Vietnam
In this anniversary year, Focus: Vietnam marks a return to the festival’s roots: Five Flavours began as a showcase of Vietnamese cinema. The section brings together new films by established filmmakers familiar to Five Flavours audiences and works by a younger generation of directors taking Vietnamese cinema in new and exciting directions.
Restored Classics
The Restored Classics section is a film lover’s dream come true: masterpieces of Asian cinema that have stood the test of time return to the big screen in superb quality, revealing new layers of meaning when viewed today. This is an opportunity to encounter works rarely included in the Western canon and rediscover the creative energy of the eras from which they emerged.
Subverted Gazes
Curated by Xuan Lu, a Chinese-born film editor and graduate of the Łódź Film School, this section charts a new direction for Five Flavours. It comprises two programmes of short films by directors from East Asia. The screenings will be accompanied by a discussion about the presence of Asian filmmakers in Poland and their creative experiences.
Anniversary Section
Some films we watch only once; others we return to time and again. To celebrate Five Flavours’ 20th anniversary, we invite you on a journey through two decades of the festival, revisiting ten films that have delighted, surprised and moved both our team and our audiences, and stayed with us long after the credits rolled. These are the films that helped shape Five Flavours back when the festival was an exclusively in-person event.
Asian Night of Horror — 31 October
Just before the festival frenzy begins, we invite you to an event that will make your blood run cold! This year, our ever-terrifying Asian Night of Horror takes us into the dark corridors of a haunted Japanese school. You’ll gaze into the vacant eyes of pupils practising unsettling gymnastic routines, look over your shoulder for a threat straight out of classic J-horror, and discover a comedic take on the curse of a broken heart. Join us at Muranów on 31 October for three (terrifyingly) different takes on horror cinema. The event will also take place on the same day at Kino Pałacowe in Poznań.
The last few tickets are still available.
Listen to our podcast on the programme of the 20th Five Flavours
On the day of announcing the complete line-up for our anniversary edition, the entire programming team sat down together to talk through the programme we have been working on so intensively over the past few months. We unpack our curatorial choices and build context around the thematic sections: how has Vietnamese cinema evolved in recent years? How do you capture spirituality on film? Why is the Tsui Hark retrospective so pivotal to the language of popular cinema? We also discuss our personal favourites from the 20th Five Flavours line-up – as well as those we individual programmers feel a little less attached to.
Give it a listen – this episode will help you navigate the festival line-up with ease!
Meet the filmmakers at the 20th Five Flavours
Every year, we strive to ensure that the festival is not only an opportunity to watch exceptional films, but also to meet the people who create them. This year’s line-up of guests – including directors, screenwriters, and actors – promises to be particularly exciting!
Coming to Warsaw are, among others: Lê Bảo, director of Hearing, which was acclaimed at the Locarno Film Festival; Leon Le, creator of the Five Flavours hit Song Lang and this year’s Ky Nam Inn; Oliver Chan, director of Montages of a Modern Motherhood; and Han Chong-lok, director of Funky Freaky Freaks, featured in our Competition section. You will also meet Nao Yoshigai, a choreographer and director, with whom we will discuss her experiences making Masayume.
Following the screenings, we invite you to Q&A sessions, where you can peek behind the scenes, explore the cultural contexts of the films, and ask the filmmakers your own questions. We want these conversations to be open, relaxed, and driven by curiosity – come and join in!
Festival talks and podcasts
Education and broadening perspectives are an important part of Five Flavours’ work. For years, we have supplemented our screenings with informative materials that help audiences understand cultural and social nuances and offer insights into how films are made. Every screening, both in cinemas and online, will be accompanied by a short introduction from an expert.
Audiences will also be able to listen to a series of podcasts featuring conversations about films in the programme and the themes they explore. These episodes of the Five Flavours Podcast will feature special guests.
Step beyond the screen: The Asian Academy at the 20th Five Flavours
What lies behind the stories we see on screen? How does cinema play with genres, explore spirituality, respond to social change and help us notice what might otherwise remain invisible? At the Asian Academy, we’ll be exploring these questions and inviting you to discover the contexts that allow us to look at cinema from a new perspective.
The Asian Academy is a space for meeting, discussion and shared discovery – an opportunity to explore what lies behind the stories told on screen. The programme for the 20th edition of Five Flavours includes discussions, debates and film-club sessions that examine Asian cinema within the broader contexts of culture, history and contemporary social change. It’s a chance to discover new perspectives, share interpretations and extend the cinematic experience beyond the screen. You don’t need to be an expert – just bring your curiosity and a willingness to talk.
Admission to all Asian Academy events is free.
Festival Club: Turnus Cafe
This year, we’re taking festival gatherings beyond the cinema auditorium and into Turnus Cafe, housed in a former school at 31 Emilii Plater Street. The first chance to meet in this new venue comes on 30 October, when we’ll be getting together for our Five Flavours pre-festival party. Just before the school-themed Asian Night of Horror, join us to celebrate and warm up for the festival’s anniversary edition. And where better to get into the school spirit than in Turnus’s very own classrooms?
And that’s just the beginning! Turnus Cafe will be our festival club throughout the event, with a special 20th Five Flavours anniversary party taking place there on Friday, 13 November. We’re cooking up special competitions and surprises, so make sure you’re there to celebrate with us!
Turnus is a unique space that combines the relaxed atmosphere of a café-bar with the intimacy of an art gallery, while fostering a sense of local community. We share its openness and its approach to culture – values that have guided Five Flavours for years. A special menu and Asian-inspired touches will be available throughout the festival. We’re delighted to have a venue where the festival’s energy can continue long after the screenings have ended. Drop by Turnus Cafe between films to chat about the programme, meet fellow festivalgoers and celebrate with us!
Ticket and pass prices
Individual cinema tickets:
- Standard ticket — PLN 30
- Senior standard ticket — PLN 26
- Discounted ticket (for screenings before 5pm on weekdays) — PLN 24
- Senior discounted ticket (for screenings before 5pm on weekdays) — PLN 21
- Opening Night ticket — PLN 45
- Subverted Gazes section ticket — PLN 15
- Prison Marathon ticket — PLN 70
- Single online access — PLN 23
The Five Flavours Online pass, priced at PLN 240, grants access to all films on the festival’s video platform. There is no limit on the number of online passes available, and they will remain on sale throughout the festival.
