Taste of Water: Nepali Short Film Screens at Tasveer Film Festival After Oberhausen Run
Aayan Pariyar's short film Taste of Water, an Everest Film Academy production, screens October 17 at the 21st Tasveer Film Festival in Seattle — its second inte
By Nepalese Events Australia Editorial
Published: 2026-09-30T04:00:00.000000Z
Category: Movies & Entertainment
Nepali short filmmaking keeps finding international audiences. Taste of Water, written and directed by Aayan Pariyar, screens at the 21st Tasveer Film Festival on Saturday, October 17, 2026, in Seattle — the film's second international festival selection after Germany's 72nd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.
The film and its makers
Taste of Water explores childhood, poverty, hope and resilience — themes Pariyar approaches through a child's perspective. The production comes from Risalla Production in association with Everest Film Academy (where Pariyar trained) and Simal Cinema, with producers Diwas Shrestha, Jyotsal Rajbhandari and Prem Prasad Adhikari.
Everest Film Academy's involvement is itself a story: the Kathmandu-d school has become a quiet pipeline for Nepali filmmakers reaching international festival circuits, and an official selection at Oberhausen — one of the world's oldest and most respected short film festivals — followed by Tasveer suggests the film is performing well on the merit circuit, not just diaspora programming.
Screening details
Film: Taste of Water (short)
Director: Aayan Pariyar
Festival: 21st Tasveer Film Festival & Market
Date: Saturday, October 17, 2026
Location: Tasveer Film Center, Seattle, Washington
The Oberhausen signal
The earlier selection at the 72nd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen is the detail that makes this more than a diaspora programming pick. Oberhausen, running since 1954, is one of the oldest and most competitive short-film festivals in the world — selection there puts a film in front of European buyers and programmers rather than just audiences. A short that plays Oberhausen then Tasveer is on the proven festival path that turns student-originated work into funded next projects.
Why Tasveer matters for Nepali film
Tasveer is the only Oscar-qualifying South Asian film festival in the world, meaning award-eligible shorts there can enter Academy consideration. The festival's October 13–18 Seattle run this year carries an unusually strong Nepali slate: alongside Taste of Water, the closing-night gala features Elephants in the Fog, the first Nepali feature selected at Cannes. For US-d audiences wanting serious Nepali cinema rather than commercial releases, October's Seattle program is the best single-weekend window this year.
Full session times and festival passes are on tasveer.org, and the production's festival journey is documented by Everest Film Academy. For Seattle-area attendees, the October 17 screening lands on a Saturday — the festival's busiest day — so booking early is advisable; Tasveer session tickets for in-demand programs regularly sell through ahead of the weekend.
What this means for emerging Nepali directors
Short films are the industry's calling card: festival selections at this level are how unknown directors get meetings with producers and funding bodies. Pariyar's path — film academy in Kathmandu, selection at Oberhausen, now Tasveer — is the template younger Nepali filmmakers are being told to follow, and this October American audiences can judge the result on a real screen rather than a festival report.
The producers' names also matter: Risalla Production, Simal Cinema and the academy's combined backing shows the Kathmandu's independent infrastructure — not the mainstream commercial houses — is what generates Nepal's festival titles. Keep that in mind when the credits roll.
Our US Nepali cinema roundup covers the commercial side of the market — and the USA desk s the wider diaspora calendar. Readers in Nepal following the screening can check the Seattle–Kathmandu time difference for live social coverage.Read more Nepali community news and stories. Browse upcoming Nepali events across Australia.
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