KIMFF 2024 is once again set to gather Nepali and international filmmakers, aficionados, scholars and mountaineers in a celebration of visual storytelling.
Given dire warnings of how climate breakdown is affecting the ice caps on the world’s mountains, this year’s festival offers a new sense of urgency under the theme ‘Echoes of Change’.
The festival from 29 May-2 June will take place at the Rastriya Sabha Griha and Nepal Tourism Board, featuring over 60 documentaries, fiction, features, and short films from 22 countries, including Nepal, Bhutan, India, Iran, South Korea, Colombia, and Tunisia. The festival’s Nepal Panorama section will showcase almost 30 films about contemporary Nepal by local filmmakers, the largest number Kimff has featured yet.
“Kimff’s objective has always been to provide a platform for local stories and talent,” explains festival director Ramyata Limbu. “We hope the filmmakers and audiences will appreciate and enjoy this.”
Kimff 2024 will kick off with the Asia Premiere of Italian director Brando Quilici’s The Tiger’s Nest. Filmed on location in Nepal, it follows a young boy embarking on a dangerous cross-country adventure to save a tiger’s cub from poachers.
“Hopefully, films like these will open up the space for and spark conversations about more co-productions and collaborations in Nepal,” adds Limbu.
The closing documentary on 2 June is No Monastery No Village about mountain people fighting to preserve their community and cultural heritage from a climate-induced disaster.
The international jury includes director/producer Dina Mufti from the UK, Nepali anthropologist Suresh Dhakal, and film editor Regina Baertschi from Switzerland. They will pick winners from three shortlisted international feature films, 11 feature documentaries, and 16 fiction films for the Nepal Panorama section, among others.
Kimff will also celebrate a century since pioneering attempts on Everest with a film screening and a photo exhibition titled Everest Revisited 1924-2024. It will also mark half a decade of bilateral ties between Nepal and South Korea with the screening of films from Korea’s Ulsan Ulju Mountain Film Festival.
This year’s line-up will also include a panel discussion on Women Behind the Camera, screenings and an interactive session titled Championing Young Filmmakers, and a Nepali documentary pitch session by the forum Cut.Katha. Participants can also participate in an editing masterclass with Regina Baertschi.
Kimff 2024 is co-hosted by Kathmandu Metropolitan City and promoted by Nepal Tourism Board with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the British Council, US Embassy, Film Development Board, Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA), Mila Productions, Pasang Lhamu Foundation, Daya Foundation, Voices of Women Media (VOW), Contemporary Art of Nepal Foundation, Toni Hagen Foundation, Bagmati Communications Registrar, Himalaya International Mountain Film of China (HIMF), GIZ, WWF, ICIMOD, North Face Nepal, and Sonam.
HIGHLIGHTS
The Tiger’s Nest
94 min | Italy/Nepal | 2022
Original Language: English
Director: Brando Quilici
This opening film is the story of a young orphan named Balmani, who has grown up hearing about the legend of a guru who once flew through the Himalaya on the back of a female tiger. Where he landed, a cave on a sheer cliff, now stands a monastery called The Tiger’s Nest. One night, Balmani saves a tiger cub from the clutches of evil poachers and makes for the Tiger’s Nest, which he believes will be a safe haven. With the smugglers in hot pursuit, the boy and cub travel from the lush grasslands of central Nepal, through the chaos of Kathmandu, and into the high Himalaya, forming an unbreakable bond along the way.
Andro Dreams
63 min | India | 2023
Original Language: Manipuri
Director: Meena Longjam
This is the story of a love affair between the spirited Laibi and her all girls' football club in a village in rural northeast India. Laibi’s club battles economic challenges, the patriarchy, and orthodoxy. Andro Dreams was the opening film for the non-feature section at the International Film Festival of India 2023.
