India’s leading fashion designer Padma Shri Wendell Rodricks has said that he is excited to judge the International Poster Contest for KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival 2017. The winning poster, carries a cash prize of Rs 20,000 (USD 300) instituted by Wendell Rodricks and will be the look of the eighth edition of KASHISH, South Asia’s biggest and India’s only mainstream LGBTQ film festival. The festival this year will be held from May 24-28, 2017 in Mumbai. The festival theme this year is ‘Diverse, One’, echoing the sentiment that we are strongest when we come together, when we embrace one another’s uniqueness and celebrate our differences.

“I am proud to support the KASHISH. Each year the poster moves forward in a direction that the LGBTQ community in India is going towards. I wish the participants all the best and I am excited to see how they will creatively interpret this year’s theme. The film festival on its part has managed to achieve greater visibility and empowerment for the LGBTQ community,” said Wendell Rodricks.

The winning design will be featured on billboards, banners, cinema slides, delegate cards, T-shirts and catalog cover.

“Every year there is a great anticipation about this contest because it defines the ‘look’ of the festival. The winning design every year has been outstanding and has been appreciated the world over. We now keenly await designers globally to send us their brilliant entries. The cash award is the icing on the cake,” said Sridhar Rangayan, festival director.

The deadline for submissions is February 19, 2017.

More details: http://mumbaiqueerfest.com/2017/01/kashish-international-poster-design-contest-2017-submission-call/

KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival

Founded in 2010, KASHISH is held over 5 days at two venues. The festival this year will be held at Liberty Cinema and Alliance Francaise in South Mumbai. It is the first Indian LGBT festival to be held with approval by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry, Government of India. Voted as one of the Top 5 LGBT Film Festival in the world, KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival is South Asia’s biggest queer film festival and the only LGBT film festival in India to be held in a mainstream theater.

THEME of KASHISH 2017 : ‘Diverse, One’

The theme of KASHISH 2017 explores the diversity of the LGBTQ community. The diverse shades of the rainbow remind us that as people we are all different and we are all unique. In the fight for an equal society, basic human rights and against laws that criminalize and discriminate, it is our shared values that bring us together. We are strongest when we come together, when we embrace one another’s uniqueness and celebrate our differences. We are Diverse, We are One.