Oscar Winner Guneet Monga Kapoor, Vikramaditya Motwane Join India's Kashish LGBTQ+ Film Fest Jury (EXCLUSIVE)
Joining Monga Kapoor ('The Elephant Whisperers,' 'The Lunchbox,' 'Masaan') and Motwane ('Black Warrant,' 'Udaan,' 'Jubilee') are director-producer Abhishek Chaubey ('Dedh Ishqiya,' 'Udta Punjab,' 'Sonchiriya') and producer Neeraj Churi ('Sabar Bonda,' 'Ek Jagah Apni') as jury members for the Kashish QDrishti Film Grant, which awards $3000 to an LGBTQ+ identifying filmmaker to make a short film. Actor Renuka Shahane ('Hum Aapke Hai Kaun,' 'Imtihaan') will support two runners-up.
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The narrative jury features actor Shishir Sharma ('Raazi,' 'Mary Kom,' 'Dangal'), actor and TV host Shruti Seth ('Shararat,' 'Fanaa,' 'Raajneeti') and filmmaker Tanuja Chandra ('Dushman,' 'Sur,' 'Qarib Qarib Single'), who will adjudge best narrative feature and shorts, best screenplay and best performance awards. These categories receive backing from Taiwanese streaming platform GagaOoLala, production house Samruddhi Studios and actor Abhay Kulkarni.
Documentary filmmakers Bishaka Dutta ('In the Flesh,' 'Taza Khabar'), Prateek Vats ('Eeb Allay Ooo!,' 'A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings') and Shubhra Chatterjee ('Rainbow Rishta,' 'Lost Recipes') comprise the documentary jury, selecting winners of the unity in diversity documentary feature and short awards, supported by K.F. Patil Charitable Trust.
The student shorts jury includes actors Siddharth Menon ('Loev,' 'Karwaan,' 'June'), director-producer Sudhanshu Saria ('Ulajh,' 'Loev,' 'Knock Knock Knock') and Mubi programming director Svetlana Naudiyal, with support from Whistling Woods International.
Additional awards include the Riyad Wadia Award for best emerging Indian filmmaker, Ismat Chughtai Award for best woman filmmaker of Indian origin, and Aditya Nanda Award for best film on mental health, backed by Nargis and Roy Wadia (Wadia Movietone), filmmaker Ashish Sawhny and Akshay Tyagi (Keshav Suri Foundation).
The festival runs June 4-8, kicking off Pride Month with screenings at St. Andrews Auditorium in Bandra, Mumbai, on opening night, then moving to Cinepolis Andheri West and Alliance Francaise Marine Lines for the remainder of the fest.
This year's edition showcases 152 films from 48 countries, including entries from Iceland, Peru, Serbia, Uzbekistan, Nigeria and Palestine. Indian films lead with 37 titles, followed by 34 from the U.S. and 19 from the U.K. The festival also features a strong South Asian presence with films from India, Bangladesh and Bhutan.
'Queer,' directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Daniel Craig, will bookend the festival alongside 'Close To You,' directed by Dominic Savage and featuring Elliot Page as lead actor and producer. Other key titles include Dutch film 'Out' by Dennis Alink and 'Odd Fish' by Snævar Sölvason, set in Iceland.
Onir's multiple award-winning 'We Are Faheem & Karun' serves as the Indian narrative centerpiece, while Romanian entry 'Three Kilometers To The End Of The World' by Emanuel Parvu is the international narrative centerpiece.
The festival pays tribute to late patron Shyam Benegal with a screening of his 1983 classic 'Mandi,' starring Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Neena Gupta, Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Soni Razdan and Amrish Puri.
