Launch of Asian Cinema Association
Dr Lydia Wu shares her reflections on the aims of the association and its launch event.
17 October 2025
Rethinking film curation in Asian cinemas: reflections from Dr Lydia Wu
We caught up with Dr Lydia Wu, NUAcT Fellow in the School of Modern Languages, who recently founded the Association for Curators and Programmers of Asian Cinema (ACPAC). Dr Wu shares her reflections on the aims of the association and its launch event:
As part of my NUAcT fellowship, I founded ACPAC in 2025. The initiative quickly drew strong interest from across the film industry. From 4–6 September 2025, the Asian Film Archive in Singapore hosted ACPAC’s launch symposium, Rethinking Film Curation in Asian Cinemas. This symposium attracted 119 participants from 17 countries, including:
- freelance curators and programmers
- delegates from film archives, festivals, museums, and universities
What has been the focus of your research during your NUAcT Fellowship?
My NUAcT project, Decolonising Film Curation: Asian Cinemas as Method:
- challenges the tendency to treat “Asian cinema and its heritage” as a loose, disconnected set of national cinemas and canons
- centres the curatorial workflow—preservation, restoration, exhibition—as a powerful yet under-recognised mode of knowledge production about Asian cinema
- examines how curatorial practice can broaden the film canon, enabling Asian films—and their contexts—to be seen, understood, and written into world film heritage
- is delivered through a community-led methodology. ACPAC is the vehicle through which curators and programmers convene and co-conduct the research with me
Why did you found ACPAC and who can join?
ACPAC addresses two persistent sector gaps:
- the under-representation of Asian curators and programmers across the global screen ecology
- the weak links between film archives and exhibition in Asian cinemas that impede access to, and circulation of, archival and restored works
ACPAC welcomes individuals and institutions with at least two years’ experience of curating public-facing Asian film programmes.
We also offer observing membership for those preparing to enter the field or researching it (e.g. students, scholars).
By joining ACPAC, members become part of a collective effort to shape the future of film curation and programming in Asian cinemas—helping to set standards, ethics, and best practice for the field. They also gain access to a cross-sector platform for sharing ideas, strategies, and experience, fostering collaboration.
What does the future look like for the association?
ACPAC is registered in the UK as a Community Interest Company. Working with its members, it will develop an agenda focused on:
- skills and ethics in film curation
- access to heritage films, and sector infrastructure
- elevating the professional status of film curators and programmers
- promoting Asian cinemas and Asian film heritage through curatorial practice
- enriching the global film ecology
ACPAC will also collaborate with professional associations, cultural institutions, and universities to deliver this agenda.
Currently, I am collaborating with scholars and industry professionals to prepare the ACPAC Annual Conference 2026. This edition will centre on two themes: access to film archives in Asia: right or privilege, and festival legacy as film heritage.
