KASHISH Pride Film Festival
The KASHISH Pride Film Festival is an annual LGBTQ event that has been held in Mumbai, India, since 2010. The film festival screens gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer films from India and around the world. It is voted as one of the top five LGBT film festivals in the world.
Background
2009 was a historic year for the LGBTQ movement in India. On 2 July 2009, the Delhi High Court court ruling decriminalised homosexual intercourse between consenting adults and judged Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code to be conflicting with the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India. This brought a respite to the Indian LGBT community that has been repressed and marginalized. This also led to open celebrations by LGBT persons including pride parades in many of the metros.This was followed by the relaunch of India's first gay magazine, Bombay Dost. The Indian Election Commission decided to recognize transgender as a separate category. All these activities brought media focus and visibility to the LGBTQ community in India.
KASHISH Pride Film Festival took this movement forward through the medium of films. It made LGBTQ persons, their desires and aspirations visible through films and brought about an international perspective to LGBTQ works. The objective of the festival continues to mainstream the LGBTQ community and project them as 'normal' human beings who have the capacity to love and live with dignity. The festival offers cinema as a means to understand what being queer means today, and how it impacts both the queer community and the society at large.
It was the first Indian LGBTQ film festival to be held in a mainstream theater. It was also the first LGBTQ film festival to obtain a clearance from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India).
The festival
KASHISH Pride Film Festival, 2010 was held between 22 and 25 April 2010, spread across two venues in Mumbai – one in the city and one in the suburbs. The first edition was organized by Solaris Pictures and The Humsafar Trust in association with Bombay Dost. Features, short films, documentaries and experimental films were screened that highlighted gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender characters and stories. The films explored the diverse realities, complexities, joys and sorrows that make up the global queer experience. They also celebrated, reclaimed, and explained LGBTQ identities while engaging and entertaining audiences. The film festival brought together the audience, the films and their makers to create social change.In its debut year, founder Festival Director Sridhar Rangayan said he hoped that the film festival would encourage greater visibility of queer cinema and bring it into the mainstream discourse. He has said that the festival showcases the films to both queer and mainstream audiences, in order to make them aware of queer thought, desires and expressions.
The festival boasts of support from Indian film personalities. Shyam Benegal is the Festival Patron. Celina Jaitly was the Festival Ambassador till 2020.
The advisory board of the festival is composed of eminent personalities like Aruna Raje Patil, Dolly Thakore, Meghna Ghai Puri, Renuka Shahane, Roy Wadia, Satya Rai Nagpaul and Viveck Vaswani. In the past years Onir, Jenni Olson, Nandini Sardesai and Shernaz Patel served on the advisory board.
Some of the chief guests and guests of honour at the festival have been Sir Ian McKellen, Deepa Mehta, Sonam Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Raveena Tandon, Konkana Sen Sharma, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rajkumar Rao, Juhi Chawla, Manisha Koirala, Nandita Das Deepa Mehta, Swara Bhaskar, Divya Dutta, Pratik Gandhi, Vikramaditya Motwane, Guneet Monga, Abhishek Chaubey, Ila Arun, Soni Razdan, Rajit Kapur, Renuka Shahane, Kiran Rao, Sonali Kulkarni, Payal Kapadia, Devashish Makhija, Ranveer Brar, Shalmali, Pooja Bhatt, Anupam Kher, Kunal Kapoor, Sai Paranjpye, Kabir Bedi, Kalpana Lajmi, Zeenat Aman, Moushumi Chatterjee, Onir, Tanuja Chandra, Neeraj Ghaywan, Sanjay Suri, Neelam Kothari, Rajeshwari Sachdeva, Varun Badola, Shweta Kawatra, Varun Grover, Shalmali_Kholgade, Rekha Bhardwaj, Simone Singh, Sona Mohapatra, Anant Mahadevan, Shishir Sharma, Shruti Seth, Dalip Tahil, Shaina NC, Nisa Godrej, Aleque Padamsee, Apurva Asrani, Suchitra Pillai-Malik, Purab Kohli, Adhuna Bhabani, Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi and Sushant Divgikar.
