KASHISH 2015 HIGHLIGHTS

KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival returns for its sixth edition in May 2015 with a bouquet of films and cultural events. South Asia’s biggest and India’s only mainstream LGBT film festival will be held between May 27-May 31, 2015 at three venues in South Mumbai – the iconic Liberty Cinema and Alliance Francaise de Bombay at New Marine Lines and Max Mueller Bhavan at Kala Ghoda.

Key Highlights for this year will be:

• 180 films, from 44 countries.
• The festival is spread across three venues this year – Liberty Cinema, Alliance Francaise and Max Mueller Bhavan.
• The theme for this year’s festival is ‘Reaching Out, Touching Hearts’ reflecting the urgent need for all of us to reach across barriers and boundaries, reach out to everyone, and build alliances to challenge prejudice, change attitudes and create a society that allows each person to live with love and dignity.
• This year, the ‘Country in Focus’ is Australia, with the festival screening some queer classics and path breaking contemporary films from Down Under. A total of 22 films form this package.
• Queer films from Iran, Srilanka, Nepal, Lebanon, Syria, Georgia, and El Salvador will be screened at KASHISH 2015.
• The Indian Panorama comprises 20 films made in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Punjabi and Bengali. Four Indian feature length narrative and documentaries will screen at the festival: Qissa by Anup Singh, Jayjaykar by Shantanu Rode, Known Strangers by Dipankar Dutta and Breaking Free by Sridhar Rangayan.
• The “competition section’’ will showcase 45 films that will be judged by an eminent Jury Panel.
  The international jury comprises filmmakers Anubhav Sinha, Chitra Palekar, National award winning filmmaker and actor Aamir Bashir, actor Meghna Malik and columnist and author Malavika Sangghvi.
• Acclaimed actor Anupam Kher’s Actor Prepares will sponsor cash prizes for the three top competition categories at KASHISH – Rs 30,000 for the Best Narrative Feature Film, Rs 20,000 for the Best Indian Narrative Short film and Rs 20,000 for the Best Performance in a Lead Role.
• Wadia Movietone awards Rs 15,000 for the Riyad Wadia Award for the Best Emerging Indian Filmmaker.
  Other awards are Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary Short and Best International Narrative Shorts.
• Opening film is the critically acclaimed film Love is Strange directed by Ira Sachs from the US.
• Closing film is the award winning Brazilian film The Way He Looks directed by Daniel Ribeiro.
• Red Ribbon package will focus on films that deal with people living with HIV. Short film Karma from Cambodia and feature documentary It’s Not Over, which is set in South Africa, USA and India, are part of this package.
• The Best Indian queer short film at KASHISH gets to compete for the Iris Prize in UK which carries a cash prize of £25,000.
• KASHISH in association with Gallery Beyond will hold a month-long art exhibition ‘The 377191 Wall’ – a group show featuring 238 artists and 270 works of art – to focus on the freedom to express and the freedom to choose.
• The festival will also have a book reading by author Sandip Roy of his debut novel ‘Don’t Let Her Know’.

KASHISH 2015

The 6th edition of KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival will be held from 27th to 31st 2015 at Liberty Cinema, May 28th to 30th 2015 at Alliance Française de Bombay and May 29th to 30th 2015 at Max Mueller Bhavan. The theme for this year’s festival is `Reaching Out, Touching Hearts’.

KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival

Voted as one of the Top 5 LGBT Film Festival in the World, KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival is South Asia’s biggest queer film festival and the only LGBT film festival in India to be held in a mainstream theater.

Founded in 2010, KASHISH is held over 5 days at three venues. The festival this year will be held at Liberty Cinema, Alliance Française and Max Mueller Bhavan in South Mumbai. It is the first Indian LGBT festival to be held with approval by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry, Government of India. KASHISH is organized by Solaris Pictures. Co-organizer is The Humsafar Trust.