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| A scenic view of the DIFF venue |
The Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) will be held from 7 to 10 November 2019 in the beautiful mountain town of McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala, home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the meeting point of a rich and cosmopolitan mix of people and cultures. The eighth edition of DIFF will continue to pursue the hallmarks that have given the festival the reputation of being an intimate and carefully curated festival in the Himalayas that showcases an eclectic mix of the best of independent features, documentaries, shorts and animation films from India and around the world.
Besides the curated selection, this year, for the first time, DIFF opened up to submissions via FilmFreeway and there were numerous excellent entries! This contributed to the further diversity of our line-up this year.
Opening and Closing Films
Eeb Allay Ooo!by Prateek Vats will open the 8th edition of Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) 2019. Gitanjali Rao’s feature animation, Bombay Rose, will close the festival. Directors Prateek Vats and Gitanjali Rao will be present.
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| Noted actor Adil Hussain would be back at the 2019 DIFF after a gap of 1 year |
Celebrities and Filmmakers attending
Adil Hussain will be attending the festival and conducting an Acting Workshop.
Indian feature film directors Ekta Mittal, Gurvinder Singh, Kislay, Lijo Jose Pellissery, Priya Sen, R.V. Ramani, and Vinod Kamble will be present.
Jesse Alk (USA), Kazuhiro Soda (Japan), Samuel Weniger (Switzerland).
Complete Line Up
The DIFF 2019 lineup includes Indian fiction and documentary features: About Love (dir. Archana Phadke), Aise Hee (dir. Kislay), Birha (dir. Ekta Mittal), Bombay Rose (dir. Gitanjali Rao), Eeb Allay Ooo! (dir. Prateek Vats), Jallikattu (dir. Lijo Jose Pellissery),Khanaur (Bitter Chestnut), (dir. Gurvinder Singh), Oh, That’s Bhanu (dir. R.V. Ramani) and Yeh Freedom Life (dir. Priya Sen).
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| A still from Jallikattu |
The international fiction and documentary features include: Another Day Of Life (dir. Raúl de la Fuente, Damian Nenow, Poland/Spain), For Sama (dir. Edward Watts, Waad Al-Khateab, UK), God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya (dir. Teona Strugar Mitevska, Macedonia/ France/Belgium), Golden Age (dir. Beat Oswald, Samuel Weniger, Switzerland), Heimat is a Space in Time (dir. Thomas Heise, Germany), Inland Sea (dir. Kazuhiro Soda, Japan), Last Night I Saw You Smiling (dir. Kavich Neang, Cambodia), Mafak (dir. Bassam Jarbawi, Palestine/ USA/ Qatar), Pariah Dog (dir. Jesse Alk, USA), Song Without a Name (dir. Melina León, Peru/Spain/USA), Tehran: City of Love (dir. Ali Jaberansari, Iran/UK/Netherlands), The Best Thing You Can Do With Your Life (dir. Zita Erffa, Germany), The Dalai Lama – Scientist (dir. Dawn Gifford Engle, USA), Varda by Agnés (dir. Agnés Varda, France) and Vitalina Varela (dir. Pedro Costa, Portugal).
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| A still from Varda by Agnés |
Shorts at DIFF
DIFF has always recognized the importance of short films as a category in its own right. Our programme this year includes a rich selection of both fiction and documentary shorts. Short Films include: A Million Years (dir. Danech San, Cambodia), Bebaak (dir. Shazia Iqbal), Brother, Move On (dir. Antshi von Moos, Switzerland), The Booth (dir. Rohin Raveendran), The Little Goddess (dir. Gauri Adelkar),The Horns Of Kolkata (dir. Andrew Scott, New Zealand) Jamnapaar (dir. Abhinava Bhattacharyya), Kamali(dir. Sasha Rainbow, United Kingdom), Kandurwan–Baking History(dir. Mehvish Rather), Knock Knock Knock(dir. Sudhanshu Saria), Light a Candle (dir. Tenzin Kalden), Look at The Sky (dir. Ashok Veilou), Nemesis (dir. Behzad Jafarimazhab Haghighi, Iran), Nooreh (dir. Ashish Pandey), Pema (dir. Sonam Tseten), Sekool (dir. Stenzin Tankong), Student Bodies (dir. Ho Rui An, Singapore), Teesri Khwaish (dir. Purandhya Sharma), The Traffic Separating Device (dir. Johan Palmgren, Sweden), The Timekeeper (dir. Sohil Vaidya)and U for Usha (dir. Rohan Parashuram Kanawade).