KASHISH since 2010 to 2016 was organized by Solaris Pictures and co-organized by The Humsafar Trust.
Since 2017, KASHISH is organized by KASHISH Arts Foundation, in association with Solaris Pictures.
Calendar
- The 1st edition of the festival was held in April 2010 at PVR Cinemas & Alliance Française de Bombay, and screened 110 films from 25 countries. Its theme was 'See A Different World'.
- The 2nd edition of the festival was held in May 2011 at Cinemax Versova & Alliance Française de Bombay, and screened 124 films from 23 countries. Its theme was 'Bigger, Bolder & Queerer'.
- The 3rd edition of the festival was held in May 2012 at Cinemax Versova & Alliance Française de Bombay, and screened 120 films from 30 countries. Its theme was 'For Everyone'.
- The 4th edition of the festival was held in May 2013 at Cinemax Versova & Alliance Française de Bombay, and screened 132 films from 40 countries. Its theme was 'Towards Change'.
- The 5th edition of the festival was held in May 2014 at Liberty Cinema & Alliance Française de Bombay, and screened 154 films from 31 countries. Its theme was 'Dare To Dream'.
- The 6th edition of the festival was held in May 2015 at Liberty Cinema, Alliance Française de Bombay & Max Mueller Bhavan, and screened 180 films from 44 countries. Its theme was 'Reaching Out, Touching Hearts'.
- The 7th edition of the festival was held in May 2016 at Liberty Cinema, Alliance Française de Bombay & Max Mueller Bhavan, and screened 182 films from 53 countries. Its theme was '7 Shades of Love'.
- The 8th edition of festival was held in May 2017 at Liberty Cinema & Alliance Française de Bombay, and screened 147 films from 45 countries. Its theme was 'Diverse, One'.
- The 9th edition of festival was held in May 2018 at Liberty Carnival Cinemas & Metro INOX, and screened 140 films from 45 countries. Its theme was 'Together, With Pride'.
- The 10th edition of festival was held in June 2019 at Liberty Carnival Cinemas & Metro INOX, and screened 160 films from 43 countries. Its theme was 'Over The Rainbow'.
- The 11th edition of festival was held online in July 2020 and screened 157 films from 42 countries. Its theme was 'Moving Forward, Together'.
- The 12th edition of festival was held online in August/September, 2021 and screened 221 films from 53 countries. Its theme was 'Unlock With Pride'.
- The 13th edition of festival was held as a physical festival from June 1–5, 2022 at Liberty Cinema and Alliance Française de Bombay, and as an online festival from June 3–12, 2022; and screened 184 films from 53 countries. Its theme was 'Flights for Freedom'.
- The 14th edition of festival was held as a physical festival from June 7–11, 2023 at Liberty Cinema and Alliance Française de Bombay, and as an online festival from June 15–26, 2023; and screened 110 films from 41 countries. Its theme was 'Be Fluid, Be You!'.
- The 15th edition of festival was held as a physical festival from May 15–19, 2024 at Liberty Cinema, Alliance Française de Bombay and Cinepolis Andheri; and screened 133 films from 46 countries. Its theme was 'Unfurl Your Pride'.
