Onir’s ‘We Are Faheem & Karun’ wins at Roze Filmdagen Festival

Filmmaker Onir’s We Are Faheem & Karun has won the Hivos Free to Be Me Award 2026, to be presented at the Roze Filmdagen Festival in Amsterdam. The award is given to filmmakers who create work enhancing LGBTQI+ acceptance and visibility, and honours courageous, taboo-breaking stories.

The citation reads, “This year, the award goes to Indian director Onir’s We Are Faheem & Karun. In this gripping film, we follow two men who do not doubt who they are, but are confronted with an environment that tries to make them invisible. Their love story unfolds against the backdrop of political tensions and military presence in Kashmir, where every deviation is closely controlled.”

“We Are Faheem & Karun is not just a story of love, but also an act of resistance. A film that shows how intimacy and humanity can continue to exist, even when there is minimal space for it, exactly what the Free to be Me Award stands for.”

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Onir said, “Thank you to the jury at Hivos and the team at Roze Filmdagen for first nominating our film and then celebrating it as the winner of this precious award.

“I am overwhelmed and humbled and honoured to be conferred this prestigious award. This validated one’s journey. As we prepare for a June release of our film, this award means a lot not just for me and the entire cast and crew, but for the queer voices from South Asia and elsewhere where we are still fighting for the rights to live as equals., to resist invisibility.”