I, The Song directed by Dechen Roder, and Ms. Understoned directed by Yuki Buma will open the IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival which will take place from March 13 – 15, 2026 in New Delhi, India.

Opening Ceremony
March 13, 2026 | Friday | C.D. Deshmukh Auditorium III C | 6:15 pm

Ms. Understoned by Yuki Buma – Japan | 2024 – 11 minutes

By photographing a mirror with clay attached to it from a blind spot, I created a single form using both the reflected world and the clay. In Japanese health education textbooks, women are described as becoming ‘rounded’.

About the director:
Born in Aichi, Japan in 2004. Since April 2022, she has been studying at Nagoya University of Arts and Sciences.  She explores narratives that draw on homonyms and linguistic structures.  She handles every aspect of her work, from visuals to sound, and deploys a wide range of techniques tailored to each theme.

I, The Song by Dechen Roder – India | 2024 – 103 minutes

Nima, a schoolteacher in the capital, is accused of being in a non-consensual pornographic video and is fired from her job. In a desperate attempt to prove her innocence, she travels to a town in the south of Bhutan in search of her lookalike seen in the video. Once in the dilapidated town, she is told that her doppelganger, Meto, skipped town. Unconvinced, Nima starts to dig around through close encounters with Meto’s most intimate friends and lovers.

Trailer:

About the director:
Dechen Roder, one of Bhutan’s few female filmmakers, founded Dakinny Productions in 2009. Her short Lo Sum Choe Sum (2015) competed at Berlinale Shorts and other festivals. Her debut feature Honeygiver Among the Dogs (Busan 2017, Berlinale 2017) won three awards at Fribourg and became the first Bhutanese film nominated for an Asian Pacific Screen Award. In 2011 she co-founded the first film festival in Bhutan-Beskop Tshechu. I, The Song is her second feature, it won Best Director at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival Critic’s Picks Competition, and 8 National Film Awards and is Bhutan’s official entry to the 98th Academy Awards

For more information, please visit: https://www.iawrtindia.org/festival-2026/