Mumbai Queer Film Festival

Background

The year 2009 was a historic one for the LGBT movement in India. On 2 July 2009, the Delhi High Court court ruling decriminalised homosexual intercourse between consenting adults and judged Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code to be conflicting with the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India. This brought a respite to the Indian LGBT community that has been repressed and marginalized. This also led to open celebrations by LGBT persons including Pride Parades in many of the metros. This was followed by the relaunch of India's first gay magazine – Bombay Dost. The Indian Election Commission decided to recognize transgender as a separate category. All these activities brought media focus and visibility to the LGBT community in India.

KASHISH Mumbai Queer Film Festival took this movement forward through the medium of films. It made LGBT persons, their desires and aspirations visible through films and brought about an international perspective to LGBT works. The objective of the festival continues to mainstream the LGBT community and project them as 'normal' human beings who have the capacity to love and live with dignity. The festival offers cinema as a means to understand what being queer means today, and how it impacts both the queer community and the society at large.

It was the first Indian LGBT film festival to be held in a mainstream theater. It was also the first LGBT film festival to obtain a clearance from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India)

The Festival

KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, 2010 was held between 22 and 25 April 2010, spread across two venues in Mumbai – one in the city and one in the suburbs. Features, short films, documentaries and experimental films were screened that highlighted gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender characters and stories. The films explored the diverse realities, complexities, joys and sorrows that make up the global queer experience. They also celebrate, reclaim, and explain LGBTQ identities while engaging and entertaining audiences. The film festival brings together the audience, the films and their makers to create social change.

In its debut year Founder Festival Director Sridhar Rangayan said he hoped that the film festival would encourage greater visibility of queer cinema and bring it into the mainstream discourse. He has said that the Festival showcases the films to both queer and mainstream audiences, in order to make them aware about queer thought, desires and expressions.

The festival boasts of support from Indian film personalities. Shyam Benegal is the Festival Patron and Celina Jaitly is the Festival Ambassador.

The Advisory Board of the festival comprises of eminent personalities like Dolly Thakore, Nandini Sardesai, Aruna Raje Patil, Shernaz Patel, Meghna Ghai Puri, Roy Wadia and Jenni Olson (USA)

Some of the chief guests and guests of honour at the festival have been Sir Ian Mckellen, Sonam Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Kunal Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Manisha Koirala, Nandita Das, Kabir Bedi, Kalpana Lajmi, Zeenat Aman, Moushumi Chatterjee, Sanjay Suri, Neelam Kothari, Varun Badola, Shweta Kawatra, Sona Mohapatra, Anant Mahadevan, Dalip Tahil, Shaina NC, Aleque Padamsee, Apurva Asrani, Suchitra Pillai-Malik, Purab Kohli, etc.

Calendar of KASHISH film festival:

1st edition of the festival KASHISH 2010 was held April 25 - 29, 2010 at PVR Cinemas and screened and screened 110 films from 25 countries. The theme of the festival was, 'See A Different World'
2nd edition of the festival KASHISH 2011 was held May 25-29, 2011 at Cinemax Versova & Alliance Francaise de Bombay, and screened 124 films from 23 countries. The theme of the festival was, 'Bigger, Bolder & Queerer'
3rd edition of the festival KASHISH 2012 was held May 23-27, 2012 at Cinemax Versova & Alliance Francaise de Bombay, and screened 120 films from 30 countries. The theme of the festival was 'For Everyone'
4th edition of the festival KASHISH 2013 was held May 22-26, 2013 at Cinemax Versova & Alliance Francaise de Bombay, and screened 132 films from 40 countries. The theme of the festival was 'Towards Change'
5th edition of the festival KASHISH 2014 was held May 21-25, 2014 at Liberty Cinema & Alliance Francaise de Bombay, and screened 154 films from 31 countries. The theme of the festival was 'Dare To Dream'
6th edition of the festival KASHISH 2015 was held May 27-31, 2015 at Liberty Cinema, Alliance Francaise de Bombay & Max Mueller Bhavan, and screened 180 films from 44 countries. The theme of the festival was 'Reaching Out, Touching Hearts'
7th edition of the festival KASHISH 2016 was held May 22-26, 2013 at Liberty Cinema, Alliance Francaise de Bombay & Max Mueller Bhavan, and screened 182 films from 53 countries. The theme of the festival was '7 Shades of Love'

The 8th edition of festival KASHISH 2017 is scheduled to be held May 24-28, 2017 at Liberty Cinema & Alliance Francaise de Bombay. The theme of the festival is 'Diverse, One'

Festival Jury

KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival has, in its attempt to mainstream queer visibility, from its year engaged an eminent jury to judge the award categories. The five member jury have consisted of actors, directors, critics, theater and media personalities and festival curators from India and abroad.

2010 - Suhasini Mulay, Rajit Kapur, Mahesh Dattani, Dolly Thakore & Meenakshi Shedde
2011 - Sai Paranjpye, Khalid Mohamed, Shernaz Patel, Samir Soni & John Badalu (Indonesia)
2012 - Renuka Shahane, Parvin Dabas, Mayank Shekhar, Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal & Mona Ambegaonkar
2013 - Aruna Raje Patil, Simone Singh, Quasar Padamsee, Jerry Pinto & Berwyn Rowlands (UK)
2014 - Sarika Thakur, Nitish Bharadwaj, Onir, Avantika Akerkar & Pia Benegal
2015 - Anubhav Sinha, Aamir Bashir, Chitra Palekar, Meghna Malik & Malavika Sangghvi
2016 - Rajeshwari Sachdev, Manav Gohil, Parvati Balagopalan, Dr.Kaizaad Kotwal and Andrea Kuhn (Germany)
2010-2015 - Roy Wadia, additional jury for Riyad Wadia Award for Emerging Indian Filmmaker. In 2016 Nargis Wadia was the additional jury for this category

Wendell Rodricks, celebrity fashion designer has been the judge every year since 2013 for the KASHISH Poster Design Contest that invites designers from around the world to create the look of the festival, which will be used in posters, billboards and other promotional materials.

Best Narrative Feature Film

Best Documentary Feature Film

Best Documentary Short Film

Best International Narrative Short Film

Best Indian Narrative Short Film

Kashish Coffee Break Audience Award

Riyad Wadia Award For Best Emerging Indian Filmmaker

Best Performance in a Lead Role

QDrishti Film Grant

Special Jury Award

Special Jury Mention