The Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) will be held from 1 to 4 November 2018

 Opening and Closing Films

Dar Gai’s Namdev Bhau: In Search of Silence will open

Ere Gowda’s who was the writer of Kannada film “Thithi” with his debut direction feature film “Balekempa “will close the 7^th edition of Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) 2018. Balekempa already making sound across the various film festivals since this year and won FIPRESCI Award at International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Both directors will be present.

 Celebs and Filmmakers attending

Manoj Bajpayee – the lead actor of Bhonsle, and internationally renowned photographer Raghu Rai will be attending the festival along with his filmmaker daughter Avani Rai for her debut documentary, Raghu Rai: An Unframed Portrait.

Indian feature film directors Ere Gowda, Anamika Haksar, Devashish Makhija, Ridham Janve and Priya Ramasubban will be present.

International filmmakers attending the festival include Tashi Gyeltshen (Bhutan), Dar Gai (Ukraine), Mathieu Roy (Canada), Hiroshi Sunairi (Japan) and Luc Schaedler (Switzerland).

Indian short filmmakers Siddharth Chauhan, Sudha Padmaja Francis, Mukul Haloi, Rishi Chandna, Tarun Jain, Raghbir Singh Toor, Natesh Hagde, Abhijeet Phartiyal, Divya Unny, Pia Shah and Ajitpal Singh will also be present.

 Complete Line-Up

The DIFF 2018 lineup includes Indian fiction and documentary features: Balekempa, Bhonsle, Ee.Ma.Yau, Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoon, The Gold-Laden Sheep and the Sacred Mountain, Ma•ama, Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam’s The Sweet Requiem, Namdev Bhau: In Search of Silence, and Raghu Rai: An Unframed Portrait, and international fiction and documentary features: 48 Years: Silent Dictator, A Long Way Home, Bamboo Dogs, Boom for Real, The Dispossessed, Father to Son, House of My Fathers, In the Intense Now, Little Forest, Namme, Of Fathers and Sons, The Red Phallus, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda, and Waru.

Short Films include: Amma Meri, Eye Test, Khurafat, Letter To Home, Namage Navu Godege Mannu, Pashi, Sakhisona, The Open Door, Tungrus and Two Brothers.

Children’s Films include: two features Chuskit, Cross My Heart, and 4 shorts Abu Adnan’s Father, Beauty, Hadia (The Gift), Rammat Gammat.

Programming highlights

The Indian Programming highlights at the festival include Devashish Makhija’s Bhonsle, Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Ee.Ma.Yau, Ridham Janve’s Gaddi-language feature film The Gold-Laden Sheep and the Sacred Mountain, Dominic Sangma’s Garo language film Ma’ama and documentaries like Raghu Rai: An Unframed Portrait by Avani Rai, Asia Premiere of Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam’s The Sweet Requiem which has its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival 2018 and Anamika Haksar’s Ghode ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoon.

The International Programming highlights at the festival include the Indian Premieres of Hiroshi Sunairi’s 48 Years: Silent Dictator (Japan), TIFF 2017 Official Selection Waru (New Zealand), Tashi Gyeltshen’s The Red Phallus (Won the FIPRESCI at Busan), Zaza Khalvashi’s Namme (official entry to the Oscars from Georgia), and screenings of Yim Soon- Rye’s Little Forest (Korea), Hsiao Ya Chuan’s Father To Son (Taiwan) and the documentaries Boom For Now (Sarah Driver, USA), In the Intense Now (João Moreira Salles, Brazil), A Long Way Home (Luc Scheadler, Switzerland) and Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda (Stephen Nomura Schible, USA/Japan).

DIFF Children’s Film Programme

The popular DIFF Children’s Film Programme is once again curated by Children’s Media Specialist, Monica Wahi and the line-up includes two award-winning features, Chuskit (Priya Ramasubban, India) and Cross My Heart (Luc Picard, Canada), and four internationally acclaimed shorts, Rammat Gammat (Ajitpal Singh, India), Hadia the Gift (Sinem Sakaogl, Germany/Turkey), Father (Abu Adnan, Denmark), Beauty (Christina Willings, Canada)

Shorts at DIFF

DIFF has always recognized the importance of short films as a category in its own right and for the fifth year in a row, filmmaker Umesh Kulkarni has curated a selection of ten shorts including Tungrus and Eye Test. Besides this, DIFF is partnering with Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films to present a package of short films.

 New Initiative: First Dharamshala PJLF Editing Workshop

This year, DIFF is thrilled to host the first Dharamshala PJLF Editing Workshop, an initiative supported by NFDC. The two selected projects are Where the Winds Blow by Director Karma Takapa and Editor Anadi Athaley, and 4Sum by Director Neeraj Gwal and Editor Rishiraj Bhattacharya. A third project, Chola, directed and edited by Sanal Sasidharan, was unanimously recommended by the selection committee and will receive editing consultation from the mentors. The projects will be mentored by internationally renowned editor Jacques Comets who co-headed the editing department at France’s leading film school, La Femis, along with editor and Artistic Director of the Kerala International Film Festival, Bina Paul and producer and script/editing mentor Olivia Stewart.

 DIFF Film Fellows initiative

Five filmmakers from Himachal Pradesh, Rahat Mahajan, Aman Sharma, Mrinalini Singha, Vaasu Soni and Kesang Thakur will be mentored by renowned National Award-winning filmmaker Gurvinder Singh and award-winning documentary filmmaker Anupama Srinivasan in this year’s edition of the DIFF Film Fellow initiative. The initiative, started in 2014, is supported by the HP Government’s Department of Language, Arts and Culture, and this year focuses specially on filmmakers from Himachal Pradesh.

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Ajay.K.R