- The 16th edition of festival was held as a physical festival from June 4 - 8, 2025 at Cinepolis Andheri, Alliance Française de Bombay and St. Andrews Auditorium; and screened 152 films from 48 countries. Its theme was 'Love=Peace'. The online edition was held August 15 - September 15, 2025
Festival Jury
KASHISH Pride Film Festival has, in its attempt to mainstream queer visibility, engages a jury panel to judge the award categories. The jury has consisted of actors, directors, critics, theater and media personalities and festival curators from India and abroad.| Year | Category | Jury Members |
| 2010 | All Categories | Dolly Thakore, Mahesh Dattani, Meenakshi Shedde, Rajit Kapur, Suhasini Mulay |
| 2011 | All Categories | John Badalu, Khalid Mohamed, Sai Paranjpye, Samir Soni, Shernaz Patel |
| 2012 | All Categories | Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal, Mayank Shekhar, Mona Ambegaonkar, Parvin Dabas, Renuka Shahane |
| 2013 | All Categories | Aruna Raje Patil, Berwyn Rowlands, Jerry Pinto, Quasar Thakore-Padamsee, Simone Singh |
| 2014 | All Categories | Avantika Akerkar, Nitish Bharadwaj, Onir, Pia Benegal, Sarika |
| 2015 | All Categories | Aamir Bashir, Anubhav Sinha, Chitra Palekar, Malavika Saangghvi, Meghna Malik |
| 2016 | All Categories | Andrea Kuhn, Kaizaad Kotwal, Manav Gohil, Parvati Balagopalan, Rajeshwari Sachdev |
| 2017 | - | - |
| 2017 | Narrative Jury | Anjum Rajabali, Aseem Chhabra, Jabeen Merchant, Lubna Salim, Vinta Nanda |
| 2017 | Student Shorts Jury | Avijit Mukul Kishore, Debashree Mukherjee, Pablo Naranjo-Golborne |
| 2017 | - | - |
| Year | Category | Jury Members |
| 2018 | - | - |
| 2018 | Narrative Jury | Jayati Bhatia, Sid Makkar, Tara Deshpande |
| 2018 | Documentary Jury | Batul Mukhtiar, Malathi Rao, Ramchandra P.N |
| 2018 | Student Shorts Jury | Irene Dhar Malik, Jeroo Mulla, Harish Iyer |
| Year | Category | Jury Members |
| 2019 | - | - |
| 2019 | Narrative Jury | Kitu Gidwani, Neeraj Ghaywan, Sheeba Chaddha |
| 2019 | Documentary Jury | Pankaj Rishi Kumar, Paromita Vohra, Ranjan Das |
| 2019 | Student Shorts Jury | Dr. Ivan John, Jyoti Kapoor, Somnath Sen |
| Year | Category | Jury Members |
| 2020 | - | - |
| 2020 | Narrative Jury | Hansal Mehta, Sandhya Mridul, Sunil Sukthankar |
| 2020 | Documentary Jury | Faiza Ahmad Khan, Miriam Chandy Menacherry, Nakul Singh Sawhney |
| 2020 | Student Shorts Jury | Rabiya Nazki, Shankhajeet De and Tangella Madhavi |
| 2020 | KASHISH QDrishti Film Grant Jury | Anjum Rajabali, Arunaraje Patil, Onir |
| 2020 | - | - |
| Year | Category | Jury Members |
| 2021 | - | - |
| 2021 | Narrative Jury | Cary Rajinder Sawhney, Gauri Shinde, Ritesh Batra, Satya Rai Nagpaul, Selvaggia Velo |
| 2021 | Documentary Jury | Beena Paul, Gargi Sen, Nandan Saxena |
| 2021 | Student Shorts Jury | Dr. Anjali Monteiro, Ketki Pandit, Viveck Vaswani |
| 2021 | KASHISH QDrishti Film Grant Jury | Renuka Shahane, Robin Bhatt, Urmi Juvekar |
| 2021 | - | - |
| Year | Category | Jury Members |
| 2022 | - | - |
| 2022 | Narrative Jury | Hardik Mehta, Leena Yadav, Sameera Iyengar |
| 2022 | Documentary Jury | Anjali Panjabi, Priti Chandriani, Ramanuj Dutta |
