Shailaja Padindala’s Kannada-language film “Naanu Ladies” won best narrative feature and Pedro Peira’s English and Spanish-language film “LA QueenCianera” best documentary feature at the 2022 Kashish LGBTQ+ film festival in Mumbai.
Gujarati-language shorts “Muhafiz” by Pradipta Ray and “Dal Bhat” by Nemil Shah” won best Indian narrative short and the Riyad Wadia Award for best emerging Indian filmmaker respectively. “Muhafiz” also won best screenplay for Ray and Ashutosh Pathak.
Padindala said: “ ‘Naanu Ladies’ is a film attempting to identify cis-het culture [as it] weaves itself into the queerness of everyday life. The film attempts to re-understand uses of reproductive sciences for a queer lifestyle. I look forward to making more queer content with queer folks, across as many regional languages as possible. My next film is going to be a Tamil feature, in which queerness is also going to be a part of the story, of a bigger picture.”
Kashish 2022 screened 184 LGBTQIA+ films, including 30 from India, from 53 countries. Other Asian films to win awards included “Warsha” and “Beirut Dreams in Color” from Lebanon; “The Third Solar Term” from China; “The Fish With One Sleeve” from Japan; and special mentions for “Coming To You” from South Korea and “Her Canvas” and “Kinaara” from India.
“As South Asia’s biggest LGBTQ+ film festival, we are thrilled by so many Asian films winning awards at this year’s festival. Indian LGBTQ+ cinema has truly come of age, and can stand up against any international films,” said festival director Sridhar Rangayan.
The festival was held at Mumbai’s Liberty Cinema and the Alliance Française de Bombay from June 1-5 and online from June 3-14.
Winners
Best Narrative Feature – “Naanu Ladies,” directed by Shailaja Padindala (India)
Best Documentary Feature – “LA QueenCianera, directed by Pedro Peira (Mexico, U.S.)
Best Indian Narrative Short – “Muhafiz,” directed by Pradipta Ray (India)
Riyad Wadia Award for Best Emerging Indian Filmmaker – Nemil Shah for “Dal Bhat” (India)
Best International Narrative Short – “Warsha” directed by Dania Bdeir (Lebanon)
Best Documentary Short – “Beirut Dreams In Colour,” directed by Michael Collins (Lebanon, U.S.)
Best Student Short – “The Third Solar Term,” directed by Zhanfei Song (China, U.K.)
Best Performance in a Lead Role – Yu Ishizuka, for “The Fish With One Sleeve” (Japan)
Best Screenplay – “Muhafiz,” written by Pradipta Ray and Ashutosh Pathak (India)
Special Jury Mentions
Narrative Feature – “Wet Sand,” directed by Elene Naveriani (Georgia, Switzerland)
Documentary Feature – “Coming To You,” directed by Gyuri Byun (South Korea)
Documentary Short – “Marcella,” directed by Gastón Calivari (Argentina)
Indian Narrative Short – “Dal Bhat,” directed by Nemil Shah (India)
International Narrative Shorts – “Breathe,” directed by Harm van der Sanden (Netherlands) and “The Fish With One Sleeve,” directed by Tsuyoshi Shôji (Japan)
Student Shorts – “Mazel Tov,” directed by Eli Zuzovsky (Israel)
Riyad Wadia Award – Sagar Minde for “Her Canvas” and Anureet Watta for “Kinaara” (India).