Busan Prize Winner 'Birds in the Dark' to Close Dharamshala International Film Festival

Shashank Walia's "Birds in the Dark" will close the 15th Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) with its India premiere. The film follows a call center executive who is mistaken for a suspect by a police informer. The festival runs from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 at Tibetan Children's Village in Upper Dharamshala.

Walia's debut feature won two prizes at the Busan International Film Festival earlier this month.

Organizers have also announced several new additions to the lineup. Mehrdad Oskouei's "A Fox Under a Pink Moon" was made with Afghan artist Soraya Akhlaghi and follows her efforts to reach her mother in Austria. Paromita Vohra's "Working Girls" examines the often unseen work done by women across India.

Yashasvi Juyal's "The Ink Stained Hand and The Missing Thumb," a South Asia premiere, is set at a lonely highway toll booth in northern India, where grief and memory disrupt everyday routine. Ridham Janve's "Hunter's Moon" unfolds in the Upper Dhauladhar range.

The shorts section features the world premiere of Aastha Tiku's "Dreamboat," alongside Arun Fulara's "Hudke ki Pyaang Pyaang" and Varun Grover's "Damned."

Bina Paul, the festival's director of programming, said curation has always been central to DIFF. "While curating, we look for distinctive voices, boundary-pushing filmmaking and films that open up new ways of seeing and thinking," she said. She added that this approach has helped the festival build a program diverse in geography, form and subject while staying committed to independent cinema.

As previously announced, Rima Das' "Not a Hero" opens the festival with its South Asia premiere. Other titles include Óliver Laxe's "Sirāt," Shaunak Sen's "Termite," Gurvinder Singh's "Rehmat," Sara Dosa's "Time and Water," Dennis Harvey and Lars Lovén's "Celtic Utopia," and Tanushree Das and Saumyananda Sahi's "Shadowbox." "Termite" will have its Asia premiere at the festival, while "Rehmat" will have its India premiere.

Beyond the screenings, the festival's Himalayan Film Fellows initiative, supported this year by Arthshila, is working with seven filmmakers from the Indian Himalayan Region on their first or second fiction features. Their mentors are Dechen Roder, Umesh Kulkarni and Dominic Sangma. In partnership with Royal Enfield Social Mission, the festival is also completing 24 community screenings around Kangra this year, at venues including schools, nunneries and the district jail.

Filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam launched DIFF in 2012. They said the aim was to create a space in Dharamshala where independent films could be experienced communally and where filmmakers and audiences could spend time together beyond the screening room. "Fifteen years later, that spirit remains at the heart of the festival," they said, adding that they were excited to welcome everyone back to the mountains for this year's landmark edition.