| 2022 | Student Shorts Jury | Anupam Barve, Prathyush Parasuraman, Raga D’Silva |
| 2022 | KASHISH QDrishti Film Grant Jury | Alankrita Shrivastava, Apurva Asrani, Chhitra Subramaniam, Nupur Asthana |
| 2022 | - | - |
| Year | Category | Jury Members |
| 2023 | - | - |
| 2023 | Narrative Jury | Anup Soni, Jitin Hingorani, Lillete Dubey |
| 2023 | Documentary Jury | Aanchal Kapur, Nandan Saxena, Shanti Bhushan Roy |
| 2023 | Student Shorts Jury | Atika Chohan, Rucha Pathak, Samarth Mahajan |
| 2023 | KASHISH QDrishti Film Grant Jury | Aditi Anand, Cary Sawhney, Kaizaad Kotwal |
| 2023 | - | - |
| Year | Category | Jury Members |
| 2024 | - | - |
| 2024 | Narrative Jury | Barun Sobti, Kiran Rao, Sonali Kulkarni |
| 2024 | Documentary Jury | Kavita Bahl, Pushpendra Singh, Shilpi Gulati |
| 2024 | Student Shorts Jury | Abhijit Majumdar, Gazal Dhaliwal, Shweta Basu Prasad |
| 2024 | KASHISH QDrishti Film Grant Jury | Amit Masurkar, Atika Chohan, Joy Sengupta |
| 2024 | - | - |
| Year | Category | Jury Members |
| 2025 | - | - |
| 2025 | Narrative Jury | Shishir Sharma, Shruti Seth, Tanuja Chandra |
| 2025 | Documentary Jury | Bishakha Datta, Prateek Vats, Shubhra Chatterjee |
| 2025 | Student Shorts Jury | Siddharth Menon, Sudhanshu Saria, Svetlana Naudiyal |
| 2025 | KASHISH QDrishti Film Grant Jury | Abhishek Chaubey, Guneet Monga Kapoor, Vikramaditya Motwane |
| 2025 | - | - |
The jury members for the Riyad Wadia Award for Best Emerging Indian Filmmaker has been Roy Wadia and Nargis Wadia all the years. The jury member for the Ismat Chughtai Award for Best Indian Woman Filmmaker has been Ashish Sawhny all the years. Neeraj Churi and Sridhar Rangayan have been a jury member for the KASHISH QDrishti Film Grant all the years.
Wendell Rodricks, celebrity fashion designer, was the judge from 2012 to 2020 of the KASHISH Poster Design Contest that invites designers from around the world to create the look of the festival, which will be used in posters, billboards and other promotional materials. After passing away of Wendell Rodricks, his husband Jerome Marrel was the judge from 2020 till 2023.
Award Winners
Best Narrative Feature Film
- 2025: Odd Fish - Snævar Sölvason | Iceland
- 2024: You Promised Me The Sea - Nadir Moknèche | France
- 2023: Lie With Me - Olivier Peyon | France
- 2022: Naanu Ladies - Shailaja Padindala | India, UK
- 2021: Forgotten Roads - Nicol Ruiz | Chile
- 2020: Music For The Bleeding Hearts - Rafael Gomes | Brazil
- 2019: Jose - Li Cheng | Guatemala
- 2018: Mater - Pablo D’Alo Abba | Argentina
- 2017: Gloria and Grace - Flávio R. Tambellini | Brazil
- 2016: How To Win At Checkers - Josh Kim | Thailand, USA, Indonesia
- 2015: Boys (Jongens) - Mischa Kamp | The Netherlands
- 2014: Tru Love - Kate Johnston and Shauna MacDonald | Canada
- 2013: Morgan - Michael Akers | USA
- 2012: My Last Round - Julio Jorquera Arriagada | Chile
- 2011: I Am - Onir | India
Unity in Diversity Best Documentary Feature Film
Instituted in the memory of socialist and reformer Shri K.F.Patil.- 2025: Warm Film - Dragan Jovićević | Serbia
- 2024: Neirud - Fernanda Faya | Brazil
- 2023: Mama Bears - Daresha Kyi | USA
