We are delighted to announce the 12th South Asian Film Festival of Montreal (SAFFM) 2022-23, organized by Montreal's Kabir Centre for Arts and Culture (www.centrekabir.com). The goal of the festival is to promote, foster, and enhance cultural harmony between a diverse South Asian community and present a unique opportunity for cross-cultural interactions between two major geographical regions- South Asia and Quebec, along with the larger Canadian society. While the festival acts as a platform to connect the South Asian diaspora and acquaint the western audiences with the rich heritage of cultural diversity in South Asia, it is also committed to combating stereotypes, prejudice, and bias of any kind, particularly in relation to South Asia. The festival aims to break stereotypical understandings of South Asia and its people by showcasing films that highlight stories of the common everyday lives of people in the region, capturing their struggles, resilience, and indomitable spirit through documentaries, short films, and fiction features. These efforts of promoting cultural awareness do not stop as the film screenings end but are carried forward through stimulating discussions with our panelists after the screening. The panels include filmmakers, actors, academics, writers, activists, community workers along with film critics.
By submitting to SAFFM, filmmakers can take advantage of the following:
- Exposure to a diverse and wide audience consisting of the South Asian diaspora,
Quebeckers, and Canadians from different provinces.
- Access to French subtitles created by Kabir Centre.
- Opportunities to network with seasoned filmmakers, directors, and producers.
- Connect with audiences through panel discussions and Q & A opportunities.
For our film festival, we have an important partnership with a local cinema house called Cinémathèque Québécoise who are a repository of Quebec's and Canadian cinema as well as international animated films. Their partnership is important and prestigious for our festival and our collaboration is important for them as well.
Cinémathèque Québécoise has just informed us that due to the post-pandemic shortage of labor in critical areas, they are running behind on their commitments to various festivals planned before ours, and therefore there will be a minimum delay of a month for ours. This brings us to December which is too late in terms of weather as our festival is also presented in Saguenay in northern Quebec and where winter is even more severe than in Montreal.
In view of the above, we have no option but to postpone the current edition of our festival to springtime and we now have a commitment from our partners for the dates of 28th April to 7th May 2023. We propose to retain all the festival selections that we are making from the films submitted this year. The only change would be the revised festival dates. Our new date for the announcement of the Selected films will be November 20th, 2022.
Due to the possible impact of the pandemic and due to the number of films chosen, the festival could be in a hybrid format or an entirely virtual format. By submitting a film, the submitter is deemed to agree that the film can be shown both in on-site and online formats.
1. Best Feature Fiction. (40 minutes and above)
2. Best Feature Documentary. (40 minutes and above)
3. Best Short Film -Fiction. (Less than 40 minutes)
4. Best Short Film-Documentary. (Less than 40 minutes)
5. Audience Choice awards in the above categories (subject to on-site screenings)
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anand chouhan
December 2021 -
Alex Sangha
December 2021 -
Geetha J
July 2021 -
December 2020
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December 2020
