DIFF 2020: The Song We Sang chosen Best First Film, Dhummas wins Gender Sensitivity award

The Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF), held online from 29 October through 8 November this year, ended with a closing night live session with filmmakers, the festival team and some guests. Tibetan musician Tenzin Choegyal also sang a song at the session.

This year, DIFF initiated an Audience award for Best First Film to encourage and promote Indian short filmmaking. Producer Guneet Monga announced the winning film, The Song We Sang by Aarti Neharsh, along with a special mention for the animation short Wade by Kalp Sanghvi and Upamanyu Bhattacharyya. The winning filmmaker receives an exclusive session with Monga, among India's foremost indie producers.

Since 2019, the Film Critics Guild of India, in association with DIFF, has presented the Gender Sensitivity award to not just films that break stereotypes but also writers and filmmakers who create characters that break the dominant gender binary and are substantive and robust. This year the award was announced by journalist Suparna Sharma and presented to Nainisha Dedhia for her short film Dhummas, while a special mention was made for Garima Kaul’s short documentary, Desire?.

Festival director Ritu Sarin said, “We are overwhelmed by the response from film lovers and the independent film community from across India, South Asia and many unexpected parts of the world. Although not the ideal way to do a festival, the online version did allow us to connect with and bring on board filmmakers and industry professionals who would normally find it challenging to take the time off to travel to Dharamshala during the busy festival period. Apart from transcending these time and logistical challenges, the online version allowed more audiences to discover DIFF. We hope to build on these advantages in the years to come.”

The festival will make all the live sessions with filmmakers and industry professionals available to the public over the coming weeks. Special panels and Q&A sessions with filmmakers will also be made available.