- 2022: LA Queencianera - Pedro Peira | Mexico, USA
- 2021: Canela - Cecilia del Valle | Argentina
- 2020: One Taxi Ride - Mak CK | Mexico
- 2019: Until Porn Do Us Part - Jorge Pelicano | Portugal
- 2018: Boys For Sale - Itako | Japan
- 2017: No Dress Code Required - Cristina Herrera Bórquez | Mexico
- 2016: Pansy - Jean-Baptiste Erreca | France
- 2015: Do I Sound Gay? - David Thorpe | USA
- 2014: Bridegroom - Linda Bloodworth-Thomason | USA
- 2013: Hide and Seek - Saadat Munir | Pakistan, Denmark
- 2012: Let The Butterflies Fly - Gopal Menon | India
- 2011: We Were Here - David Weissman | USA
- 2010: Prodigal Sons - Kimberly Reed | USA
Unity in Diversity Best Documentary Short Film
Instituted in the memory of socialist and reformer Shri K.F.Patil.- 2025: B and S - Lipika Singh Darai | India
- 2024: Dear Sahithya - Leo Paapam | India
- 2023: What it Means To Be - Lea Luiz de Oliveira | UK
- 2022: Beirut Dreams In Colour - Michael Collins | Lebanon, USA
- 2021: Tracing Utopia - Nick Tyson & Catarina de Sousa | Portugal
- 2020: Breakwater - Cris Lyra | Brazil
- 2019: Laadli - Sudipto Kundu | India
- 2018: Little Potato - Wes Hurley | USA, Russia
- 2017: Naked Wheels - Rajesh James | India
- 2016: Transindia - Meera Darji | India, UK
- 2015: Novena - Anna Rodgers | Ireland
- 2014: Families Are Forever - Vivian Kleiman | USA
- 2013: Two Girls Against The Rain - Sopheak Sao | Cambodia
- 2012: Are We So Different - Lok Prakash | Bangladesh
- 2011: Bullied - Bill Brummel and Geoffrey Sharp | UK
- 2010: XXWHY - Dr.Bharathy Manjula | India
Best International Narrative Short Film
- 2025: Violets - Borja Escribano | Spain
- 2024: Breaking Through - Siham Bel | France
- 2023: An Avocado Pit - Ary Zara | Portugal
- 2022: Warsha - Dania Bdeir | Lebanon
- 2021: Snake - Andrej Volkashin | Macedonia
- 2020: Touchscreen - Arthur Halpern | USA
- 2019: Our Way Back - Moshe Rosenthal | Israel
- 2018: Marguerite - Marianne Farley | Canada
- 2017: Stay - Milka Mircic Martinovic | Germany
- 2016: San Cristóbal - Omar Zuniga Hidalgo | Chile
- 2015: 09:55 - 11:05 Ingrid Ekman Bergsgatan 4b - Cristine Berglund and Sophie Vukovic | Sweden
- 2014: Naked - José Antonio Cortés Amunarriz | Spain
- 2013: Polaroid Girl - April Maxey | USA
- 2012: Through The Window - Chen Shumowitz | Israel
- 2011: Let The World Know About Me - Marianna Giordano | Argentina
- 2010: Steam - Eldar Rapaport | USA
Best Indian Narrative Short Film
- 2025: Jasmine That Blooms In Autumn - Chandradeep Das | India
- 2024: Night Queen - Naireeta Dasgupta | India
- 2023: Shurpankha - Jayesh Apte | India
- 2022: Muhafiz - Pradipta Ray | India
- 2021: Are We There Yet? - Bhanu Babbal & Kashyap Swaroop | India
- 2020: The Song We Sang - Aarti Neharsh | India
- 2019: The Booth - Rohin Ravendran Nair | India
- 2018: Ajay - Vikrant Dhote | India
- 2017: Maacher Jhol - Abhishek Verma | India
- 2016: Daarvatha - Nishant Roy Bombarde | India
- 2015: Sundar - Rohan Kanawade | India and Mudivai Thaedum Muttrupulli - Vivek Vishwanathan | India
- 2014: Mitraa - Ravi Jadhav | India
- 2013: Urmi - Jehangir Jani | India
- 2012: The jury decided not to award any film in this category.
