India and South Asia have a solid presence at this year’s 74th Berlin International Film Festival, with an amazing 19 (nineteen!) films and Berlinale Talents (BT). The Berlinale Talents is a mentoring and networking programme for relatively young filmmakers. There are nine films and nine BTs selected; and filmmaker Anam Abbas (Pakistan/Canada) has been on the BT application selection jury for Doc Station for 2024.

The nine South Asian films selected at Berlin—including seven Indian films—are Min Bahadur Bham’s Shambhala, from Nepal, in the Competition section. It is a historic milestone for South Asian cinema to have a film from Nepal in the Berlinale Competition, where even India doesn’t have a film in Competition, and hasn’t had one since Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Charachar (The Shelter of Wings,  1994), literally 30 years ago. Hopefully, this selection will make arrogant, self-absorbed Indian filmmakers and ignorant film viewers realise there is so much world class talent in our smaller South Asian neighbours; sometimes they’re even better than us.