The inaugural ‘DESIblitz Film Fusion’ festival launches in multicultural Birmingham by the multi-award-winning web publication DESIblitz.com. Established in 2008, the website has earned its publication status by growing tremendously with the large UK and international reach, especially in South Asia and North America.
Born in Birmingham, the festival offers an exciting and fantastic opportunity for filmmakers to showcase their creative film art and talents. The first-ever ‘DESIblitz Film Fusion’ festival is a 10-day event with 10+ screenings, taking place across iconic venues (‘ODEON Luxe Birmingham Broadway Plaza’ and ‘Mac Birmingham: Midlands Arts Centre’ etc) in Birmingham, the UK from Friday, June 3 to Sunday, June 12, 2022.
“As we start to emerge again, after a couple of long years of COVID restrictions it’s important that we start to encourage people back out into spaces where they can enjoy themselves as individuals and as families,” says Indi Deol, Festival Director, DESIblitz Film Fusion Festival.
“The DESIblitz Film Fusion Festival forms an important part of this recovery process as well as vital support for emerging talent of filmmakers and producers. With this festival, we want to be able to encourage new voices to be heard but also to bring a fresh perspective to Punjabi, Pakistani and ethnic sports films and cinema.”
The festival is supported by Film Hub Midlands, British Film Institute, BFI Film Audience Network, and The National Lottery. A first of its kind, the festival focuses on promoting and elevating Punjabi, Pakistani, and Sports films with a South Asian context, as well as a UK and World scope to them. It will be elevating and promoting Punjabi, Pakistani, Sports Films and much more. This includes considering exceptional films made by Kashmiri Filmmakers from across the globe.
The Indie festival targets underrepresented groups and communities, young and mature audiences. Providing a platform for alternative and language-based cinema, the festival aims to promote diversity and culture that is stimulating, educational, and inspirational, with a super film program mix, talent, discussions, and competition.
Faisal Shafi, Festival Programme Director, DESIblitz Film Fusion Festival describes: “The DESIblitz Film Fusion Festival is a fresh exciting direction for us at DESIblitz.com. We are aiming to curate a compelling programme, including amazing talent from the UK and beyond, as well as fascinating discussions and a super masterclass.”
The festival categories include feature, documentary and short films of substance, depth, entertainment, infotainment with varied genres within the core festival strands, which consist of:
PUNJABI FILMS
inspiring, creative, and strong story-based Punjabi films that are made in the Punjabi language, originating from India, Pakistan, UK, USA, Canada, or anywhere in the world.
PAKISTANI FILMS
Thought-provoking, educating, and entertaining films relating to Pakistan or a Pakistani theme, along with promoting the culture, lifestyle and languages of Pakistan including Urdu. Films can originate from Pakistan, the UK, the USA, Canada, or anywhere globally.
SPORTS FILMS
Ethnic films unveiling sports (all sports including mountaineering, adventure sports) stories of challenges, success, and accomplishments that have a direct (preferable) or indirect South Asian/ Desi link. They can originate from South Asia, the UK, or anywhere internationally. 1-2 exceptional films made by Kashmiri filmmakers from around the world.
As part of the festival, the ‘Film Fusion Competition’ will also run. This calls for young UK-based filmmakers of any experience (16-30) to submit creative short films (max. 10 minutes) that are made using a smartphone with a Commonwealth Games 2022 theme. This includes animations and vlog-style submissions.
Features and documentaries selected for the fest will be in consideration for the ‘Best Film Audience Award’. Prize(s) will also be given for the Film Competition. The winning and two runner-up films will be shown during the showcase.
