Eight films in different languages were screened on the fifth day of the ongoing fifth edition of the Kashmir World Film Festival (KWFF) at Tagore Hall, Srinagar.
The films screened included Revival (Itibritto) by Mahmud Hasan, A Night, After All by Anshul Agarwal, Exception by Ezzaldeen Shalh, Jurrat by Jagtar Singh Kalwana, The Missing Boy by Malay Kumar Roy, Love in Forties by Ramesh S. Makayiram, Malayali Memorial by Nitheesh Sudha, and Nandhan by Saravanan R.
The film A Night, After All features veteran actor Rajit Kapur, who was also present at the event. He conducted a masterclass for students and film enthusiasts, sharing insights on acting, theatre, and cinema during the first half of the day.
For this year’s edition, 123 films were submitted, out of which 60 were shortlisted for screening – 55 in the competition section and five in the non-competition category.
The seven-day festival has received entries from several countries, including Bangladesh, Egypt, Germany, Iran, Nepal, Palestine, Sri Lanka, and the UAE. “Entries from across India represent a rich linguistic diversity, including Kashmiri, Dogri, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Ladakhi, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Pahadi, Punjabi, Tamil, Tibetan, and Urdu,” the organizers said.
Awards will be conferred across multiple categories such as feature films, feature-length documentaries, short films, short documentaries, animation films, experimental films, and student films.
It is worth mentioning that the KWFF has returned to the valley after a gap of seven years. The previous edition was held in December 2018, but the festival was put on hold following the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 and the subsequent COVID-19 pandemic.
The ongoing cinematic celebration, which began on November 1, will conclude on November 7. More Bollywood celebrities are expected to attend the festival in the coming days.
Festival Director Mushtaaque Ali Ahmad Khan expressed satisfaction over the overwhelming response from attendees. “We are happy to see such an encouraging turnout. Now, we are preparing for the concluding day to make it a grand success,” he said.
