KASHISH ORGANIZERS

KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival is presented by KASHISH Arts Foundation, alongwith Solaris Pictures

KASHISH Arts Foundation is a not-for-profit public trust that aims to arrange and organize programs in the field of arts, culture, literature, theatre and films. It aims to create awareness and work for the Social, Cultural, Educational awakening of citizens of India who are marginalized on the basis of their gender identity, HIV status, transgenders and other sexual minorities.

Every year KASHISH Arts Foundation presents its flagship event KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival. It also organizes KASHISH Forward, a traveling campus LGBTQ+ film festival. The trust facilitates KASHISH Global, programming of Indian LGBTQ+ films at festivals worldwide, and Best of KASHISH, screening at various organizations and pride events across India. Since 2018 the trust also launched KASHISH Chalchitra Utsav, a regional language LGBTQ+ film festival.

SOLARIS PICTURES is the only Indian film production company focused on producing, distributing and exhibiting LGBTQ films. Its award winning films Breaking Free, Purple Skies, 68 Pages, Yours Emotionally!, Project Bolo and Gulabi Aaina (The Pink Mirror) have screened at more than 200 film festivals across the world and received great critical acclaim. They have laid the foundation for the nascent Indian LGBTQ queer film movement.

Solaris Pictures founded KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival in 2010 and has been the one of main organizer of the festival for the past 12 years. The festival carries forward Solaris Pictures mission of using cinema as a medium to advocate for equal rights and dignity for the LGBTQ community.

Solaris Pictures latest production Evening Shadows has been a big success garnering 24 awards and more than 75 international film festival screening. It had a limited theatrical release and is now streaming on Netflix. 24