Indian gay film ‘Any Other Day’ directed by Vikrant Dhote and Srikant Ananthkrishnan won the APQFFA Award for Best Asia Pacific Short Film with a cash award of AUD 2000 and a trophy. The award was presented on October 22 at the Taiwan International Queer Film Festival.
Any Other Day was the entry from India, nominated by KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, and competed with 7 other short films from different Asia Pacific countries. The cash award has been sponsored by Queer Screen – Mardi Gras Film Festival, Australia and Gagaoolala, an online portal streaming LGBTQ films, specially films from Asia and the Pacific.
The director Vikrant Dhote sent a message from Taipei after receiving the award, “I feel very grateful that the film has won the APQFFA Award. It’s humbling to be screened alongside such fabulous films. The ceremony was even more special because my mother was there to extend her support, and the character in ‘Any Other Day’ is based on her. I think the Asia Pacific Queer Film Festival Alliance is very important and much needed, and I’ve been lucky enough to interact with festival curators from across the region. I want to extend a big thank you to the director of TIQFF, Vita Lin, and her entire team, to KASHISH film festival, as well as the entire cast and crew of Any Other Day, especially Shobhna Kumar at Queer Ink, and my co-director Srikant A.”
“I am immensely proud of the AOD cast and crew and especially privileged to collaborate with emerging storytellers who write and portray empowering stories of Queer India,” said Shobhna S.Kumar, producer of the film and founder of Queer Ink.
Sridhar Rangayan, festival director of KASHISH said, “We are absolutely thrilled that an Indian film has won the first ever APQFFA award and ‘Any Other Day’ richly deserves the award, for its brave and unflinching portrayal of the situation in India for gay men. It also touches one’s heart the way mother of a gay son stands up against authorities. The film has been greatly appreciated across India at the KASHISH Forward screenings in colleges.”
APQFFA stands for Asia Pacific Queer Film Festival Alliance that is a network of 18 LGBTQ film festivals from the Asia Pacific region. KASHISH is a member of the alliance and festival director Sridhar Rangayan participated in the alliance forum that was held in Sydney in February 2017.
Any Other Day also had won the Riyad Wadia Award for Best Emerging Indian Filmmaker at KASHISH 2016.