3rd Dharamshala International Film Festival

Dharamshala International Film Festival, India’s most eclectic independent film festival, will once again descend on the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic town of McLeod Ganj in Dharamshala from October 30, 2014 to November 2, 2014.

DIFF 2014, now in its third edition, will continue to build on the hallmarks that made the festival a cutting-edge cultural event in the Himalayas: an intimate and carefully curated film festival where film aficionados can watch films, meet filmmakers, and for a few days, live and breathe cinema, all in the shadow of the majestic Dhauladhar mountains.

DIFF 2014 schedule includes some 24 full-length feature films and documentaries, which have been winning acclaim at film festivals worldwide. Some of the films from the line-up include: Talal Derki’s Return to Homs (about a group of young revolutionaries battling government forces in the besieged city of Homs in western Syria); Jehane Noujaim’s The Square (an intimate view of personal stories unfolding against the background of the Egyptian revolution); Pushpa Rawat/Anupama Srinivasan’s Nirnay (a piercingly personal inquiry on love and arranged marriage and the place of women in today’s India); Geetu Mohandas’ Liar’s Dice (a road movie with a more alarming backdrop of the socio-political conditions of India today); Tenzin Tsetan Choklay’s Bringing Tibet Home (a documentary about a Tibetan contemporary artist’s mission to bring Tibet closer to Tibetan exiles); Gitanjali Rao’s True Love Story (a tale set in the streets of Mumbai that explores what happens when the ultimate Bollywood fantasy is applied in reality); veteran American indie director Jim Jarmush’s Only Lovers Left Alive, a deliciously cool modern-day vampire tale; and Luc Schaedler’s Watermarks (a subjective snapshot in time that takes a poetic look at the changing everyday life in China).

This year’s programme includes:
•Showcasing approximately 24 full-length feature films and documentaries, and a selection of short animation films, selected from the best of contemporary independent cinema.
•Inviting around 12 filmmakers from India and abroad, film critics, and industry and media personnel, to attend the festival.
•Holding masterclasses and workshops, including a special animation workshop conducted by India’s leading animation filmmaker, Gitanjali Rao
•A package of the best of Indian short films curated by filmmaker Umesh Kulkarni; and a selection of animation films from around the world curated by animation filmmaker Gitanjali Rao.
•Organising a Food, Arts and Crafts Fair for the duration of the festival on the grounds of DIFF’s main venue, the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA).
•Conducting special Outreach Programmes to local schools and colleges to ensure their participation and involvement in the festival.
•The DIFF Film Fellows Programme, in which five young filmmakers from the Indian Himalayan regions will be selected to come to the festival, attend film screenings, masterclasses and workshops, and engage in one-on-one mentoring sessions with established filmmakers.