Launched in 2002, Subway Cinema's New York Asian Film Festival is America's leading and most influential showcase for popular Asian cinema. Each year, the Festival selects more than 30 feature films, considering only the best, the strangest, and the most entertaining of the recent titles. To date, the festival has presented more than 130 films from China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand, including the works of Park Chan-wook, Patrick Tam, Takashi Miike, Andrew Lau, Feng Xiaogang, Kim Jee-woon, Lee Myung-se, Suzuki Seijun, Johnnie To, Sion Sono, Shinya Tsukamoto, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, KIM Ki-duk, Ryu Seung-wan, Xiao Jiang, Shunji Iwai, and many others. Each year, one film is crowned with the NYAFF Audience Award, as determined by audience ballot, keeping with the grass-roots democratic spirit of the Festival. Audience Award winners. The festival's intimate atmosphere allows for a personal and relaxed interaction between the audience and the filmmakers, which is all but lost at larger film events. Festival guests do everything from conducting Q&As, to giving away prizes and even putting on puppet shows! Past guests include directors E. J-Yong (DASEPO NAUGHTY GIRLS), Shusuke Kaneko (DEATH NOTE), Sion Sono (EXTE), HAN Jae-rim (THE SHOW MUST GO ON), Omar Khan (HELL'S GROUND), RYU Seung-wan (CRYING FIST), Eiichiro Hasumi (UMIZARU, UMIZARU 2), Takashi Yamazaki (ALWAYS: SUNSET ON THIRD STREET), Hideyuki Kobayashi (MARRONIER), Bade Haji Azmi (GANGSTER), Onir (MY BROTHER NIKHIL); producers Syd Lim (OLD BOY), Eiko Tanaka (MIND GAME), and Hirotsugi Usui (BAYSIDE SHAKEDOWN, UMIZARU). Information: www.subwaycinema.com.