(The Global Renaissance of ASEAN-American Culture Entertainment (GRACE) Heritage is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization with a mission to promote film and photography from ASEAN-member countries. For more information, please visit http://www.thegraceheritage.org)

In the last few years, Southeast Asia has become one of the world’s great centers of cinematic creativity. This year’s ASEAN Film Festival series, cosponsored with Freer Gallery of Art/Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, brings together a selection of outstanding films from a variety of genres and styles, reflecting the region’s character as a cultural crossroads.

Two of the films in the series, I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone and Syndromes and a Century, were commissioned as part of the New Hope festival in Vienna honoring Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 250th birthday.

This series is made possible by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., The Embassy of The Republic of Indonesia, The Embassy of the Republic of Singapore, The Thai Royal Embassy, Singapore Tourism Board, Tourism Authority of Thailand, and The Washington Post and is presented in honor of the 30th Anniversary of ASEAN-US relations. “One ASEAN at the heart of dynamic Asia.”