The winners were announced at the online closing and award ceremony.
Our Correspondent
The Chilean film Forgotten Roads by Nicol Ruiz won the Best Narrative Feature Film Award while the Argentinian film Canela by Cecilia del Valle won the Best Documentary Film Award at the 12th edition of the KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival.
The awards were announced at an online closing and awards ceremony on 5 September. The event featured performances by LGBTQ+ community members and allies like popstar Shalmali and dancer and choreographer Sandip Soparrkar.
“I am full of happiness because our stories could connect with you from the other side of the world. It fills me with hope to know that we can connect, based on love and compassion, and speak about freedom in kindness. I want to thank the jury and the audience, and share a big hug from Chile,” said Ruiz, director of Forgotten Roads, a heartwarming film about two elderly women falling in love in the small Chilean countryside.
The other international winners at the festival were Brazilian trans actress Maria Eduardo Mia, who won the Best Performance in a Lead Role Award for her role in Advent of Mary. The Cypriot film The Man With The Answers by Stelios Kammitsis won Best Narrative Screenplay, the Macedonian film Snake by Andrej Volkashin Best International Narrative Short, the Portugal/USA film Tracing Utopia by Nick Tyson and Catarina de Sousa \Best Documentary Short, and the Israeli film On A Path by Lihi Lubetkin Best Student Short.
Special jury mentions included the UK film Rebel Dykes by Harri Shanahan and Siân A Williams in the Documentary Feature category, the Pakistani film Stray Dogs Come Out At Night by Humza Bangash in the International Narrative Shorts category and the French film Today by Francis Chillet in the Student Shorts category,
“Latin American films are exquisite since they have a certain filmmaking aesthetics that is raw and palpable, and convey complex emotion with a simplicity that is unique. We are thrilled and congratulate all the winners spread across three continents, most of who went against all odds and faced many challenges to tell these beautiful stories. We are very happy that the jury chose stories that are not only diverse in their ethnicity, but also in the LGBTQIA+ communities they represent,” said Sridhar Rangayan, founder festival director, KASHISH.
The winners in the Indian categories were Are We There Yet? by Bhanu Ballal and Kashyap Swaroop for the Best Indian Narrative Short, while Radhika Prasidhha won the Riyad Wadia Award for the Best Emerging Indian Filmmaker for her film Begum Parvathi. Kirnay Bhatt’s Keep Punching received a special jury mention in the Indian Narrative Shorts category, as did Swati Jaiswal for Nothing But A Human in the Documentary Shorts category.
Are We There Yet? director Kashyap Swaroop said, “This is a small film with a big heart and what makes us continue to do this is the love that we receive from different film festivals and jury members, so super grateful to the jury for choosing our movie.”
The film’s co-director Bhanu Babbal added, “I would really like to thank the jury and KASHISH for giving us this platform and opportunity. This really motivates us and boosts our confidence a lot.”
The jury members who announced the award winners were Ritesh Batra, Gauri Shinde, Satya Rai Nagpaul, Cary Sawhney and Selvaggia Velo (Narrative Jury); Bina Paul, Gargi Sen and Nandan Saxena (Documentary Jury); Dr Anjali Monteiro, Ketki Pandit and Viveck Vaswani (Student Shorts Jury); Jerome Marrel (Poster Design Contest) and Roy Wadia (Riyad Wadia Award).
The winner of the KASHISH QDrishti Film Grant 2021 was announced by jury members Robin Bhatt, Renuka Shahane, Urmi Juvekar and Neeraj Churi.
KASHISH 2021 screened 221 LGBTQIA+ films from 53 countries, and the festival was organized over three weekends from 19 August to 5 September.
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Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival