By Dominick Rodrigues
Mumbai: The Chilean film “Forgotten Roads” (by Nicol Ruiz)won the Best Narrative Feature film, the Argentinian film Canela (by Cecilia del Valle) won the Best Documentary film, and young Brazilian trans actress Maria Eduardo Mia won the Best Performance in a Lead Role (for her role in Advent of Mary) at the recently-held 12th edition of KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, South Asia’s biggest LGBTQI film festival.
The awards were announced at a glittering online Closing & Awards Ceremony on September 5th, which also featured performances by LGBTQ+ community members and allies like popstar Shalmali & dancer/ choreographer Sandip Soparrkar.
“Latin American films are exquisite since they have a certain filmmaking aesthetic that is raw and palpable, and convey complex emotion with a simplicity that is unique. Most of the winners — spread across three continents — went against all odds and faced many challenges to tell these beautiful stories that the jury chose not only for their diverse ethnicity, but also in the LGBTQIA+ communities they represent,” said Sridhar Rangayan, founder festival director.
The winners in the Indian categories are “Are We There Yet?” by Bhanu Ballal & Kashyap Swaroop as Best Indian Narrative Shorts, while Radhika Prasidhha won the Riyad Wadia Award for the Best Emerging Indian Filmmaker for her filmBegum Parvathi. Receiving special jury mentions are: Kirnay Bhatt’s “Keep Punching” in the Indian Narrative Shorts category and Swati Jaiswal’s “Nothing But A Human” in the Documentary Shorts category.
The other awardees include Cypriot film “The Man With The Answers” (by Stelios Kammitsis) for Best Narrative Screenplay, the Macedonian film “Snake” (by Andrej Volkashin ) for Best International Narrative Short, the Portugal/USA film “Tracing Utopia” (by (Nick Tyson & Catarina de Sousa) for Best Documentary Short, and the Israeli film “On A Path” (by Lihi Lubetkin) for Best Student Short. Special jury mentions include the UK film “Rebel Dykes” (by Harri Shanahan & 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,
Nicol Riuz, director of the winning feature Forgotten Roads, a heartwarming film about two elderly women falling in love in the small Chilean countryside, expressed hope in connecting based on love and compassion, and speaking about freedom in kindness. Maria Eduarda Maia won the best actor award for her role of a transgender youth in “Advent of Mary,” directed by Vinicius Machado.
Radhika Prasidhha, who won the Riyad Wadia Award for Best Emerging Indian Filmmaker, thanked ‘KASHISH 2021’ for creating the platform, and the jury for instituting the prestigious award that supports and encourages debut filmmakers telling queer stories.
The super eminent jury members who announced the award winners were Ritesh Batra, Gauri Shinde, Satya Rai Nagpaul, Cary Sawhney & Selvaggia Velo (Narrative Jury); Bina Paul, Gargi Sen & Nandan Saxena (Documentary Jury); Dr. Anjali Monteiro, Ketki Pandit & Viveck Vaswani (Student Shorts Jury); Jerome Marrel (Poster Design Contest) and Roy Wadia (Riyad Wadia Award).
The festival partners were Morgan Stanley, IBM, General Mills, Consulate General of Canada, the Québec Government Office in Mumbai, AtEase, Consulate General of Sweden, Consulate General of the Kingdom of Belgium in Mumbai, Embassy of Israel, and Danish Cultural Institute. The award partners were Lotus Visual Productions, K.F.Patil Charitable Trust, Anticlock Films, Wadia Movietone, Whistling Woods International, Abhay Kulkani and Jerome Marrel.
KASHISH 2021 screened 221 LGBTQIA+ films from 53 countries — out of which 55 films were in competition – from August 19 to September 5 with the closing ceremony featuring festival team song ‘Let’s All Unlock With Pride’.
