After being postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival will now be held online this year, making it the first major Indian film festival take place virtually.
Titled ‘Kashish 2020 Virtual’, the film festival will now take place from July 22 to 30. The festival was initially scheduled to be held from May 20 to 24 at three venues: Liberty Cinema, Metro Inox, and Alliance Française de Bombay, and was pushed to September. However, due to the pandemic, the 11th edition of the festival will only be held online.
While the line-up for Kashish will be revealed in the coming weeks, the programme for the 11th edition has been locked. “We are committed to bring our LGBTQIA+ stories out there to the world, as a means of healing and empowerment,” said Sridhar Rangayan, Festival Director of Kashish.
Billed as the biggest queer film festival in South Asia, Kashish is counted among the important events in Mumbai’s film festival calendar. Kashish 2020 Virtual plans to screen more than 100 films online, along with online panel discussions, Q&As with filmmakers, performances and opening and closing ceremonies. Most of the films in the programme would be available for viewing across the world, except a few titles, which may be geo-blocked for viewing only in India.
“I believe this is a great opportunity for the festival to use a technological platform and bring Indian queer content to international audiences, besides bringing international content to Indian audiences. For India, in a post-377 world, it is equally important for us to discuss the future evolution of the Indian LGBTQIA+ movement,” said Pallav Patankar, Director of Marketing at Kashish.