The 16th edition of KASHISH Pride Film Festival came to a  close last evening with a glittering ceremony where awards in 10 film categories were presented.

Festival Director Sridhar Rangayan said, “Despite the huge challenges we faced due to financial constraints, we are happy that the five day pride film festival concluded with great élan and fanfare with many houseful shows. The award ceremony was the crowning glory where actors, writers and filmmakers received their richly deserved awards. I’m especially thrilled by Icelandic trans actor Arna Magnea Danks winning the best actor award, and non-binary Indian filmmaker Shoi winning the Ismat Chughtai award.”

Icelandic film Odd Fish directed by Snaevar Solvason picked up the Best Narrative Feature award and its lead actor Arna Magnea Danks was awarded Best Performance in a Lead Role award, as well as a special mention for Best Screenplay.

Speaking about the wins, writer director Snaevar Solvason said, “These are the first ever award wins for the film, and the film has travelled to many film festivals. I love India and this award has brought sunshine into this rather cold countryside!”

“It is not everyday a transwoman like me gets an award. I thank my director and co-star and every single person who took part in creating this artwork, unique not just to Iceland but the world itself”, said Arna, a trans woman, a mother of three sons, teacher, actress, stunt/fight director and a poet.

Brazilian & Dutch co-production feature Baby won the Best Screenplay award for its writers Gabriel Domingues & Marcelo Caetano as well as a special mention to the lead actor Joao Pedro Marian. Marcelo Caetano who is also the director of the film said, “I was there in India in 2020, and  hope to return to do some p[project in the beautiful country”.

Joao Pedro Marian, the 22-year old actor gushed happily, “My heart is beating here in Brazil, completely filled with joy, to see that my work touches people in different parts of the world in other continents. I feel really honoured that this film is touching so many people in so many countries, especially in a special film festival like yours”.

The Serbian documentary feature Warm Film directed by Dragan Jovićević won the Unity in Diversity award for Best Documentary Feature, and the director said, “I feel privileged because this is the first award for the film outside Europe and super happy that it comes from India because I know how much Indians love cinema, because my films is about loving cinema and visibility of LGBTQ+ community in cinema.”

The Indian winners were The Jasmine That Blooms In Autumn by Chandradeep Das for Best Indian Narrative Short, B AND S by Lipika Singh Darai for Best Documentary short.

Saikat Mondal was awarded the Riyad Wadia award for Best Emerging Indian Filmmaker for his film Jalsa, and non-binary filmmaker Shoi for their film Project Priyo and Joey Kaushik for her film The Witch Of Vihar Lake were announced joint winners for the Ismat Chughtai award for Best Woman Filmmaker of Indian Origin.

Other winners include After All by Chongyan Liu for the Aditya Nanda Award for Best Film on Queer Mental Health, Two Travelling Aunties by Christine Seow for Best International Narrative Short and Violets by Borja Escribano for Best Student Short Award.

The jury members included Abhishek Chaubey, Guneet Monga Kapoor, Neeraj Churi  & Vikramaditya Motwane (KASHISH QDrishti Film Grant Jury), Shishir Sharma, Shruti Seth & Tanuja Chandra (Narrative Jury), Bishakha Datta, Parteek Vats & Shubhra Chatterjee (Documentary Jury), Siddharth Menon, Sudhanshu Saria & Svetlana Naudiyal (Student Short Jury), Nargis Wadia & Roy Wadia (Riyad Wadia Award Jury), Ashish Sawhny (Ismat Chughtai Award Jury) and Akshay Tyagi (Aditya Nanda Award Jury).

The closing ceremony included a dance performance by The House of Sway, an LGBTQ+ group, a musical performance by Bombay Noor, a music band that showcased their music video, and also the launch of the trailer of In-Transit, a documentary series releasing soon on Amazon Prime, produced by Tiger Baby Productions.

The evening was hosted by actor Sid Makkar and drag queen SeducQtress SoniQa.

KASHISH 2025 AWARD WINNERS

KASHISH QDRISHTI FILM GRANT

MAKE-UP ROOM (India) written by Shubam Negi

Cash award of Rs.2,50,000 supported by Lotus Visual Productions

BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE

ODD FISH (Iceland) directed by Snaevar Solvason

Cash award of Rs.30,000 supported by KASHISH Arts Foundation

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

WARM FILM (Topli Film) (Serbia) directed by Dragan Jovićević

Cash award of Rs.30,000 supported by K.F. Patil Charitable Trust

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

B AND S (India) directed by Lipika Singh Darai

Cash award of Rs.25,000 supported by K.F.Patil Charitable Trust

BEST INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE SHORT

VIOLETS (Violetas) (Spain) directed by Borja Escribano

Cash award of Rs.25,000 supported by GagOOLala

BEST INDIAN NARRATIVE SHORT

JASMINE THAT BLOOMS IN AUTUMN (India) directed by Chandradeep Das

Cash award of Rs.25,000 supported by KASHISH Arts Foundation

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A LEAD ROLE

ARNA MAGNEA DANKS in the film Odd Fish

Cash award of Rs.25,000 supported by Samruddhi Studios

BEST SCREENPLAY

GABRIEL DOMINGUES AND MARCELO CAETANO (Brazil) for the film Baby

Cash award of Rs.25,000 supported by Abhay Kulkarni

BEST STUDENT SHORT AWARD

TWO TRAVELLING AUNTIES (Columbia, UK) directed by Christine Seow

Cash award of Rs.25,000 each supported by Whistling Woods International

RIYAD WADIA AWARD FOR BEST EMERGING INDIAN FILMMAKER

SAIKAT MONDAL (India) for his film JALSA

Cash award of Rs.25,000 supported by Wadia Movietone

ISMAT CHUGHTAI AWARD FOR BEST WOMAN FILMMAKER OF INDIAN ORIGIN

SHOI (India) for their film PROJECT PRIYO and JOEY KAUSHIK (India) for her film THE WITCH OF VIHAR LAKE

Cash award of Rs.20,000 supported by Ashish Sawhny

ADITYA NANDA AWARD FOR BEST FILM ON QUEER MENTAL HEALTH

AFTER ALL (UK, France, Germany) directed by Chongyan Liu

Cash award of Rs.25,000 supported by Keshav Suri Foundation

RUNNERS-UP FOR KASHISH QDRISHTI FILM GRANT

US GIRLS written by Rayyan Monkey (She/They)

OPERATION: GULZAR written by Varsha Panikar (They/He)

Cash award of Rs.75,000 each supported by Abhishek Chaubey, Guneet Monga Kapoor, Renuka Shahane, and Vikramaditya Motwane

SPECIAL JURY MENTIONS

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A LEAD ROLE

JOAO PEDRO MARIANO in the film BABY.

BEST SCREENPLAY (FEATURE FILM)

SNAEVAR SOLVASON for the film ODD FISH

BEST SCREENPLAY (SHORT FILM)

ANA BERDEJA for the film SOLE