New Kathmandu festival brings Tarkovsky, Kapadia and Nepali cinema together
The five-day ‘Licchavi Cinema Festival’ will bring films from Nepal, Asia, and beyond to Kathmandu, pairing contemporary works with classics. Photos: Courtesy of Licchavi Cinema Festival
‘Licchavi Cinema Festival’ will hold its first edition in Kathmandu from 11 to 15 September 2026 at QFX Cinemas, Chhaya Centre, showcasing a curated programme of feature films from Asia and world cinema.
The inaugural selection brings together films from Nepal, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Thailand, France, Germany, Japan, and Russia. The programme places contemporary Asian cinema alongside major works from different periods and traditions, including films by Andrei Tarkovsky, Payal Kapadia, Khyentse Norbu, Deepak Rauniyar, Abinash Bikram Shah, and Tashi Gyeltshen.
The films include ‘The Cup’, ‘Elephants in the Fog’, ‘White Sun’, ‘The Red Phallus’, ‘All We Imagine as Light’, ‘Ghost School’, ‘Stalker’, ‘La Haine’, ‘Perfect Days’, and ‘Memoria’.
“What we are doing with this first edition is placing our own cinema in conversation with the world,” says Abishek Budhathoki, festival curator, Licchavi Cinema Festival. “Cinema literacy is not a specialist skill. It belongs to any audience willing to engage. We envision Licchavi Cinema to be part of that growth, and open to anyone who wants in.”
The festival takes the Garuda as its emblem to protect what is lasting in cinema, and to carry it toward audiences who might not otherwise encounter it. In Nepal, and across Buddhist and Hindu traditions, the Garuda is a protector and messenger, a figure that moves between realms and carries word from one to the other, belonging fully to neither sky nor earth.
The ‘Licchavi Cinema Festival’ will be held with the support of Kathmandu Metropolitan City and the European Union.
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