Dharamshala International Film Festival announces line-up for 10th edition

The Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) has announced the line-up of films for its landmark 10th edition.

The event, which will be the second edition of the festival to be held virtually, will be held online from 4 to 10 November.

The programme includes Indian and international feature films, documentaries and shorts.

Laila Aur Satt Geet by Pushpendra Singh, Uljhan by Ashish Pant and Shoebox by Faraz Ali will be screened among the Indian features while the international selection includes Egyptian filmmaker Omar El Zohairy’s Feathers, winner of the grand prize at the Cannes Critics’ Week; Italian filmmakers Matteo Zoppis and Alessio Rigo de Righi’s The Tale Of King Crab, which was premiered at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight; Amalia Ulman’s El Planeta, which was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival; and Lili Horvát’s Preparations To Be Together For An Unknown Period Of Time, which was the Hungarian entry for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards.

The documentary section includes Iryna Tsilyk’s The Earth Is Blue As An Orange, which won at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary category; Salomé Jashi’s Taming The Garden; Firouzeh Khosrovani’s Radiograph Of A Family; Samarth Mahajan’s Borderlands; Yudhajit Basu’s Kalsubai; Shweta Ghosh’s We Make Film; and Samina Mishra’s Happiness Class.

The selection of short films includes Alisha Tejpal’s Lata, which was premiered at Sundance; Theja Rio’s Angh; Kabir Mehta’s Nitty-Gritty Punjab Police; Kaushal Oza’s The Miniaturist Of Junagadh starring Naseeruddin Shah and Rasika Duggal; Ashutosh Pathak’s Khabsurat; and Hamza Bangash’s Bhai, which was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Festival director Ritu Sarin said, “In this landmark 10th year of DIFF, we are sad that because of the pandemic we will not be able to host a physical festival, but we are nonetheless thrilled to reach audiences all over India and beyond with another digital iteration of our beloved festival. DIFF’s reputation rests in its meticulously considered selection of exciting and unusual documentaries, shorts and feature films from around the world and this year too we have an exciting line-up in store for our audiences. Additionally, our team is curating a series of special programming events that will interactively engage with filmmakers and film-lovers more than ever before."

Festival passes, through which one can view the line-up of films and special programmes, are available online.