For one evening each fall, a college theater in Ybor City becomes the city's living room for Asian cinema. On Saturday, October 24, 2026, the City of Tampa Mayor's Asian American Pacific Islander Advisory Council presents Tampa's 3rd annual Asian American Film Series at Hillsborough College's Performing Arts Main Stage Theatre, a free community screening built around a feature film with a remarkable true story behind it.
The centerpiece is Paper Flowers, an American independent feature directed by Mahesh Pailoor. It is based on the life of Shalin Shah, a recent University of Southern California graduate who joined the Peace Corps and was posted to Peru. His service was cut short by a rare cancer diagnosis. Shah came home and, rather than retreat, set out to live the rest of his life as fully as he could. Before he died, he wrote an essay for HuffPost titled "Thank You, Cancer," which spread widely and touched readers around the world.
The film follows that arc. Kapil Talwalkar, known for Night Court, plays Shah. Olivia Liang, of Kung Fu, plays his girlfriend, Fiona; Karan Soni, of Spider-Man, plays his friend; and Tom Everett Scott plays his doctor. The ensemble also includes Faran Tahir, Meera Simhan and West Liang. The screenplay was co-written by Mary Krell Oishi, Mahesh Pailoor and Asit Vyas.
Vyas, the film's producer, is a relative of Shah who watched the story unfold firsthand and saw how it affected others. "It had become Shalin's last wish to share his story with as many people as possible when he saw his story help inspire people around the world," Vyas said in a statement to Deadline. Pailoor put it another way: "Shalin's story was not just about a patient's experience with a terminal diagnosis, but it was about all of us needing to learn to live in the moment. It was a guide to living."
The film has been collecting festival honors, including an Audience Award at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, Best of Fest at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, a Social Impact and Vision Award at the Ojai Film Festival and Best Film at the Chandler Film Festival, along with several other festival prizes. The title refers to a moment in the story when Shah shows up with a handmade bouquet of paper flowers to serenade Fiona, a gesture that carries the film's themes of love and gratitude.
Paper Flowers will be joined by two short films, each brought to Tampa by a festival with its own following. The South Asian International Film Festival, founded in New York City, has long been a premiere destination for South Asian and Indian filmmakers in the United States; by 2022, fourteen of India's submissions for the international feature Oscar had held their North American premieres there. The Tigertail Asian Film Festival is closer to home: founded by filmmaker Tian Liu, who leads Tigertail Pictures, it held its inaugural edition in 2024 and bills itself as the first Asian-focused film festival in the greater Tampa-St. Pete area. More than 300 attendees turned out that first year for films and cultural experiences from across Asia.
The series itself has evolved quickly. The first edition, in May 2024, was held at the historic Tampa Theatre in celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and paired the family-friendly Kung Fu Panda 4 with Food Roots, a documentary by Emmy-winning Chicago restaurateur Billy Dec about tracing his mother's native Philippines through recipes and family secrets. Dec, whose ties to Tampa include the Sunda New Asian restaurant in Midtown, took part in a red carpet and a post-screening Q&A. The second edition moved to October and to Hillsborough College's Ybor City stage, with HOME COURT, the story of Cambodian American basketball standout Ashley Chea. The third returns to the same theater with the same early-evening rhythm.
That rhythm is part of the appeal. From 5:00 to 5:45 p.m., guests can walk a red carpet, do media interviews, browse a "Tour of Asia" basket raffle and sample Asian-inspired snacks and refreshments before all three films screen. It is a low-key, open-to-the-public evening rather than a ticketed gala, staged in a college performing arts hall in one of Tampa's most storied neighborhoods.
For media coverage or more information, the council directs inquiries to AAPI Advisory Council member Nerissa Lamison at [email protected] or (813) 486-7446.