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India and the Philippines stage joint sail and naval drill in the disputed South China Sea
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San Francisco Chronicle
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- San Francisco Chronicle
India and the Philippines stage joint sail and naval drill in the disputed South China Sea
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — India and the Philippines staged joint sail and naval exercises in the disputed South China Sea for the first time, a high-profile military deployment that will likely antagonize China. Beijing has separate territorial disputes with the two Asian democracies and a long-running regional rivalry with New Delhi. Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Romeo Brawner said Monday that the two-day joint naval sail and exercises which began Sunday have been successful so far and expressed hopes that Filipino forces could engage India's military in more joint maneuvers in the future. Asked if Chinese forces carried out any action in response, Brawner said without elaborating that 'we did not experience any untoward incident but we were still shadowed. We expected that already.' In past joint patrols with other foreign navies, Chinese navy and coast guard ships have kept watch from a distance, according to the Philippine military. China has a longstanding land border dispute with India in the Himalayas, which sparked a monthlong war in 1962 and a number of deadly firefights after. Separately, Beijing's expansive claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, a key global trade route, has led to tense confrontations with other claimant states, particularly the Philippines and Vietnam. Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also lay claims to parts of the contested waters. The Philippines has staged naval patrols in the disputed waters with its treaty ally, the United States, and other strategic partners including Japan, Australia, New Zealand and France to promote freedom of navigation and overflight and strengthen deterrence against China. It has allowed journalists to join territorial sea and aerial patrols to witness China's increasingly aggressive actions, provoking angry Chinese reactions. In response to a question last week about Manila's plans to build up military cooperation, China's Ministry of National Defense called the Philippines a 'troublemaker' that has aligned itself with foreign forces to stir up trouble in what China deems its own territorial waters. 'China never wavers in its resolve and will to safeguard national territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests and will take resolute countermeasures against any provocations by the Philippine side,' Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Zhang Xiaogang said in a news conference. Brawner said the Philippines has to boost deterrence to prevent war. 'The way to do that is number one, the Armed Forces of the Philippines has to be strengthened through modernization and secondly, we need to partner with like-minded nations and that's what we're doing with India,' he said last week. During a reception on board an Indian navy tanker, the INS Shakti, on Thursday, Brawner said the vessel's port call in Manila was more than ceremonial. It 'sends a powerful signal of solidarity, strength in partnership and the energy of cooperation between two vibrant democracies in the Indo-Pacific,' he said. Brawner welcomed the deepening of relations between the two Asian countries and 'reaffirmed the shared commitment to maritime security, regional stability and a rules-based international order in one of the world's most geopolitically sensitive regions.'
9 minutes ago
India and the Philippines stage joint sail and naval drill in the disputed South China Sea
MANILA, Philippines -- India and the Philippines staged joint sail and naval exercises in the disputed South China Sea for the first time, a high-profile military deployment that will likely antagonize China. Beijing has separate territorial disputes with the two Asian democracies and a long-running regional rivalry with New Delhi. Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Romeo Brawner said Monday that the two-day joint naval sail and exercises which began Sunday have been successful so far and expressed hopes that Filipino forces could engage India's military in more joint maneuvers in the future. Asked if Chinese forces carried out any action in response, Brawner said without elaborating that 'we did not experience any untoward incident but we were still shadowed. We expected that already.' In past joint patrols with other foreign navies, Chinese navy and coast guard ships have kept watch from a distance, according to the Philippine military. China has a longstanding land border dispute with India in the Himalayas, which sparked a monthlong war in 1962 and a number of deadly firefights after. Separately, Beijing's expansive claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, a key global trade route, has led to tense confrontations with other claimant states, particularly the Philippines and Vietnam. Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also lay claims to parts of the contested waters. The Philippines has staged naval patrols in the disputed waters with its treaty ally, the United States, and other strategic partners including Japan, Australia, New Zealand and France to promote freedom of navigation and overflight and strengthen deterrence against China. It has allowed journalists to join territorial sea and aerial patrols to witness China's increasingly aggressive actions, provoking angry Chinese reactions. In response to a question last week about Manila's plans to build up military cooperation, China's Ministry of National Defense called the Philippines a 'troublemaker' that has aligned itself with foreign forces to stir up trouble in what China deems its own territorial waters. 'China never wavers in its resolve and will to safeguard national territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests and will take resolute countermeasures against any provocations by the Philippine side,' Defense Ministry spokesperson Col. Zhang Xiaogang said in a news conference. Brawner said the Philippines has to boost deterrence to prevent war. 'The way to do that is number one, the Armed Forces of the Philippines has to be strengthened through modernization and secondly, we need to partner with like-minded nations and that's what we're doing with India,' he said last week. During a reception on board an Indian navy tanker, the INS Shakti, on Thursday, Brawner said the vessel's port call in Manila was more than ceremonial. It 'sends a powerful signal of solidarity, strength in partnership and the energy of cooperation between two vibrant democracies in the Indo-Pacific,' he said. Brawner welcomed the deepening of relations between the two Asian countries and 'reaffirmed the shared commitment to maritime security, regional stability and a rules-based international order in one of the world's most geopolitically sensitive regions.' Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos left Monday for a five-day state visit to India for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top officials to boost defense, trade and investment, agriculture, tourism and pharmaceutical industry engagements.
