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Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Fatherland,” which earned him the best director prize at Cannes this year, will open the 57th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), set for Nov. 20-28 in Goa.
Nitesh Tiwari’s “Ramayana: Rise
of a Legend” will open the festival’s BRICS showcase, and Aditya Dhar’s Bollywood feature “Dhurandhar” will open the Indian Panorama.
Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant unveiled the program at a curtain-raiser press conference in the state, joined by festival director Ashutosh Gowariker, the filmmaker behind “Lagaan.” Organizers received more than 1,900 submissions from 137 countries for this edition, and the lineup spans more than 150 international films from 86 countries.
“Fatherland” is set in 1949. It tracks Nobel laureate Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika as they travel through a Germany split by the aftermath of war. The Poland, Germany, Italy and France co-production plays in German, English, French and Russian.
Alina Șerban’s “I Matter,” a Romania, Germany and Belgium co-production in Romanian and Romani, will screen as the mid-fest film. Anthony Chen’s Singaporean comedy-drama “We Are All Strangers,” in Mandarin and English, will close the festival.
Chanchal Kumar, secretary of India’s Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, quoted Prime Minister Narendra Modi in discussing this year’s theme, “Stories Without Borders”: “The stories may have an address, but emotions have no borders.”
The BRICS section will feature work from all 11 member nations of the bloc as well as its partner countries. Titles include Jessica Beshir’s “Faya Dayi” and Anastasia Kuzina’s “Bo Bo.”
Spain will bring four films as country of honor: Pedro Almodóvar’s “Bitter Christmas,” Jaime Lorente’s “The Bad Son,” Laura Alvea and José Ortuño’s “Trinidad” and Juana Macías’ “Looking for Michael.” Russia’s partner-country showcase pairs Kuzina’s “Bo Bo” with Nikita Grushin’s “New Home,” Raul Geidarov’s “Sidney Lumet’s Birthday” and Gerbert Rappaport’s musical “Cheryomushki.”
The festival will screen 76 Indian films across 18 languages. Indian Panorama selectors weighed 404 feature and 358 non-feature submissions, while the best web series (OTT) category attracted 46 eligible entries. Leena Yadav’s Ladakhi-language “Becoming” will open the non-feature strand.
Madhur Bhandarkar chairs the feature film jury and Himanshu Shekhar Khatua heads the non-feature film jury.
Indian director-producer Aanand L. Rai (“Raanjhanaa,” “Tanu Weds Manu”) will chair the international competition jury. He will be joined by Argentine filmmaker Sol Berruezo Pichon-Riviere; Thai writer-director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, whose “A Useful Ghost” won the grand prize at Cannes Critics’ Week in 2025; Colombian sound designer María Alejandra Rojas; and Romanian writer-director Bogdan Mureșanu (“The New Year That Never Came”).
The Cinema of the World section includes Kore-eda Hirokazu’s “Look Back,” Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s “The Samurai and the Prisoner,” Lukas Dhont’s “Coward,” Nishikawa Miwa’s “Children Untold,” Gábor Reisz’s “Ground Floor” and Wim Wenders’ “From Inside Out – The Architecture of Peter Zumthor.” From Festivals Worldwide gathers Hong Sang-soo’s “Nowhere to Lay My Eyes,” Emin Alper’s “Salvation,” Valeska Grisebach’s “The Dreamed Adventure” and Grant Gee’s “Everybody Digs Bill Evans.”
Two sections are new this year, with five films each. Animation includes Brad Bird’s “Ray Gunn.” Films About Films was created after leading filmmakers suggested it. Its titles include Barnaby Thompson’s “Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean” and Francesco Zippel’s “Vittorio De Sica – Staging Life.”
Seven first features will compete for the best debut feature prize: “Fading Man” (Germany), “The Sledge” (India), “Paris” (Belgium), “The Black Sea” (Egypt), “L’Âge d’Or (The Golden Age)” (France and Italy), “Birds on Ice” (India) and “Atlantic” (China). The wider program counts 52 women directors and 62 first-time filmmakers.
Restored Classics will screen Don Siegel’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” Danny Boyle’s “Trainspotting,” David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart,” F.W. Murnau’s “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans” and Ernst Lubitsch’s “To Be or Not to Be.” Andrzej Wajda gets a five-film centenary tribute. Indian figures born a century ago will also be honored: directors Shakti Samanta and Raj Khosla, actors Uttam Kumar, Suryakant Mandhare, Prem Nazir and Raj Kumar, and composers O.P. Nayyar and Ravi.
The WAVES Film Bazaar market will host 150 invited guests, including buyers and production companies. Its program covers a Screenwriters’ Lab, a Co-production Market, a Viewing Room and a Work-in-Progress Lab. Netflix is the bazaar’s Knowledge Series partner and will present the gala premiere of “Pushpak Viman,” alongside an international screening of “Ray Gunn.” The streamer will also highlight its work with the Indian government on building the country’s VFX talent base.
Screenings will take place on 13 indoor screens at four locations: Panaji, Porvorim, Margao and Ponda. Together they seat more than 4,000.
IFFI was launched in 1952 and ranks among Asia’s oldest film festivals. It is organized by the information and broadcasting ministry with the Goa government and the Entertainment Society of Goa.
