Blog: Film festivals

Dili International Film Festival (DIFF), is back in 2020 for its second edition.

From 1 October - 11 October, the Festival will follow up on the success of the inaugural event - in a new form, and with more access to film for local filmmakers, communities and movie fanatics in Timor-Leste.


This year’s theme for the competition is

'2020 – Adapting to Change'


DIFF invites film makers from across the world and within Timor-Leste to submit their films and share their messages about change, in all its forms, in this new era.

DIFF 2020 will be modified to host mainly open-air screenings, at our popular Beachside Cinema for the international films and with mobile screening unit “Cinema Lorosa’e” for local communities at different locations in Dili and the surrounding areas, screening films adapted to Tetun and important messages in form of PSAs.

Country representations, embassies, NGOs and private sector partners will be invited to join in and host their DIFF screenings, with all content curated by the DIFF team and the international partners.

Our workshops, panel discussions and training sessions for local filmmakers and will be catering to a selected audience, partly using interactive online tools.

Festival Director Lena Lenzen states:
“Looking at our world at this time, we have amended this year’s theme for the competition to '2020 – Adapting to Change'.
We are looking forward to seeing the visions of international creatives. The world is facing unprecedented challenges and in order to strive and to create balance, we need to adapt ourselves, our techniques, how to share our knowledge and how to stay close to each other even when physically apart."

Festival Patron Jose Ramos-Horta invites film makers from across the world and within Timor-Leste to submit their films to be shown in his beloved country, as Timor-Leste commemorates the 20th anniversary of the referendum for self-rule, a time to look back, and to the future, within and outwards.

DIFF is a Timorese registered association, with a board of local and international film and cultural folks who turned their shared passion for cinema and storytelling and their love for the country of Timor-Leste to running an annual film festival focussing the spotlight on Dili.

The Festival is founded by Michael Smith, entrepreneur, adventurer, founder of Screens Without Borders and Timor-Leste’s Cinema Loro sa’e, together with Festival Director Lena Lenzen of award-winning Dili based Pixelasia Productions.

The board includes a broad range of skills, with Lena Lenzen as Festival Director, Michael Smith as President and Chair, renowned musician Melly Fernandes, lead of the band Galaxy as Cultural Officer, LGBTI activist Natalino Guterres as Inclusivity Adviser, international TV journalists Ann Turner and Wayne Lovell as judges, Angelo Alves as cinema officer, Matt Wilkinson delivering Social Engagement and Goncalo Mereilles as secretary of the association.