- 2011: Amen - Judhajit Bagchi and Ranadeep Bhattacharyya | India
- 2010: Lost & Found - Shrenik Jain | India
Riyad Wadia Award For Best Emerging Indian Filmmaker
Instituted in memory of late filmmaker Riyad Vinci Wadia, who made India’s first gay film BOMgAY, the Riyad Wadia Award for Best Emerging Indian Filmmaker is an attempt by KASHISH to recognize and nurture emerging Indian voices.- 2025: Saikat Mondal for Jalsa – The Name Day | India
- 2024: Bonita Rajpurohit for IYKYK | India
- 2023: Preeti Kanungo and Sourav Yadav for Malwa Khushan | India
- 2022: Nemil Shah for Dal Bhat | India
- 2021: Radhika Prasidhha for Begum Parvathi| India
- 2020: Arun Fulara for Sunday
- 2019: Sugandha Bansal for A Little More Blue
- 2018: Preet for Gray
- 2017: Rajesh James for Naked Wheels and Vishal Srivastava for Selfhood
- 2016: Vikrant Dhote and Srikant Ananthakrishnan for Any Other Day
- 2015: Vaibhav Hatkar for Ek Maaya Ashi Hi
- 2014: Sharon Flynn for I'dentity
- 2013: Manava Naik for Dopehri and Rohan Kanawade for Lonely Walls
- 2012: Pradipta Ray for The Night Is Young
- 2011: Shumona Banerjee for ''The Flower Bud ''
Ismat Chughtai Award For Best Woman Filmmaker of Indian Origin
Instituted in memory of eminent Indian Urdu novelist, short story writer, liberal humanist and filmmaker Ismat Chughtai, the Ismat Chughtai Award For Best Woman Filmmaker of Indian origin is an attempt by KASHISH to acknowledge and encourage women filmmakers of Indian origin to tell path-breaking narratives infused with progressive, positive viewpoints.- 2025: Shoi for Project Priyo and Joey Kaushik for The Witch of Vihar Lake | India
- 2024: Naireeta Dasgupta for Night Queen | India
- 2023: Akanksha Sharma for Road Blocked Ahead | India
Best Performance in a Lead Role
- 2025: Arna Magnea Danks for Odd Fish | Iceland
- 2024: Samyuktha Vijayan for Blue Sunshine | India
- 2023: Kika Sena for Paloma | Brazil
- 2022: Yu Ishizuka for The Fish With One Sleeve | Japan
- 2021: Maria Eduardo Maia for Advent of Mary| Brazil
- 2020: Benjamin Daimary for Fireflies | India
- 2019: Felix Maritaud for Sauvage | France
- 2018: Chetan Kanwar in Pashi | India
- 2017: Petrice Jones in Play The Devil | Trinidad & Tobago
- 2016: Ingkarat Damrongsakkul in How To Win At Checkers | Thailand, USA, Indonesia
- 2015: Kristina Hernandez in Stealth | USA
- 2014: Kate Trotter in Tru Love | Canada
- 2013: Crystal Annette in Polaroid Girl | USA
Best Screenplay
Instituted in the memory of author Dr. Arvind Vaman Kulkarni.- 2025: Baby written by Gabriel Domingues And Marcelo Caetano | Brazil
- 2024: The Wake written by Peter Ahlén & Jakob Holtet Stridbæk | Denmark
- 2023: Lie With Me written by Olivier Peyon | France
- 2022: Muhafiz written by Pradipta Ray and Ashutosh Pathak | India
- 2021: The Man With The Answers written by Stelios Kammitsis | Cyprus, Greece, Italy
- 2019: Music For The Bleeding Hearts written by Rafael Gomes | Brazil
- 2019: Jose written by Li Cheng | Guatemala