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| A still from Bombay Rose |
In a separate category, DIFF is partnering again with Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films to present a package of short films – Chintu (dir. Anubhav Anand), Everything is Fine (dir. Mansi Jain), Gadhedo (dir. Jai Sharma), Laddoo (dir. Sameer Sadhwani, Kishore Sadhwani), Maa Tuki (dir. Suchana Saha) and Rogan Josh (dir. Sanjeev Vig).
DIFF Children’s Film Programme
The popular DIFF Children’s Film Programme will continue with a line-up that includes feature film Kastoori (dir. Vinod Kamble, India) and three shorts, The Award (dir. Lidija Mojsovska, Macedonia), School Trip (dir. Salvatore Allocca, Italy), and Chicken at Swami’s Kitchen (dir. Sachin Balachandiran, India).
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| A still from Tehran: City of Love |
Filmmaking Masterclasses
DIFF’s workshops and masterclasses offer a space to delve into the realm of filmmaking. This year, internationally acclaimed actor Adil Hussain conducts an acting workshop. Swiss filmmaker Samuel Weniger, co-director and cinematographer of Golden Age, explores the creative possibilities of images in documentaries and essay films on the basis of concrete examples from his film. Kazuhiro Soda, director of Inland Sea - Observational Film #7, will enlighten audiences on his unique approach to observational documentary filmmaking.
Spotlight on Himachal
Gurvinder Singh’s latest feature fiction Khanaur (Bitter Chestnut) offers this year’s Spotlight on Himachal.
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| DIFF Festival Directors Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam |
Talking about this year’s line-up at DIFF, Festival Director Ritu Sarin said, “Every year, we try and stay true to the same principles that we set out for DIFF when we started the festival eight years ago: to select films that combine a deeply personal vision with themes that resonate with our times. This year is no different, and hopefully our line-up, which has been carefully and painstakingly curated, will showcase some of the incredible diversity of filmmaking talent on offer in the world today.”She adds: “DIFF is also a place where filmmakers and film lovers can interact in an informal yet engaged way, and with our move back to the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts this year, where all of DIFF’s screenings and events will be contained within close distance of each other, we hope to create an even more intimate space for such exchanges.”
With an exciting line-up of films and events, DIFF 2019 promises to provide another unique, captivating cinematic experience against the backdrop of the dramatic Dhauladhar range.
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| A still from The Horns of Kolkata |
The eighth edition of Dharamshala International Film Festival will be held in McLeod Ganj from 7 to 10 November. Filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, who are long-term residents of Dharamshala, initiated the festival in 2012, with the aim of bringing high-quality independent cinema to the mountains, encouraging local filmmaking talent, and creating a meaningful platform to engage the area’s diverse communities. For more information, log on to http://www.diff.co.in.
DIFF is presented by White Crane Arts & Media, a trust founded by filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam to promote contemporary cinema, art and independent media practices in the Himalayan regions of India.
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| A Still from Mafak |
The first edition of DIFF was held in 2012. Since then, it has established itself as one of India’s leading independent film festivals. DIFF’s cutting-edge and eclectic programming – which includes many India premieres – and its policy of inviting as many directors as possible has made it one of the go-to events in any cinephile’s calendar. Last year, the films and side programmes at DIFF attracted a viewership of around 7000, of which at least 60% were from out of town from places as far away as Kerala, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai. Some of India’s best-known film critics and journalists from leading media houses were on hand to cover the event.
This year, the festival bids farewell to the Tibetan Children’s Village, which hosted DIFF for the past three years. The festival moves back to the location which hosted the first editions of DIFF, the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts. This location is within walking distance from the centre of McLeod Ganj and hosts all three of the screening venues next to each other.
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