After wowing festivals worldwide, filmmaker Ritesh Batra's epistolary romantic film 'The Lunchbox' will open the Dharamshala International Film Festival 2013 on October 24.
The movie starring Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in lead roles, will be presented by producer Guneet Monga at the festival.
'Lunchbox' was earlier screened at International Critics' Week at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and later won the Critics Week Viewers Choice Award also known as Grand Rail d'Or. It was also shown at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.
The four-day film extravaganza will screen about 30 films ranging from fiction, documentaries and short films.
This year, the festival also has a special focus on Indian documentaries with strong social concerns and will screen movies like Nishtha Jain's 'Gulabi Gang', Amit Virmani's 'Menstrual Man', and Anand Patwardhan's 'Jai Bhim Comrade'.
Other movies to be shown are 'Filmistaan' by debutante director Nitin Kakkar, 'La Voz De Los Silenciados' by Australian Maximon Monihan, 'The Rocket' by American Sylvia Wilczynski, 'Crossing Bridges' by debutante Arunachali director Sange Dorjee Tahongdok, 'With You Without You' by Sri Lankan Prasanna Vithanage and 'The Strange Little Cat' by Ramon Zurcher.
Filmmakers Jacek Borcuch, Anand Patwardhan, Nishtha Jain, Amit Virmani, Sylvia Wilczynaski and Nagraj Manjule will attend the festival, interact with audience, participate in panel discussions and hold filmmaking master classes.