Best Student Short Film
- 2025: Two Travelling Aunties - Christine Seow | Columbia, UK
- 2024: Poisoned Well - Radek Sevcik | Slovakia and MASC4MASC - Felix Augustin Greisinger | Sweden
- 2023: Jouissance - Sadeq Es-haqi | Iran
- 2022: The Third Solar Term - Zhanfei Song | China, UK
- 2021: On A Path - Lihi Lubetkin | Israel
- 2020: The Summer of 12 - Kuan-Ling Kuo | Taiwan
- 2019: Three - Lior Soroka | Israel
- 2018: Celebrate Eileen - Judith Westermann | Germany
- 2017: Still Devout - Melissa Perez | USA
Aditya Nanda Award for Best Film on Queer Mental Health
Instituted in memory of Aditya Nanda.- 2025: After All - Chongyan Liu | UK, France, Germany
- 2024: Sifar - Edythe | India
KASHISH QDrishti Film Grant
- 2025: Shubam Negi for Make-Up Room | India
- 2024: Joey Kaushik for The Witch of Vihar Lake | India
- 2023: Abu Sohel Khondekar for Mehroon | India
- 2022: Arvind Caulagi for Taps and Preeti Kanungo & Sourav Yadav for Malwa-Kushan | India
- 2021: Bhargav Lahkar for The Caress | India
- 2020: Arun Fulara for My Mother's Girlfriend | India
- 2019: Rohin Raveendran Nair for The Booth and Sudipto Kundu for Laadli
- 2018: Siddharth Chauhan for Pashi | India
- 2017: Debadrita Bose for Clarinets | India
- 2016: V. Ramanathan for Normalcy | India
- 2025: Rayyan Monkey for Us Girls and Varsha Panikar for Operation: Gulzar | India
- 2024: Shubham Negi for Ghadoli and Arnab Nandy for Arrey Ladies Hai | India
Special Jury Mention
- 2025: Joao Pedro Mariano for Baby | Brazil
- 2025: Snævar Sölvason for Odd Fish | Iceland
- 2025: Ana Berdeja for Sole | Mexico
- 2024: Vipin Sharma for Night Queen | India
- 2024: Bonita Rajpurohit for IYKYK | India
- 2024: Maghreb's Hope - Bassem Ben Brahim | Tunisia
- 2024: Give - Kenya Gillespie | USA
- 2024: Bonita Rajpurohit for IYKYK | India
- 2024: Abu Sohel Khondekar for Mehroon | India
- 2024: Sarthak Chauhan for Chitthi | India
- 2023: Ek Jagah Apni - Ektara Collective | India
- 2023: Law of Love - Barbora Chalupová | Czech Republic
- 2023: Bi The Way - Amir Ovadia Steklov | Israel
- 2023: Our Males & Females - Ahmad Alyaseer | Jordan
- 2023: Preeti Kanungo for Malwa Khushan | India
- 2023: Rahul Roye and Ashutosh Shankar | India
- 2022: Wet Sand - Elene Naveriani | Georgia, Switzerland
- 2022: Coming To You - Gyuri Byun | South Korea
- 2022: Marcel - Gastón Calivari | Argentina
- 2022: Dal Bhat - Nemil Shah | India
- 2022: Breathe - Harm van der Sanden | Netherlands
- 2022: The Fish With One Sleeve - Tsuyoshi Shôji | Japan
- 2022: Mazel Tov - Eli Zuzovsky | Israel
- 2022: Sagar Minde for Her Canvas | India
- 2022: Anureet Watta for Kinaara | India
- 2021: Rebel Dykes - Harri Shanahan & Siân A. Williams | UK
- 2021: Nothing But A Human - Swati Jaiswal | India
- 2021: Keep Punching - Kirnay Bhatt | India
- 2021: Stray Dogs Come Out At Night - Humza Bangash | Pakistan
- 2021: Today - Francis Chillet | France
- 2020: March For Dignity - John Eames | UK, Georgia
