Building on the foundations of the Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival’s (kimff) 25-year legacy, the kimff foundation’s commitment to regional voices and the 5+ years of experience of the Toni Hagen Foundation Documentary Grant we are excited to announce the Kathmandu Doc Lab. This new program created by South Asians for South Asians aims to establish Kathmandu as the premier hub for documentary development in the region.

Kimff’s mission is to bridge cultures and societies through the power of story. Kathmandu Doc Lab’s vision is to create a space where filmmakers can develop their stories with guidance from accomplished mentors who understand the unique context, challenges, and opportunities of telling stories from our region. Led by an all-South Asian mentorship team, the program emphasizes authentic storytelling while building lasting networks within the South Asian documentary community.

The Kathmandu Doc Lab is an intensive 5-day documentary incubation and pitching forum that supports emerging South Asian documentary filmmakers through:

Up to $5000 in Awards for project development

Application Deadline is March 30

Anam Abbas

Anam Abbas is an award-winning filmmaker, director of “This Stained Dawn” (Sheffield, Yamagata, 2021) and producer behind “Showgirls of Pakistan” (IDFA, 2020) and “In Flames” (Cannes, TIFF, Busan, Sitges). Anam has served on the selection jury for Berlinale Talents Doc Station, Sheffield Meet Market. She is a founding member of the Documentary Association of Pakistan, programming the Chalta Phirta Film Festival, and runs intensive Doc Labs in Pakistan.

Arun Bhattarai

Arun Bhattarai is a Bhutanese documentary filmmaker known for acclaimed works like, “Agent of Happiness, “The Next Guardian”, and Mountain Man”. His latest, Agent of Happiness debuted at The Sundance Film Festival, where it was a grand jury prize nominee. His films have been awarded at major festivals and theatrically released around the world. Bhattarai specializes in intimate, culturally nuanced storytelling. His films have been supported by Sundance, Catapult and IDFA Bertha Fund.

Rintu Thomas

Rintu Thomas is an Academy Award-nominated, Peabody-winning Indian filmmaker whose body of work sits at the intersection of storytelling as an art and a dialogue. Her double Sundance-winning ‘Writing With Fire’ (2021) is India’s first Oscar-nominated feature documentary. Rintu is a recipient of the IDA Courage Under Fire Award, the President’s Medal in India and a co-founder of Black Ticket Films. Her critically acclaimed work is centered on creating powerful, socially engaged documentaries that amplify underrepresented voices.

Jane Mote

As Consultant Editor at The Whickers fund, Jane Mote works with emerging documentary filmmakers who tell compelling stories about our world. She has guided filmmakers at numerous Asian forums including Docs by the Sea in Bali, MyDocs Malaysia, Dhaka DocLab and Docedge Kolktata . Her experience extends to documentary training programs at the British Film Institute in London and workshops in Africa, Iceland and the UK.

Nilotpal Majumar

Nilotpal Majumdar has worn many hats in his journey through documentary filmmaking – from directing award-winning films to mentoring emerging talents across Asia. A graduate of FTII Pune, he founded DocEdge Kolkata and has served as Dean at Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute and headed the Manipur State Film and Television Institute. His work in nurturing new voices has taken him to numerous labs and workshops across South Asia, including DMZ Doc Funds, Dhaka DocLab, and Korean Pitch for IDFA.

Learn about the eligibility, application process and evaluation criteria