The 11th edition of the Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) will be screening 80 films from 32 countries — 21 feature narratives, 16 feature documentaries and 43 short films.

The movie gala will be held from November 3 to 6 at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) in Dharmshala.

Some of the highlights of the festival are India premieres of Cannes jury prize winner Joyland, a Pakistani film by Saim Sadiq; National award-winning filmmaker Aditya Vikram Sengupta's third Bengali feature film Once Upon A Time in Calcutta; Parth Saurabh's debut film Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar (On Either Sides of the Pond); Writing with Fire by Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Sen; and Ajitpal Singh's Fire in the Mountains.

The line-up also includes Cannes Film Festival Golden Eye Award winner All That Breathes by Shaunak Sen, Jhini Bini Chadariya (The Brittle Thread) by Ritesh Sharma and Shankar's Fairies by Irfana Majumdar.

Festival director Ritu Sarin said they are looking forward to once again welcoming audiences and filmmakers to celebrate cinema during the four-day festival.

“We are so excited to announce our line-up! As we come out of two years of Covid, we have had a bumper crop of amazing new films from across India and the world to select from. It's been a really difficult challenge for our selection team to sift through so many fine films and we have had many long discussions and debates before deciding on the final programme,” Sarin said in a statement.

According to the organisers, a large contingent of filmmakers will attend DIFF to present their films, and the programme also includes masterclasses and workshops.

Those who cannot attend the physical edition of DIFF this year, a digital edition will go online from November 7 to 13 with a truncated line-up.