Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites
2025 · 19m
Directed by Chheangkea
Genres: comedy, family, LGBTQ+
Tones: darkly comic, tender, whimsical
A deceased grandmother sneaks out of the afterlife during her family's Qingming visit to stop her queer grandson's arranged engagement.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A ghost-comedy about queer love that could've been saccharine nonsense in anyone else's hands, but Chheangkea makes the absurdist premise—dead grandma saboteur—feel like the most honest way to tell this story; subversion through sincerity, which is the hardest trick.
The film sits comfortably in a lineage of magical-realist family comedies (think early Wong Kar-wai warmth meets contemporary queer cinema), with careful attention to how grief and tradition hold space for love—the tonal balance between whimsy and tenderness is formally rigorous.
The decision to let the grandmother's mischief unfold through small, physical moments rather than broad spectacle—a glance, a perfectly-timed intervention—is what transforms a high-concept premise into something genuinely affecting and allows the Qingming ritual itself to become the film's emotional anchor.
Reviews
With Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites, writer/director Chheangkea crafts a beautiful, tender, and sensitive dramedy centred on a Cambodian family caught between tradition and societal expectations. Chheangkea's narrative offers a fresh perspective – one rooted in love, acceptance, and support.