Srinagar, Sept 10: The first-ever International Film Festival of Jammu and Kashmir (IFFJK) concluded here on Thursday with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah calling to transform J&K from merely a sought-after filming location into a vibrant centre for storytelling, talent development and filmmaking.
The four-day festival, organised by the J&K Department of Information and Public Relations from September 7 to 10 across Srinagar, Jammu and Gulmarg, brought together filmmakers, actors, technicians, artists, industry professionals and cinema enthusiasts from India and abroad.
The festival featured a diverse cinematic programme, including International Competition, Best Debut Director, Jammu & Kashmir Select, Bharat Panorama, Cinema of the World, Documentary/Hybrid and Short Films, besides masterclasses, in-conversation sessions, panel discussions, special screenings and retrospectives.
The festival’s programme also covered areas including direction and screenplay, cinematography, editing, acting, sound, animation and AI, documentary filmmaking, regional cinema, industry development and co-production, providing opportunities for interaction between established professionals and emerging filmmakers.
Addressing the closing ceremony at the SKICC lawns along the shores of Dal Lake, Omar said the inaugural edition had demonstrated that the idea of creating a meaningful international platform for cinema in J&K had “found both an audience and a purpose”.
“J&K must increasingly become a place from which stories emerge, talent is discovered, and films are conceived and created,” he said.
The CM said the region had much more to offer cinema than its landscapes, pointing to its cities, towns and villages, languages, literature, music, crafts, history and everyday lives as a rich source of stories.
“Our landscapes may bring filmmakers here, but our stories, our people and a professional filmmaking environment can bring them back,” Abdullah said.
He called for a two-way relationship with the wider film world, saying J&K should continue to welcome filmmakers from India and abroad while creating opportunities for local talent to find audiences, collaborators and opportunities beyond the region.
The festival, he said, had connected established professionals with young aspirants and created space for cinema from J&K to engage with India and the world. While the participation of films from over 30 countries demonstrated its international scale, he said, its deeper value lay in the connections created.
“A young writer meeting a director, an aspiring filmmaker learning from a professional, or two people meeting here who may one day make a film together” represented the enduring value of such a platform, he said.
Recalling J&K’s long association with cinema, Omar highlighted the festival’s Floating Cinema programme, which brought films including Junglee, Arzoo, Kashmir Ki Kali and Kabhi Kabhie back to the shores of Dal Lake.
“For decades, Kashmir travelled to audiences through the cinema screen; this week, in a sense, the screen came back to Kashmir,” he said, describing the floating cinema as one of the defining memories of the inaugural festival.
However, he cautioned that nostalgia could not define the future of J&K’s film sector.
“Our ambition must go beyond being a beautiful filming location,” he said, stressing the need to build an ecosystem where local stories and talent could flourish.
Omar also emphasised the importance of investing in young people and said the success of IFFJK should ultimately be measured by the careers it helped launch, collaborations it created and stories from J&K that reached audiences across India and the world.
He called for the festival to evolve beyond a four-day annual event into a continuing platform for screenings, learning, training and collaboration throughout the year.
“Government can provide the platform and an enabling environment, but a vibrant film culture must be sustained by the creative community itself,” he said.
Highlighting the sector’s economic potential, Omar said filmmaking could support professionals, artists, craftspeople, local services and businesses. Films coming to J&K, he said, should leave behind not only memorable images but also skills, employment and stronger local capabilities.
He invited visiting filmmakers, actors and delegates to return to J&K to shoot, write, teach and collaborate, while urging young filmmakers to tell authentic stories rooted in their neighbourhoods, villages, families and generation.
The festival featured international competition, Best Debut Director, J&K Select, Bharat Panorama, Cinema of the World, documentaries, hybrid and short films, besides masterclasses, panel discussions, special screenings and retrospectives.
The closing ceremony featured a performance by veteran singer Usha Uthup, while singer Gulzar Ganie presented the Kashmiri Sufi kalam Yaar Doad Naar Khoth, penned by Wahab Khar.
Usha's performance turned the evening into a celebration of music and cinema, with the singer engaging directly with the crowd from the stage and receiving loud applause throughout her appearance.
The festival opened with Lebanese film Dead Dog, directed by Sarah Francis, and concluded with Jordanian film Simsim, directed by Sondos Al-Smerat.