\n<\/p>\n
\n\tIndia\u2019s Dharamshala International Film Festival will return to the Himalayan foothills for its 14th edition, opening with Neeraj Ghaywan\u2019s \u201cHomebound\u201d and closing with Anuparna Roy\u2019s Venice prizewinner \u201cSongs of Forgotten Trees.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tRunning from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2 at the Tibetan Children\u2019s Village in Upper Dharamshala, DIFF has established itself as one of India\u2019s premier showcases for independent cinema, drawing global filmmakers and audiences to its non-competitive platform.<\/p>\n
\n\tGhaywan\u2019s \u201cHomebound,\u201d adapted from a 2020 New York Times article by Basharat Peer, follows two childhood friends from a North Indian village who aspire to become police officers. The film, which debuted at Cannes, explores how mounting pressures strain their friendship as they pursue respect and opportunity.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe festival continues its partnership with Sydney Film Festival, welcoming two Australian films and their filmmakers: Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese\u2019s queer sci-fi \u201cLesbian Space Princess\u201d and Gabrielle Brady\u2019s \u201cThe Wolves Always Come at Night,\u201d Australia\u2019s Oscar submission.<\/p>\n
\n\tProgramming highlights include Bhutan\u2019s Oscar entry \u201cI, The Song\u201d by Dechen Roder; Rohan Parashuram Kanawade\u2019s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner \u201cCactus Pears\u201d; Rich Peppiatt\u2019s Irish-language \u201cKneecap\u201c; and Raoul Peck\u2019s documentary \u201cOrwell 2+2=5.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe lineup also features Spanish director Carla Sim\u00f3n\u2019s \u201cRomeria\u201d; Hlynur P\u00e1lmason\u2019s Cannes entry \u201cThe Love That Remains\u201d; Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni\u2019s \u201cCutting Through Rocks\u201d; Prabhash Chandra\u2019s \u201cAlaav\u201d; Kunsang Kyirong\u2019s \u201c100 Sunset\u201d; and Tannishtha Chatterjee\u2019s Busan-debuting \u201cFull Plate,\u201d starring Kirti Kulhari and Sharib Hashmi.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe festival will host a masterclass with acclaimed Indian filmmaker Kiran Rao.<\/p>\n
\n\tClosing night belongs to Anuparna Roy\u2019s \u201cSongs of Forgotten Trees,\u201d which won the Horizons award for best director at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year. The Mumbai-set drama follows a migrant actor and sex worker who sublets her apartment to a call-center worker, forming a fragile bond.<\/p>\n
\n\tProgramming director Bina Paul has curated a lineup that includes Andrey Tarkovsky\u2019s son presenting the documentary \u201cAndrey Tarkovsky: A Cinema Prayer\u201d in person, featuring rare archival footage of the legendary Russian filmmaker.<\/p>\n
\n\tDharamshala is best known internationally as the seat of the\u00a0Dalai Lama, who has been based there since being exiled from Tibet in 1959. The festival directors Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam are filmmakers in their own right. Their chronicles of the Tibetan condition including 2005\u2019s \u201cDreaming Lhasa,\u201d 2010\u2019s \u201cThe Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet\u2019s Struggle for Freedom\u201d and 2018\u2019s \u201cThe Sweet Requiem\u201d have received considerable festival play, including at Toronto and San Sebastian. The pair\u2019s last venture, one of the shorts in Tibetan anthology film \u201cState of Statelessness,\u201d premiered at Busan in 2024.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe never set out to become one of the most prominent independent festivals in the country. We simply believed that meaningful cinema deserved a home in the mountains,\u201d say Sarin and Sonam. \u201cDIFF has grown organically over 14 years \u2014 not through flash or hype, but through the passion of filmmakers, the trust of our audiences, and the community that returns year after year.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tDIFF remains deliberately non-competitive, prioritizing dialogue over awards. The festival credits tech partner PictureTime\u2019s inflatable digital theaters with bringing independent cinema to the remote mountain location.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
India\u2019s Dharamshala International Film Festival will return to the Himalayan foothills for its 14th edition, opening with Neeraj Ghaywan\u2019s \u201cHomebound\u201d and closing with Anuparna Roy\u2019s Venice prizewinner \u201cSongs of Forgotten Trees.\u201d Running from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2 at the Tibetan Children\u2019s Village in Upper Dharamshala, DIFF has established itself as one of India\u2019s premier<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[7792,17547,1540,1171,17546,4572,3866,10189],"class_list":{"0":"post-29748","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-contender","9":"tag-dharamshala","10":"tag-festival","11":"tag-film","12":"tag-homebound","13":"tag-indian","14":"tag-open","15":"tag-oscar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}