KASHISH 2019 HIGHLIGHTS

KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival – South Asia’s Biggest and India’s only mainstream lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender film fest – is back for its 10th edition. The festival will be held from June 12-16, 2019 at two iconic venues in South Mumbai – Liberty Carnival Cinema and Metro Inox. Founded in 2010, KASHISH was voted as one of the Top 5 LGBT Film Festival in the World and was the first Indian LGBT festival to be held with approval by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry, Government of India. The festival theme this year is ‘Over the Rainbow’.

Key Highlights for this year will be:

• 160 films, from 43 countries.
• The festival is spread across two venues in South Mumbai this year – Liberty Carnival Cinemas and Metro Inox.
• The festival theme is “Over The Rainbow”
• 31 Indian LGBTQ films will be screened at the festival comprising — narrative feature films, — narrative short films and — documentary short films.
• Around 50 films will compete for top awards at the festival in eight categories.
• The festival will hand out cash prizes of Rs 3.95 lakhs.
• The Narrative Jury comprises actors Kitu Gidwani and Sheeba Chadha and film maker Neeraj Ghaywan.
• The Documentary Jury comprises of filmmakers Ranjan Das, Pankaj Rishi Kumar and Paromita Vohra.
• The Student Short Film Jury comprises professor Dr Ivan John, screenwriter Jyoti Kapoor and filmmaker Somnath Sen.
• 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 20,000 for the Riyad Wadia Award for the Best Emerging Indian Filmmaker.
• Whistling Woods International will sponsor the Best Student Film Award Rs 20,000
• K F Patil Charitable Trust will sponsor the Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short awards of Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively.
• A Rs 2 lakh QDirshti Film Grant sponsored by Lotus Visual will be awarded to support an independent filmmaker based in India to make his/her next LGBTQ-themed film. 6 films are nominated.
• GagaOOLala is sponsoring the Best International Narrative Short Award with a cash prize of Rs.20,000.
• The Best Screenplay Award will make its debut with a cash prize of Rs 15,000 instituted in the memory of renowned poet and author late Dr. Arvind Waman Kulkarni.
• India’s top fashion designer Wendell Rodicks picked the poster contest winner and offered him Rs.25,000 cash award for best design. Ashutosh Vyas was the winner this year.
• Opening film is the Dutch film Just Friends.
• The Closing film is the acclaimed Malayalam film Njan Marykutty (I Am Marykutty).
• 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.
• Several companies have come together again to support KASHISH including Keshav Suri Foundation, Skybags, Godrej, Morgan Stanley and The Lalit group of hotels.
• Special events at KASHISH 2019 include panel discussions, screen writing master class by Varun Grover facilitated by the Screen Writers Association, acting workshop by Anupam Kher’s Actor Prepares.
• KASHISH offered free scholarships to 150 students to attend KASHISH, courtesy Godrej Industries Ltd.
• KASHISH also offers scholarships to 8 Indian filmmakers to attend the festival and present their films.
• KASHISH 2019 will present an interactive sessions with Sweekar – The Rainbow Parents, support group for parents of LGBTQ children.