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Olivia Coleman & John Lithgow starrer JIMPA to open KASHISH 2026 The 1999 film “Performing the Goddess: Chapal Bhadhuri’s Story” and the intense “LSD 2” by Dibakar Banerjee to screen as Special Presentations The 17th edition of KASHISH Pride Film Festival is all set to kick start June pride month in Mumbai with 153 films from 43 countries. This year apart from its regular venues like the iconic Liberty Cinema and Alliance Française, the festival will also be hosted at the National Gallery of Modern Art. The opening film "Jimpa" explores queer joy, family, and reconciliation. It follows filmmaker Hannah (Olivia Colman) as she takes her non-binary teenager (Aud Mason-Hyde) to Amsterdam to visit her gay father, Jimpa (John Lithgow). The film focuses on navigating complex family history and the endurance of love. Reflecting this year’s festival theme of ‘Reflect, Resonate, Rejoice’, the two special presentations make us reflect and resonate, “Performing the Goddess: Chapal Bhaduri’s Story”, the 1999 film by Naveen Kishore that makes us reflect about the life and times of Chapal Rani, a legendary figure in Bengal's traditional folk traveling theater, who spent his career portraying women; and “Love, Sex and Dhoka 2" by Dibakar Banerjee that resonates with the high-tech realities of the modern digital age critiquing the social media addiction and reality show obsession, with real life transgender actress playing lead parts. The four Centerpiece films - the Sundance winner “Cactus Pears (Sabar Bonda)” by Rohan Kanawade about two men in love in rural India; the Brazilian feature “I Am Going To Miss You” by Daniel Ribeiro foregrounding relationship between a transmasculine person and transgender woman; the American documentary feature “Heightened Scrutiny” by Sam Feder about a transmasculine lawyer fighting for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community; and the Indian documentary feature “Queering India” by Lakhinandan Boruah & Swapnesh Dubey about queer rights in India - celebrate and rejoice contemporary lives of LGBTQ+ persons across the globe. Speaking about this year’s program, founder festival director Sridhar Rangayan said, “This year we received close to 600 submissions and curating the final program was a herculean task. We try to program a balanced representation of the entire LGBTQ+ spectrum as well as intersectionalities between sexuality and special abilities, faith, and region. The festival also leads from the front to support the transgender & non-binary communities at this moment in life with numerous films highlighting the struggles, victories and narratives by and for the communities.“ This year Spain is the country in focus with four feature films and twelve short films including the Teddy Award winner “Ivan & Hadoum” by Ian de la Rosa and the closing film “Maspolamas” by Aitor Arregi and Jose Mari Goenaga. Saagar Gupta, Artistic Director, said, “This year, we are introducing a special competition section titled ‘Genderation Shorts’, spotlighting stories of young people navigating gender, identity, and belonging. As always, the festival continues to evolve with new ideas and formats so we have a few more surprises in store, which we’re excited to reveal as the festival unfolds.” More information about programs, festival passes, etc. can be accessed at https://mumbaiqueerfest.com/