Meet the amazing jury of the Short Film Competition of Beskop Tshechu 2025!
Fiction Competition Jury
Tashi Gyeltshen
Tashi Gyeltshen is a writer, director, and producer from Thimphu, Bhutan. He worked as a journalist in Kuensel and Bhutan Times before teaching himself to become a filmmaker. He wrote numerous articles on films, art and culture.
Tashi wrote and directed his first short film, Girl with a Red Sky, in 2008, followed by A Forgotten Story in 2010. His third short The Red Door premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2014. He wrote the screenplay of the short film, Why The Sky Is Dark At Night, which was directed by Kelzang Dorji, an upcoming young filmmaker. The short is the first short film to world premiere at the competition section at Busan International Film Festival 2022 in South Korea. In 2022, Tashi wrote and directed a short film, And Things Began To Fall Apart, on the request of Hollywood cinematographer Ellen Kuras (best known for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). The short is one of the 48 short films from across the world to be put together as a testimony of what the humanity went through when it was struck with Covid.
His debut feature The Red Phallus won a production grant award at Open Doors Hub at Locarno Festival and later won the FIPRESCI Award (International Critics Award) at the Busan International Film Festival in 2018, was nominated for the Crystal Bear Generation 14plus – Best Feature Film prize at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2019 and played at Edinburgh, Fribourg and Kerala film festivals, among others. It also earned an Asia Pacific Screen Award nomination for Best Youth Feature Film.
Tandin Bidha
Tandin Bidha is one of Bhutan’s most acclaimed and enduring film talents. Since beginning her acting career in 2006, she has starred in over 45 Bhutanese films, earning a distinguished reputation for her versatility and dedication to the craft. Her performances have garnered multiple national awards, including honors for Che Sem Che Lu (2009), Bum Bata Chen Me Rinzi (2014), Rube Ngakha Phuzhing (2018), and Boed Garp Sonam Drugyel (2023).
In addition to acting, she made her directorial debut with Glimmer of Hope (2022), produced for Samuh OTT, which went on to win a SAMUH Award. In 2023 starred in I, the Song which premiered at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, where it won the “Best Director Award” in the Critic’s Picks section. Tandin has since represented the film at international festivals including Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema and the Fribourg International Film Festival.
She also co-produced and acted in the audience favorite Aum Penjor, as well as With Love from Bhutan, which had its world premiere at the Goa International Film Festival and is slated for release in Bhutan soon.
Druksel Dorji
Druksel Dorji is a filmmaker, producer and a former jury chairperson for the Bhutan National Film Awards. He collaborated as the producer on Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche’s film Pig at the Crossing which was released in 2024 and is also the Opening Film for Beskop Tshechu 2025.
Documentary Competition Jury
Sreemoyee Singh
Sreemoyee Singh completed her PhD on “The Exiled Filmmaker in Post-Revolution Iran” from the department of Film Studies in Jadavpur University, Kolkata in Feb 2022. In 2015, she travelled to Iran for the first time inspired by masters of Iranian cinema like Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi and Mohsen Makhmalbaf, who remain an inspiration. This journey led to the filming of her first feature length documentary And, Towards Happy Alleys (Be Kucheye Khoshbakht). For this, Sreemoyee learnt Persian from Dehkhoda Lexicon Institute and Center for Persian Studies in Tehran. Her in-depth research about the cinema of Iran and her knowledge of Persian gave her unique access to Iranian filmmakers, artists, activists, and women who are otherwise wary of interaction with the media outside. Sreemoyee also worked as Assistant Professor of Film Studies at St. Joseph’s University, Bangalore and a Guest Lecturer at New York University, Abu Dhabi (NYUAD).
Tenzin Tsetan Choklay
Tenzin Tsetan Choklay is a Tibetan-American film maker based in New York and Dharamshala, India. An alumnus of the first Asian Film Academy, he studied film directing at the prestigious Korean Academy of Film Arts in Seoul, South Korea, with support from Busan International Film Festival, becoming one of the first non-Koreans to do so. In 2014, his feature documentary, Bringing Tibet Home, premiered at the Busan International Film Festival and won numerous international awards. In 2016, the Korean version of the film was released in over 40 theaters across South Korea. In 2020, Tenzin co-founded Drung Tibetan Filmmakers’ Collective, a group of Tibetan filmmakers in Dharamshala dedicated to sharing knowledge, skills, and connections to tell stories about Tibet, India, and beyond. Tenzin’s latest work, 1994, is a short experiential film commissioned by the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City, featured in the Mandala Lab Scent Library, where audiences experience stories connected to scents recreated by a Master Perfumer, alongside works by artists including Laurie Andersen and Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
Kinley Tshering
Kinley Tshering is an award-winning journalist, screenwriter, filmmaker, and communications consultant with 19 years of professional experience across journalism, multimedia production, research, strategic communication, and filmmaking. He is currently the Managing Editor at Kuensel Corporation Limited, Bhutan’s national newspaper. Previously, he served as Creative Director at Samuh MediaTech, the country’s first OTT platform, and Zoom Out Productions, and as Editor-in-Chief of Business Bhutan. He holds a Master’s degree in Convergent Journalism (Multimedia) from AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, India.img.
