India’s Dharamshala International Film Festival returns to the Himalayan foothills for its 14th edition, opening with Neeraj Ghaiwan’s Homebound and closing with Anuparna Roy’s Venice Award-winning film Song of the Forgotten Tree.
DIFF, which will be held from October 30 to November 2 at the Tibetan Children’s Village in Upper Dharamshala, has established itself as one of India’s leading independent film showcases, drawing global filmmakers and audiences to its non-competitive platform.
Directed by Gheiwan, “Homebound” is based on a 2020 New York Times article by Basharat Peer, and is about two childhood friends who aspire to become police officers in a north Indian village. The film, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, depicts how their friendship becomes strained as their pressure for respect and opportunity mounts.
The festival continues its partnership with the Sydney Film Festival, welcoming two Australian films and their makers: Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese’s queer science fiction Lesbian Space Princesses and Australian Oscar nominee Gabriel Brady’s Wolves Always Come at Night.
Program highlights include Bhutan’s Oscar-winning film, I, The Song, directed by Dechen Lodha. Rohan Parashuram Kanawade’s Sundance Jury Prize winner “Cactus Pears”. Rich Peppiatt’s Irish “knee cap”. and Raoul Peck’s documentary “Orwell 2+2=5.”
The lineup also includes Spanish director Carla Simón’s Romelia. Hrinul Palmeson’s Cannes film “The Love That Remains”. “Cutting Through Rocks” by Sarah Karki and Mohammadreza Eini. “Alaav” by Prabhash Chandra. Kunsan Kilon’s “One Hundred Sunshine”. and “Full Plate,” directed by Tanishtha Chatterjee and starring Kirti Kulhari and Sharib Hashmi, which premiered in Busan.
The festival will feature a masterclass by acclaimed Indian film director Kiran Rao. Actor Adil Hussain will give a masterclass on how actors can stay true to their characters across diverse cultural backgrounds.
Closing Night belongs to director Anuparna Roy’s Song of the Forgotten Tree, which won the Horizons Award for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year. The drama, set in Mumbai, is about a migrant actor and sex worker who sublets her apartment to a call center worker and develops a fragile bond with them.
Programming Director Vina Paul has carefully selected the lineup, which includes a direct screening of Andrei Tarkovsky’s son Andrei A. Tarkovsky’s documentary “Andrei Tarkovsky: A Prayer of the Cinema,” featuring rare archival footage of the legendary Russian filmmaker. He talks about his father’s work and legacy.
Dharamshala is best known internationally as the seat of the Dalai Lama, who has made his home since his exile from Tibet in 1959. Festival directors Ritu Sarin and Tenzin Sonam are filmmakers themselves. Their works depicting the current situation in Tibet, including 2005’s Lhasa Dreaming, 2010’s The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom, and 2018’s Sweet Requiem, have been performed at many festivals in Toronto, San Sebastian, and elsewhere. Their final adventure, one of the short stories in the Tibetan anthology film Statelessness, was premiered in Busan in 2024.
“We weren’t trying to be one of the most prominent independent festivals in the country; we simply believed that meaningful films deserved a home in the mountains,” say Sarin and Sonam. “DIFF has grown organically over 14 years, not through flash or hype, but through the passion of our filmmakers, the trust of our audiences, and the community that keeps coming back year after year.”
DIFF is intentionally non-competitive and prioritizes dialogue over awards. The festival celebrates technology partner PictureTime’s inflatable digital theater for bringing independent films to remote mountain areas.
