Busan Winner 'Birds in the Dark' to Close 15th Dharamshala Film Festival

Shashank Walia's "Birds in the Dark," a double prize-winner at Busan, will close the 15th Dharamshala International Film Festival with its India premiere. The festival runs Oct. 29–Nov. 1 at Tibetan Children's Village in Upper Dharamshala.

The film follows a call center executive whom a police informer mistakes for a suspect. It is Walia's debut feature. It took two prizes at the Busan International Film Festival earlier this month.

Rima Das' "Not a Hero" opens the festival with its South Asia premiere, as previously announced. The full lineup now spans premieres from four continents.

What has joined the lineup?

The latest additions bring new geography and form to the program:

• "A Fox Under a Pink Moon" by Mehrdad Oskouei, made with Afghan artist Soraya Akhlaghi. It tracks her attempts to reach her mother in Austria.
• "Working Girls" by Paromita Vohra, examining work done by women across India that often goes unseen.
• "The Ink Stained Hand and The Missing Thumb" by Yashasvi Juyal, a South Asia premiere set at a lonely highway toll booth in northern India, where grief and memory disturb daily routine.
• "Hunter's Moon" by Ridham Janve, set in the Upper Dhauladhar range.

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

Previously announced titles remain on the slate: Óliver Laxe's "Sirāt," Shaunak Sen's "Termite" (Asia premiere), Gurvinder Singh's "Rehmat" (India premiere), Sara Dosa's "Time and Water," Dennis Harvey and Lars Lovén's "Celtic Utopia" and Tanushree Das and Saumyananda Sahi's "Shadowbox."

How does the festival choose?

Bina Paul, the festival's director of programming, explained the curatorial method: "Curation has always been at the heart of DIFF. While curating, we look for distinctive voices, boundary-pushing filmmaking and films that open up new ways of seeing and thinking."

Paul said this approach has built a program diverse in geography, form and subject while staying committed to independent cinema.

What happens beyond the screen?

DIFF's Himalayan Film Fellows initiative, backed this year by Arthshila, is working with seven filmmakers from the Indian Himalayan Region on their first or second fiction features. Dechen Roder, Umesh Kulkarni and Dominic Sangma serve as mentors.

The festival, with Royal Enfield Social Mission, is also completing 24 community screenings around Kangra this year. Venues have included schools, nunneries and the district jail.

Filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam launched DIFF in 2012. Fifteen editions on, they frame the anniversary in terms of founding intent rather than scale.

"When we started DIFF, we wanted to create a space in Dharamshala where independent films could be experienced in a communal setting, and where filmmakers and audiences could spend time with each other beyond the screening room," Sarin and Sonam said. "Fifteen years later, that spirit remains at the heart of the festival. We are excited to welcome everyone back to the mountains for this year's landmark edition."

What does this change for independent cinema in India? A Busan laureate choosing Dharamshala for its India premiere signals that the Himalayan festival now functions as a serious landing point for award-winning debuts, not merely a regional showcase — and the community screenings around Kangra extend that reach well beyond the festival's main venue.