The selection is part of the return of the AKS Outreach Program, with festival activities running from 1 October to 31 December 2026. According to the organisers’ announcement to selected filmmakers, most activities will take place in Lahore, Islamabad and Bahawalpur. The venue, date and time for IUS of Time will be announced at a later stage.

Why the AKS International Minorities Festival matters

AKS has built a distinctive space for film, art and dialogue around communities whose stories are often absent from mainstream screens. Its official website describes a particular commitment to transgender and sexual minorities, including Pakistan’s indigenous Khwaja Sira community. Its name means “reflection” or “mirror” in Urdu: an idea that places visibility and representation at the heart of the festival.

For IUS of Time, joining this programme gives its international journey a meaningful new context. The film approaches queer experience through intimacy, ageing and the lives preserved in everyday gestures. At AKS, those themes enter a festival shaped by local organisers, artists and audiences working to create room for minority perspectives.

In Pakistan, a Muslim-majority country with diverse cultural traditions, community-led initiatives such as AKS can offer valuable spaces for minority stories that have limited visibility on mainstream screens. Their importance lies in the work of local programmers, artists and communities: opening conversations, widening access to cinema and allowing audiences to encounter lives beyond familiar representations. For IUS of Time, this creates an opportunity for dialogue across different histories and experiences, through the shared human questions of memory, belonging and affection.

Outreach: taking cinema beyond its usual audiences

The significance of AKS extends beyond a single screening venue. In his study of the festival for NECSUS, the European Journal of Media Studies, researcher Siddharth Chadha documents how AKS developed screenings through educational institutions, community organisations and local networks during the pandemic. His account of the 2021 edition records 32 venues across ten cities, showing how outreach helped reach audiences beyond established cultural centres.

This history gives particular resonance to a film rooted in a small Asturian village. Stories of queer life also belong outside metropolitan settings. The opportunity for IUS of Time to become part of a community-led programme is an opportunity for its characters to meet viewers through a different kind of cultural exchange.

AKS has also developed connections beyond Pakistan. Its work has reached Copenhagen and Manchester, and its 2026 collaboration with SCENE in Manchester presented South Asian trans stories alongside discussion. This wider trajectory helps explain the festival’s place within an international conversation about whose lives cinema makes visible.

AKS Pakistan 2026: a community-led programme

For the 2026 Pakistan edition, the organisers have announced a curated selection of 55 films from around the world. Festival Producer Syed Ali Asghar describes the return of the on-the-ground Outreach Program as a way to bring international stories to viewers who may otherwise have limited opportunities to encounter them.

The edition is being organised with reduced cultural funding and a community-led budget. Its emphasis remains on access, exchange and the work of bringing films and audiences together. We are grateful to the AKS team for including IUS of Time in that effort.

Edition: AKS International Minorities Festival 2026 – Pakistan Edition.
Programme period: 1 October–31 December 2026.
Main cities announced by the organisers: Lahore, Islamabad and Bahawalpur.
IUS of Time screening: venue, date and time to be confirmed.

From rural Asturias: memory, desire and two generations

IUS of Time, originally titled IUS del tiempo, follows Luca, a photography student, and Xuan, an older cheesemaker. Their meeting opens a story about desire, belonging and a past marked by silence. Manuel Pizarro plays Xuan and Pelayo Carrizo plays Luca.

Directed by Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi, the 2025 Spanish short is produced by Almost Red Producciones, with support from the Consejería de Cultura del Principado de Asturias and the Asturias Paraíso Natural Film Commission, and runs approximately 25 minutes, with dialogue in Spanish and Asturian. Fran Córdoba is its cinematographer; Canuto, Xu and Enrique Pérez Romero wrote the screenplay.

Photography and cheesemaking offer two ways of looking at time: one preserves an image, while the other depends on patient, repeated work. Their presence in the story invites attention to the knowledge carried by an older person’s hands and to the emotional histories that can remain unspoken within a community.

A continuing journey through Asian and international queer cinema

The Pakistan selection follows the film’s participation in the 16th KASHISH Pride Film Festival in Mumbai, where it had its Asian premiere in 2025, and the 13th Reel Desires – Chennai International Queer Film Festival. The film also received third place in the LQCW × CathayPlay Audience Choice Award at the 24th Beijing Queer Film Festival / Love Queer Cinema Week.

With 74 festival selections, screenings across more than 30 countries and five continents, and 10 awards, IUS of Time has established a substantial international presence for contemporary Asturian short cinema. Its distributor’s selection record documents a journey that carries a story rooted in rural Asturias to audiences around the world. Recent recognitions include Best Short Film (International) at the 8th NEXT International Film Festival in India, the Audience Award for Best Narrative Short Film at Austria’s 5th Pillusion Film Festival, and Best LGBTQIA+ Film at the 3rd Power24 International Film Festival in South Africa.

Alongside the recently announced selection for France’s Limouzi Film Festival, AKS adds another setting in which the film’s rural and queer perspectives can be discussed. Explore the complete festival and awards journey for further selections and recognitions.

Watch the official trailer

IUS of Time (2025) | Official Trailer – Directed by Roberto F. Canuto & Xu Xiaoxi