Indian Narrative Shorts IN COMPETITION

Five short narrative films from India in various languages – Bengali, Hindi, Pahari and English – are nominated for the Best Indian Narrative Short Award worth Rs.25,000.
These films are also eligible for Best Performance in a Lead Role worth Rs.25,000 and Best Screenplay worth Rs.25,000 instituted in the memory of Dr. Arvind Vaman Kulkarni by his son & actor Abhay Kulkarni.

CHITTHI Director: Sarthak Chauhan 10 min | 2023 | India | Pahari Chitthi explores the idea of alienation through a queer lens as well as the consequences of such subordination. The story unfolds itself through a letter, where the protagonist (the narrator) equates the loss of his lover with a man he sees in his dreams. Unaware of what has happened to his lover, whether he has gone missing or been a victim to of a hate crime; he asks his mother how to cope with such a loss.

IF
(Original Title: যদি )
Director: Tathagata Ghosh
26 min | 2023 | India | Bengali

Jaya and Fatima, two women in love, are separated because of Jaya’s marriage arranged by her conservative father. Trapped and helpless, Jaya is about to give up, when life suddenly brings her to a strange crossroad.

IYKYK (If You Know You Know)
Director: Bonita Rajpurohit
18 min | 2024 | India | Hindi, English

Everyone seems to have a different approach to the elephant in the room; her Gender Identity. Address it or ignore it. No one seems to have a clue how to go about it. We follow a series of dates, Kusum goes on.

LOVE + (Love Positive) Director: Tushar Tyagi 17 min | 2023 | India | English, Hindi Ajay and Utkarsh, a sero-discordant live in couple who happily live in Mumbai. While Ajay is open about his relationship and HIV status as a HIV positive man, Utkarsh is still not open about his relationship with Ajay. One fine day, during a live streaming when Ajay was sharing his story of a HIV positive person, Utkarsh confesses his love for Ajay.

NIGHT QUEEN Director: Naireeta Dasgupta 29 min | 2023 | India | Hindi Forty-eight-year-old Lakshmikant Sharma lives in Old Lucknow with his wife, daughter and widowed mother, living a life that is the textbook definition of monotony. Except it isn’t. Lakshmi wants to wear Sarees, put on her favourite shade of pink lipstick and live like a woman.