South Asia’s premier incubator
for emerging queer storytellers
The QueerFrames Screenwriting Lab provides a vital platform for early career queer storytellers to refine their craft, expand their networks, and advance their careers in the film industry.
Since launching in 2023, it has supported 14 diverse queer filmmakers from across South Asia, with a mission to amplify queer representation in cinema and shift broader cultural narratives.
QueerFrames 2025
This year, the Lab will bring together 8 emerging queer and trans writer-directors from India, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, and the South Asian diaspora with fiction feature scripts in early development. We are looking for projects that are deeply rooted in South Asia and explore queerness not as a subplot, but as the driving force of the story.
Program Components

Screenwriting Residency
October 3-12, 2025

Online Program October 2025-March 2026

Advanced Development Support
Post-March 2026
Industry Experts
Filmmaker
Festival Director, Berlinale
Filmmaker
Director
Producer
Film Editor
Creative Executive, Netflix
Producer
Lab Instructors
Vishnu Sinha is an award-winning writer-director with an MFA from Columbia University, where he teaches screenwriting. He is currently writing for Netflix’s The Royals, developing his short Strawberry Cream into a feature, and creating a TV series with an International Emmy-nominated company.
Paromita Dhar is a Goa-based director, cinematographer, and screenwriter. A Berlinale Talents alum, her work includes Behind the Tin Sheets, Birha, and That Cloud Never Left (Busan, IDFA, Yamagata). She is developing Last Time on Earth, supported by NFDC and the Hubert Bals Fund.
Apply by 13 July 2025, 11:59 PM IST

“My bond with the cohort is deeply precious – these are lifelong friendships. I’m so grateful to the Lab for guiding us through industry meetings. What could have been overwhelming felt manageable, even exciting, because I never had to go in alone.”

”In our desire to tell stories, we often overlook the craft needed to truly move others. This Lab gave me the tools and techniques to bridge that gap – transforming raw emotion into stories that resonate with diverse audiences.”
Supported by

