Kashish Pride Film Festival 2025: What to look forward to from the 16th edition starting on June 4 in Mumbai

Kicking off Pride Month with a cinematic boom is the 16^th edition of Kashish Pride Film Festival 2025. Since its inception in 2010, the Festival has only grown widely encompassing 152 films this year from various countries. Through cinema, narratives, storytelling, panels and discussions, meet and greets ad performances, the Festival is a platform where LGBTQ+ voices find a channel to be heard. This year the Festival will be inaugurated on June 4 and will continue till June 8 across three venues in Mumbai. If you have not already booked your tickets, then we give you reasons why should hurry and reserve a seat!

Some of the major highlights that should not be missed at the Kashish Pride Film Festival 2025

Where the narrative takes you?

The 16^th edition of the Kashish Pride Film Festival opens with Daniel Craig starrer Queer and concludes with Elliot Page’s Close to You. The five-day long Festival has an envious line-up of 152 films across 48 countries like India, Iceland, Peru, Nigeria, Japan, Norway, Uzbekistan, and Palestine to name a few. Audiences would be witnessing 20 World Premieres, 12 International Premieres and 50 Asian Premieres throughout the span of the event.

Onir’s We are Faheem & Karun and Abhijit’s I Am Revathi have made the cut along with 36 other films from India. Other notable films which are a must watch include Three Kilometeres To The End of The World from Romania, Dutch film Out and If I die, It’ll Be Of Joy from France. The edition will also screen of the of the first LGBTQ- themes features from Bhutan called AumPenjor.

Your attention please!

 Like every year, this year too Kashish Pride Film Festival brings novelty out of the bag. With the screening of the 1983 film Mandi by Shyam Benegal, the Festival pays tribute to the late director and a patron of the event since 2012.  A series of films also portray individuals from the community taking up roles other than activists. These include a postwoman in Melvilasam, teachers in Sweet Beginning, tribal forest officer in Unheard Stories – Vijaya, members of a trans-football team in We’ll Go Down in History and more. Furthermore, there is special focus on Queer parenting with films like #TwoMoms from Japan, Fatherhood from Norway, Trans and Pregnant from New Zealand along with short films from Myanmar and India.

A much needed dialogues!

The Kashish Pride film Festival allows the storytellers and visitors to have healthy interactions through panel discussions on matters that need to have a dialogue around it. A panel titled ‘Indian Trans Actors to the Front, Please’ explores how Indian cinema is following the path of inclusivity. The panel consists of Trinetra Haldar (Made in Heaven 2), Lauren Robinson (Mismatched 3), A. Revathi (Thenavattu, Antharam) and Faraz Ansari (director of Sheer Qorma). Another panel called, ‘Portrayals with Pride: LGBTQ+ depictions in mainstream pop-culture’ has filmmaker Onir (I Am, My Borther Nikhil), and screenwriter Gazal Dhaliwal (Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, Qarib Qarib Single) in conversation with each other.

What: Kashish Pride Film Festival 2025

When: June 4- 8, Mumbai

Where: St. Andrews Auditorium, Bandra West (June 4) / Cinepolis, Andheri West and Alliance Francaise, South Mumbai (June 5- 8)

For more details visit Kashish Pride Film Festival official website