'Boys' gets Best Feature Film Award at Kashish 2015

Director Mischa Kamp's Dutch film "Boys" won the Best Narrative Feature Film award, while transgender actor Kristina Hernandez won the award for the Best Performance in a Lead Role for the film "Stealth" at the sixth edition of the Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, India's only mainstream LGBT film festival.

The Best Film won a cash award of Rs 30,000 and the Best Actor won a cash prize of Rs 20,000 -- both sponsored by Anupam Kher's acting school Actor Prepares.

The Best Indian Short Narrative Film award was shared by two films -- the Marathi film "Sundar" directed by Rohan Kanawade and the Tamil film "A Full Stop That Searches For Its End", helmed by Vivek Vishwanathan. The award carried a cash prize of Rs. 20,000.

The Riyad Wadia Award for Best Emerging Filmmaker went to Vaibhav Hatkar for his Marathi short film "Ek Maaya Ashi Hi" (A Love Such as This). The cash award of Rs. 15,000 was sponsored by Wadia Movietone.

The Best Documentary Award went to "Do I Sound Gay?", directed by David Thorpe. He received a cash prize of Rs.20,000.

Designer-politician Shaina NC was the chief guest for the event and she also gave away the Kashish Rainbow Warrior 2015 Award posthumously to lesbian rights activist late Betu Singh. The award was received by Betu Singh's partner and co-worker Maya Shanker.

"The leadership of this country needs to come to events like these to realise what being progressive and being inclusive really mean. To the Kashish family, I would like to say that the road ahead will not be easy. You will meet resistance. But on my part I will assure you that I will stand for you, I will stand with you whether we may succeed or not.

"More than proving a point, it is about expressing to society that genuine unity starts when we accept each other with all our differences," Shaina NC said in a statement.

Actor Dalip Tahil was the guest of honour and he gave away the Best Narrative Feature Film award.

Festival director Sridhar Rangayan said: "Kashish has become not just a film festival but a major force to propel LGBT visibility in the mainstream across several platforms. It has become the biggest pride event in India, but most importantly a safe space for LGBT community and mainstream society to mingle with no tags.

"Kashish reached greater heights this year with more films, more interactive discussions, more attendance and more glamorous performances than previous years. Kashish is here to stay."