KIMFF 2025 – Celebration of cinema begins in Kathmandu with kimff

Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival (kimff) returns with its 22nd edition, showcasing diverse and compelling stories under the festival tagline “Fractured Voices, Reclaiming Narratives”. Starting from 28 May- 1 June, the festival will screen over 65 films from 30 countries simultaneously at QFX Chhaya Centre, Astrek Park, and GAA Hall in Thamel.

This year’s curated collection of Kimff’s international program brings home some of the sought-out films that were internationally acclaimed, focusing on making them accessible to Nepali cinephiles, filmmakers, and the general public. The Nepal Panorama section features exciting films by local talent that spotlight stories about contemporary Nepal.

“We hope the line-up of films and events will entertain audiences and engage them in critical conversations in and around issues that affect the Nepali public,” says festival director Ramyata Limbu.

The festival will open with the Nepal Premiere of “Between The Mountain and The Sky”, a film by Jeremy Power Regimbal that follows the resilient Maggie Doyne, a CNN hero, as she cares for Nepali orphans in the face of personal challenges.

Also marking the 70 years of Nepal-China friendship, kimff has a special section of Xizang Panorama that will screen films from Tibet region of China that reflect similarities between the two countries despite differences in language and culture.

The jury members for the festival’s competition are film and television directors Nabin Subba (Nepal), Martin Hasenöhrl(Austria), Yingqi Chen (China), journalism and communications Professor Xun Zhan (China), and film programmer Jinna Lee (Korea). The jury will decide the Best Film in the international category of feature fiction (4 shortlists), feature documentary (14 shortlists), short fiction (11 shortlists) and short documentary (13 shortlists). As for the Nepal Panorama section, the jury will be deciding on the best documentary (6 shortlists) and the best fiction (11 shortlists).

For the international category, the prizes are $1500 for best feature documentary, $1000 for best short documentary, $1500 for best feature fiction, $1000 for best short fiction, $1000 for Best Mountain & Adventure Film and $1000 for Best ICIMOD Mountain Film. The best documentary and best fiction film in Nepal Panorama will receive Rs.100,000 each and the Audience Awardee will also receive Rs.100,000. This edition also has a new award of $1,000, for KU Emerging Filmmaker Award.

Kimff is hosting its inaugural Kathmandu Doc Lab, first of its kind, this year. Dedicated to fostering local talents from the South Asian region, this lab will take place from 24 May to 28 May 2025. The selected nine south asian projects will be mentored by acclaimed Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker Anam Abbas, Bhutanese filmmaker Arun Bhattarai and Indian filmmaker Rintu Thomas. The participants will pitch their projects incubated during the DocLab at a live documentary pitch that will happen at kimff. Three of the best pitches will be awarded with a prize money supported by the Nepal Film Development Board, the kimff Foundation and Nepal Film Initiative worth a total of $4500.

The festival also highlights live Cut.Katha Documentary Pitch where five Nepali women filmmakers will present their pitches for short documentary, and a Nikon Youth photography/filmmaking workshop.

As part of the five-day long festival, four exhibitions will be held as satellite events at Kala Salon, Chhaya center in Thamel including VR Installation of “Maya: The Birth of a Superhero”, Top 12 Kimff 2025 poster designs, Breaking Code Red – Dignity without Danger Display and Kangchenjunga – The Five Pillars and the Five Treasures.

The festival is organised by the Kimff Foundation. Kimff is a member of Turin based International Alliance of Mountain Film (IAMF).

Tickets are Rs. 150 for the general public and Rs. 100 for students.

For more information, please contact KIMFF Office 5404501/ info@kimff.org, www. kimff.org/.