- 2020: My Brother Is A Mermaid - Alfie Dale | UK
- 2020: We Are Dancers - Joe Morris | UK
- 2020: Neon Hearts - Ana Jakimska | Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of
- 2019: Amruta Shubhash in The Booth | India
- 2019: Parna Pethe in The Booth | India
- 2019: Lior Ashkenazi in Our Way Back | Israel
- 2019: Shaadi Ke Kapde - Sonal Giani | India
- 2019: Rangeen - Shaikh Ayaz | India
- 2019: Hands & Wings - Sungbin Byun | Republic of Korea
- 2019: Prisoner Of Society - Rati Tsiteladze | Georgia
- 2019: Visibles - Enrique Rey | Spain
- 2019: Fifth Floor On The Left - Renata Lucic | Croatia
- 2018: Birds Of Paradise - Rahul MM | India
- 2018: Sunken Plum - Gu Xiang | China
- 2018: Sunken Plum - Roberto F. Canuto & Xiaoxi Xu | China
- 2018: Goldfish - Yorgos Angelopoulos | Greece
- 2018: Mathias - Clara Stern | Austria
- 2017: Beautiful Figure - Hajni Kis | The Netherlands
- 2016: Beautiful Something - Brian Sheppard | USA
- 2016: Antonio Altamirano San Cristóbal | Chile
- 2016: Trade Queen - David Wagner | Germany
- 2016: Technical Difficulties of Intimacy - Joel Moffett | USA
- 2016: That's My Boy - Akhil Satyan | India
- 2012: We The Outsiders... - Ramesh Laxman More | India
- 2010: Holding Hands - Tonnette Stanford and Katherine Wilkinson | Australia
- 2010: Flying Inside My Body - Sushmit Ghosh, Rintu Thomas, Sumit Sharma and Ajeeta Chowhan | India
- 2010: Speak Up! It is Not My Fault - Deepika Lal | India
- 2010: Dirty Magazines - Jay Levy | USA
- 2010: I Am Gay - Nicolos Kolovos | Sweden
Special Jury Award
- 2012: Rites of Passage - Jeff Roy | USA
- 2011: I Am - Sonali Gulati | USA
KASHISH Coffee Break Audience Award
- 2013 onwards this competition was not held.
- 2012: Logging Out - Nakshatra Bagwe | India
- 2011: Nothing Happened - Julia Kots | USA
Best Poster Design
- 2025 : Saman Me Kala | Auroville, India
- 2024 : Sithesh C Govind | Bengaluru, India
- 2023 : Tanishka Jain | Mumbai, India
- 2022 : Sreejith Mohan | Kochi, India
- 2021 : Ajoy Kumar Das | Mumbai, India
- 2020 : Joyston Moreira | London, UK
- 2019 : Domenico De Monte | Milan, Italy
- 2013 : Ashutosh Vyas | Mumbai, India
- 2017 : Benny Mathew | Mumbai, India
- 2016 : Ajoy Kumar Das | Mumbai, India
- 2015 : Niharika Rastogi | New Delhi, India
- 2014 : Punith Mahesh | Hyderabad, India
- 2013 : Prachi Patil-Kotkar | Mumbai, India
- 2012 : S Ayyappa | Vijayawada, India
KASHISH Rainbow Warrior Award
- 2025 : A Revathi | Chennai, India
- 2023 : Onir | Mumbai, India
- 2022 : Cory Walia | Mumbai, India
- 2019 : Hoshang Merchant | Hyderabad, India
- 2018 : Pawan Dhall | Kolkata, India
- 2017 : Laxmi Narayan Tripathi | Mumbai, India and Manavendra Singh Gohil | Rajpipla, India
- 2016 : Ruth Vanita | Montana, USA and Saleem Kidwai| Lucknow, India
- 2015 : Betu Singh | New Delhi, India
- 2014 : Wendell Rodricks | Goa, India and Ashok Row Kavi | Mumbai, India
KASHISH Rainbow Champion Award
- 2023 : Kinnar Asmita
- 2022 : Tweet Foundation
- 2019 : The Humsafar Trust