Sonali Gulati is an Indian American independent filmmaker, feminist, grass-roots activist, and educator.
The Iris Prize, established in 2007 by Berwyn Rowlands of The Festivals Company, is an international LGBTQ film prize and festival which is open to any film which is by, for, about or of interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex audiences and which must have been completed within two years of the prize deadline.
Onir is an Indian film and TV director, editor, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his film My Brother…Nikhil, based on the life of Dominic d'Souza, was one of the first mainstream Hindi films to deal with AIDS and same-sex relationships.
Tara Deshpande is an Indian actress, writer, former model and MTV VJ. Tara hosted a show called Kab Kyon Kahaan on Zee TV, along with Parth and then with Vinay Jain in the early 1990s. She appeared in several acclaimed films such as Sudhir Mishra's Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin and Kaizad Gustad's Bombay Boys. Since her marriage to an American citizen and moving to Boston in 2001, she lives in the Boston area. Her husband is a graduate of Harvard Business School and is in finance. Tara published her first book at the age of 23, Fifty and Done (HarperCollins). Before entering the world of movies she was a model and MTV VJ and a regular on the Mumbai stage. She played Begum Sumroo in Alyque Padamsee's play of the same name. Her book, A Sense for Spice: Recipes and Stories from a Konkan Kitchen was published in 2012 and Indian Sense of Salad in 2018. She travels between NYC and Mumbai.
The KASHISH Pride Film Festival is an annual LGBTQ event that has been held in Mumbai, India, since 2010. The film festival screens gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer films from India and around the world. It is voted as one of the top five LGBT film festivals in the world.
Suzi Yoonessi is an American filmmaker. She wrote and directed the award-winning feature film Dear Lemon Lima, and directed the Duplass Brothers film Unlovable and Daphne and Velma for Warner Brothers. Yoonessi's short films No Shoulder and Dear Lemon Lima are distributed by Shorts International and Vanguard Cinema and her documentary film Vern is distributed by National Film Network and is in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
White Paper is a 2010 Iranian animated short film about LGBT rights and homophobia, directed by Seyed Mohsen Pourmohseni Shakib. It is director's debut short animation.
Siddharth Chauhan is an Indian screenwriter, director and producer from Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. He was awarded the "Youth Achiever" award by Hindustan Times Group in August 2014. Chauhan has not received any professional training in this field. His films have been screened across places including Sarajevo, UK, US, Belarus, Indonesia, New Zealand, Italy, China, Canada and France. He is the first independent filmmaker from Himachal Pradesh to have continuously taken his locally produced films outside India.
Amina Maher is an Iranian-born queer feminist artist, activist, actress, and filmmaker living in Berlin, Germany. Her works are focused on the breakdown of family structure, shame culture, and patriarchal myths. Her creative works criticize traditions, media, culture, and norms. Her cinematic activity began as the main actor in Abbas Kiarostami and Mania Akbari´s Ten (2002) nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival. Since then, she acted, edited and has been in films that have been part of festivals such as Cannes Film Festival, British Film Institute, San Sebastián International Film Festival and International Film Festival Rotterdam.
How to Be Alone is a 2016 short Israeli student film, produced and directed by Erez Eisenstein. The script is an adaptation of a short story of the same name by Orna Coussin, first published in 2006.
Sunken Plum is a Chinese and Spanish drama short film written and directed by Roberto F. Canuto and Xu Xiaoxi and produced with the collaboration of Chinese companies. It was produced by Almost Red Productions in association with Arkadin Ed. and filmed in Sichuan, China.
Sudhanshu Saria is an acclaimed Indian filmmaker. Hailing from the Gopaldhara Tea Estate family, he was born in the tea estates of Darjeeling, studied at The Doon School and graduated from Ithaca College in New York, with a degree in Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film and Photography. He made his directorial debut with the 2015 romantic drama Loev. Saria won a National Film Award for directing the short film Knock Knock Knock. He is also known for directing and co-writing the high octane espionage drama ULAJH and for showrunning, co-writing and co-directing the young adult series on Amazon Prime Video, Big Girls Don't Cry.
Sisak (2017) is a short film, starring Jitin Gulati and Dhruv Singhal. It was written and directed by Faraz Arif Ansari and is billed as India's first silent queer love story. The trailer was launched by Sonam Kapoor on 30 January on Twitter. It has won 59 international awards at various film festivals.
Chennai International Queer Film Festival is a three-day LGBT- event that usually takes places on the last weekend of July as a part of the city's pride events. The main organizers are SAATHII and Orinam in partnership with Goethe-Institut, Chennai. The other volunteers include various community groups and NGOs, including Nirangal, East-West Center for Counselling, and RIOV. The last day is usually performances along with a panel discussion, usually to discuss and bring out the challenges faced by community members.
Maacher Jhol - The fish curry is a 2D animated short film directed by Abhishek Verma. It follows a son coming out to his father, while he prepares his favourite dish, maacher jhol, a traditional fish recipe in Bengal.
Saagar Gupta is an Indian screenwriter, lyricist and film producer.
Vaidya is a 2021 short film. The film was digitally released at Hotstar and was also screened at London Indian Film Festival.
Antharam is a 2022 Indian Malayalam language film directed by P. Abhijith. The Film is about the inner conflicts, warmth, trauma and joyous moments in the lives of a trans woman, a teenage girl and a man living under the same roof.
Priyakanta Laishram is an Indian actor, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and film editor from the Meitei ethnicity of Imphal, Manipur who predominantly works in Manipuri films, known for his socially relevant and unconventional movies. He is the first filmmaker to make the first mainstream film of Manipur, Northeast India, dealing with same-sex relationships, Oneness. He started making children's films at the age of 9 by using a Nokia N70 mobile phone, for which he won several titles including The Youngest Filmmaker 2009 from Nokia and Manipur's Rising Star 2011 from Asian News International.
Between the Shades is a 2017 documentary film directed by Jill Salvino. The film is focused on interviews and covers aspects of LGBTQ+ culture.
