The 16th annual Boston Asian American Film Festival will be held from Oct. 17 to 27. The festival lineup includes six feature films, five shorts programs, and a special presentation of a new Hulu series.

For readers, the festival’s special presentation may be one to look out for—Charles Yu’s hit 2020 novel “Interior Chinatown” has been adapted into a TV series, which will be screened on Saturday, Oct. 26. It follows a Chinese American actor—played by comedian Jimmy Yang—who yearns to move from playing background characters to a leading kung fu role, until his aspirations of fantasy seep into his reality.

“It’s a show that a lot of people are going to be talking about, and I’m excited that we get to be a part of that conversation,” ArtsEmerson Community Engagement Manager Shu said in an interview with The Beacon. “It highlights A-list Asian American talent like Jimmy [Yang], Ronny [Chen], and Chloe [Bennet], and Charles has done such a great job of adapting the book into something that’s very different while still having that spirit.”

The opening episode will be screened twice, once in the afternoon and later in the evening. Yu will also be present for post-screening Q&As and book signings at the Empire Garden restaurant.

Other films in the program see Asian American comedians, a group that has become increasingly popular in recent years, being placed in dramatic roles. The festival opens with a screening of “All That We Love” at the Brattle Theatre on Oct. 17, the latest film by Malaysian American filmmaker Yen Tan. The film stars stand-up comedian Margaret Cho as a woman who, following her dog’s death, finds a new need to find her place in her community.

“Nobuko Miyamoto: A Song in Movement,” directed by Tadashi Nakamura and Quyên Nguyen-Le, is the festival’s centerpiece. It documents the life of Nobuko Miyamoto, an activist and multi-disciplinary artist whose work since the ‘70s has touched on Asian American issues and pushed for their rights. The documentary offers a sprawling portrait of someone whose work is so deeply and historically embedded in a community.

“Through the course of 55 minutes, you understand her entire life’s work,” Shu said. “She was a dancer, a singer, a theater creator, and an Asian American rights activist. It’s a great portrait of a woman who committed her whole life to different forms of art activism—Asian American activists aren’t covered much, so we take any opportunity we can to highlight the untold stories of people who have made life better for us.”

Other films in the lineup highlight aspects of Asian American history that are unknown to the mainstream. “New Wave,” by documentarian Elizabeth Ai, explores the history of Vietnamese New Wave music, a Eurodance-adjacent style that arose in Orange County during the ‘80s from Vietnamese American immigrants.

The closing night documentary, “And So It Begins,” chronicles the 2022 Philippines presidential election, which signified a transition from Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial presidency. The film is the latest in a series chronicling the modern Filipino political landscape by director Ramona Diaz, whose 2020 film “A Thousand Cuts” followed a journalist who puts herself in danger by criticizing Duterte’s drug war policy.

“We want to make sure that we have a good representation throughout the entire Asian American diaspora,” Shu said. “We’re looking for stories that communicate something about our community and identity.”