“The eight edition of the International Film Festival of Shimla will be held w.e.f. 26th – 28th August,2022 at Gaiety Theater, The Ridge Shimla,” said Pushp Raj Thakur, Festival Director. Famous bollywood actress Divya Dutta will be celebrity guest for this year’s Film Festival and the screening of her transgender based film Sheer Korma at the film festival will be presided over by the, Jai Ram Thakur, Chief Minister, Himachal Pradesh. Film ‘Sheer Korma’ based on transgender issues starring Shabana Azmi, Divya Dutta and Swara Bhaskar in lead roles will be screened in the Function. This time a total of 81 films will be screened at the International Film Festival of Shimla. 27 films in the international category, 34 Indian films, 4 Himachali films and 15 National Award winning films will be shown in the three days film festival. This time films from seventeen countries viz. Canada, America, Lebanon, Spain, Iran, Taiwan, Brazil, Iceland, Singapore, Mexico, Australia, Greece, Belgium, Denmark, Russia will be screened in the film festival. These include documentary, animation, feature and short films.
A total of 16 National Award Award winning films received from Directorate of Film Festivals, Government of India will be screened. Gujarati feature film 21 M U Tiffin directed by Vijay Giri Baba, Hindi feature film Alpha Beta Gama directed by Shankar Sri Kumar, Kannada feature film Dolu directed by Sagar Puranik, Hindi feature film At Down Toofan Mail directed by Aakriti Singh, Marathi film Funeral directed by Rajendra Dubey, Telugu film Natyam directed by Revanth Kumar Kurukunda, Kannada film Neeli Hakki directed by Ganesh Hegde, Hindi documentary film Jugalbandi directed by Chetan Bhakuni, Marathi documentary film Marble of the Jungle directed by Sohil Vaidya, Manipuri director Haubam Pawan Kumar’s documentary film Pabung Shyam, Garhwali film Sanpat directed by Rahul Rawat, , Udia documentary film Backstage directed by Lipika Singh Derai, Hindi documentary film Naakar directed by Anant Mahadevan, Gujarati documentary film The Spell of Purple directed by Prachi Barjania, Assamese documentary film Veerangana directed by Kishore Kalita, Santali language film directed by Jackie R Bala will be the center of attraction during this three-day long film festival which has recently been conferred with the 68th National Award by the Government of India.
Apart from these films, 27 films from different countries will be screened in the International category under the competitive section of the International Film Festival of Shimla, while 35 films will be screened in the National category, all these films are documentaries, short films, feature films, animation, and music videos. Best film in each category will be awarded in the Festival. Fifty film directors from across the country and abroad will participate in this film festival. They will also be interacting with the audience at the Gaiety Theatre. This time a film exhibition is also being organized by the National Film Archives of India, Pune at the International Film Festival of Shimla depicting and deliberating history and growth of cinema in India. Various works related to the films will also be put on display in this exhibition. It is worth noting that earlier seven editions of the International Film Festival of Shimla were held at the internationally renowned Gaiety Theater, Shimla, wherein film makers from all over the world have been participating.
