Specially recorded Q&A with director Lawrence Valin! THE LOYAL MAN, a riveting and romantic gangster thriller directed by audience favorite, French-Sri Lankan Lawrence Valin, is essential viewing for “Valin” fans. Following last year's rave reviews for his sold-out opening night film LITTLE JAFFNA, 3rd i follows up with his first French-Sri Lankan Tamil film to […]
Magical, sweet, visually evocative, and gently paced, GHOST SCHOOL, directed by British-Pakistani filmmaker Seemab Gul, captures a child’s pursuit of answers in a community weighed down by fear of ghosts and misinformation. This delightful and poignant fable explores corruption from a child's perspective. Journeying through an expansive, sun-drenched landscape, ten-year-old Rabia encounters people from all […]
Q&A with directors Harsha Reddy and Chris Chekuri! In 1998, young American student Harsha ventures into the forests of South India to study tigers. What he finds instead changes the course of his life. Over the next two decades, he returns to the villages of the Chenchu people, a tribal community whose roots run as […]
Sarmad Sultan Khoosat’s LALI is a darkly comic, colorful, and layered thriller in which ghosts walk among the living and prophecies weigh heavily on a young Punjabi married couple and their families. The bride, Zeba, is a “cursed” woman, her three previous fiancés all dying mysteriously before marriage. She marries Sajawal in a vibrant wedding […]
A witty, razor-sharp, heartwarming social satire, acclaimed filmmaker Anusha Rizvi directs her latest tour de force (her first film, PEEPLI LIVE, was India’s offering to the Academy Awards and the first Indian film to screen at Sundance). Set within a Delhi apartment and unfolding during one day, the comedy cleverly turns domestic chaos into a […]
At India’s elite Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), a “Cat” is someone who aces everything. These engineering schools have produced the CEOs of Google, Microsoft, IBM, and other tech giants. In the documentary TECHNOCATS, director Gautam Sonti, an IIT alumnus himself, explores the cost and meaning of excellence, the reality behind the rankings, and the […]
SAND CITY is a lyrical and atmospheric exploration of isolation, the human need for connection, and the small acts of survival that bind us to the world. In this arthouse experimental film, director Mahde Hasan explores Dhaka, Bangladesh, where the landscape and its inhabitants share a profound connection: sand. The main characters, Emma and Hasan, […]
Q&A with director Avie Luthra, moderated by Delhi Crime Producer, Pooja Kohli!! For Opening Night, 3rd i Festival is thrilled to honor the creative genius of award-winning British-Indian director and screenwriter Avie Luthra with a showcase of his comedic, nuanced, complex, and socially insightful short films. Join us for an inspiring retrospective of his brilliant narratives […]
Q&A with director Rajee Samarasinghe! YOUR TOUCH MAKES OTHERS INVISIBLE, directed by Rajee Samarasinghe, is a surreal and lyrical exploration of disappearances in a small post-war community in northern Sri Lanka, where memories of interactions between the Tamils and the Sinhalese linger. Fusing allegorical magic realism and investigative documentary, and made collaboratively with impacted locals, […]
Q&A with filmmakers! From comic relief to social insights, the 2025 edition of 3rd i’s signature short films spans vast differences—both literally and metaphorically—with films and filmmakers from South Asia to California and throughout the Diaspora. This year’s selection of narratives and docs lifts up stories of immigration, relationships, identity, gender and sexuality, and social […]
Aranya Sahay’s engaging and poignant debut feature, HUMANS IN THE LOOP, offers a nuanced exploration of Artificial Intelligence technology in India through the perspective of a tribal woman’s experience and her beliefs in the natural order. The film portrays Nehma, an Adivasi woman who returns to her Jharkhand village with her children, post-divorce. To sustain […]
Q&A with director Uttera Singh! A vibrant dark comedy with nuanced and deeply engaging social commentary, PINCH, directed and written by Uttera Singh, is a confident debut feature that shouldn’t be missed. With saturated color, swinging rhythm, and sharp emotional edges, the film dives into the generational fault lines of truth, trauma, and tradition—all through […]
Q&A with director Nistha Jain and Priya Satia! Nishtha Jain’s (3rd i Fest alumna GULABI GANG, THE GOLDEN THREAD) immersive and stirring documentary captures the unwavering resolve of ordinary people with extraordinary courage, chronicling the revolutionary standoff between Indian Sikh and Punjabi farmers and the Modi government. In November 2020, Gurbaz Sangha, a young farmer […]
CACTUS PEARS (Sabar Bonda), written and directed by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, is gorgeously shot in picturesque vignettes in open landscapes and small villages, with a poetic and open-hearted narrative that skews predictable tropes. Kanawade’s debut feature follows two men navigating societal pressures in a rural community in Western India (Maharashtra). The story centers on Anand, […]
A vibrant, endearing and upbeat coming-of-age film, BOONG, written and directed by Lakshmipriya Devi, is about a young schoolboy who, along with the help of a friend, aims to reunite his divided family. Adventurous and mischievous schoolboy Boong and his friend Raju don’t see long distances and state borders as significant obstacles. At least not […]
Q&A with director Lawrence Valin! The gripping and exuberant crime thriller LITTLE JAFFNA, directed by Lawrence Valin (3rd i Fest Alumnus for THE LOYAL MAN short film, 2020), is layered with nuanced sociopolitical underpinnings. This stunning film is an impressive debut feature that explores identity and belonging within the Tamil Community in Paris, France. Set […]
GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS is a brilliant, richly layered romantic film that has won countless awards. Directed by Shuchi Talati, it masterfully explores the subtle complexities of a 16-year-old girl's coming-of-age desires and sexual awakening. Set in the 1990s, the film finds 16-year-old Mira at her strict private boarding school atop a Himalayan mountainscape in […]
Musician/composer Robin Sukhadia in person! From light comedy to dark wit, this year’s kaleidoscope of cinematic offerings brings filmmakers into conversation together from South Asia to California and throughout the Diaspora. With genres that range from music videos to documentaries, and from comedy to dramatic narratives, this year’s edition tackles stories of immigration, relationships, identity, […]
Filmmakers Ambarien Alqadar and Shankey Srinivasan in person! Preceded by short film DOS MUJERES Filmed over nearly a decade, Ambarien Alqadar’s LAND OF DREAMS is an intimate portrait of Virender Rana, a taxi driver from India, who is chasing his dream in America. The documentary follows Virender’s journey of coming to America as he finds […]
Click above for FREE tickets! Join Robin Sukhadia for a special presentation! Robin Sukhadia will present an engaging exploration of two landmark films that have captured the hearts and minds of audiences around the world: LAGAAN and RRR. Set against the turbulent backdrop of colonial India, these Academy Award nominated/winning films offer strikingly different takes […]
