The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) returns to Goa for its 56th edition from November 20 to 28, presenting more than 240 films from 81 countries.
This year’s lineup includes 13 world premieres, four international premieres, and 46 Asian premieres. The festival received a record 2,314 submissions from 127 nations.
10 Films in the Race for the Gandhi Medal
This year, ten films will compete for the prestigious ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi Medal, awarded to works that promote the ideals of peace and non-violence.
Instituted at IFFI’s 46th edition, the award celebrates cinema that nurtures intercultural dialogue and honours Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy. It is presented in partnership with the International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication (ICFT), Paris, under UNESCO.
An international jury chaired by Dr. Ahmed Bedjaoui, Artistic Director of the International Film Festival of Algiers, will select the winner. The jury also includes Xueyan Hun (Vice-President, CICT-ICFT), Serge Michel (Vice-President, UNICA), Tobias Biancone (former Director-General, International Theatre Institute), and Georges Dupont (Director-General, CICT-ICFT; former UNESCO official).
The Contenders
Among this year’s contenders is Brides (UK), the debut feature by British playwright-turned-filmmaker Nadia Falls, which premiered at Sundance 2025 and was nominated for the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize. The film follows two runaway British-Muslim teenagers as they navigate identity and belonging while confronting the consequences of radicalisation.
Norwegian director Eirik Svensson’s Safe House (Før mørket) is a gripping civil-war drama set over 15 tense hours inside a Doctors Without Borders hospital during the 2013 conflict in the Central African Republic. The film, which won the Audience Dragon Award at the 2025 Göteborg Film Festival, explores humanity and courage amid chaos.
From Kosovo, Hana, the debut feature by Ujkan Hysaj, portrays an actress who supports war survivors through art therapy while reckoning with her own buried trauma.
Iranian filmmaker Ebrahim Amini’s K Poper, which premiered at the 2025 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, tells the tender story of a teenage girl whose obsession with a K-pop idol ignites a clash between dreams and family expectations.
Iraqi director Hasan Hadi’s acclaimed debut The President’s Cake depicts a child’s struggle to bake a birthday cake for the President amid 1990s sanctions—a poignant allegory of deprivation and innocence. After its world premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award and the Caméra d’Or, the film was selected as Iraq’s official entry for Best International Feature at the 98th Academy Awards.
From Chile, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Sebastián Lelio presents The Wave (La Ola), a bold musical drama inspired by the 2018 Chilean feminist protests, translating collective rage into a visually powerful work.
Japanese auteur Naomi Kawase competes with Yakushima’s Illusion (L’Illusion de Yakushima), starring Vicky Krieps. The film meditates on love, mortality and human connection through the story of a woman searching for her missing partner amid Japan’s mysterious “Johatsu” disappearances.
Representing India, Anupam Kher’s Tanvi the Great tells the moving story of a woman with autism fulfilling her late father’s dream of saluting the Indian flag at Siachen Glacier.
Another Indian entry, White Snow, by National Award-winning filmmaker Praveen Morchhale, critiques censorship and patriarchal control through a mother’s defiant mission to screen her son’s banned film in remote mountain villages. Morchhale earlier won the ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi Medal in 2018 for Walking with the Wind.
Rounding off the selection is the Braj-language feature Vimukt (In Search of the Sky) by Jitank Singh Gurjar. Winner of the NETPAC Award at TIFF, the film follows an impoverished couple’s pilgrimage to the Maha Kumbh with their disabled son, exploring faith, stigma and resilience.
The winner will be announced at IFFI’s closing ceremony in Goa.
About IFFI
IFFI is the only South Asian film festival accredited by FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers’ Associations) in the Competitive Feature Films category.
Founded in 1952, the festival has grown into a major global showcase for world cinema, connecting filmmakers, cinephiles, and industry professionals. Since 2004, IFFI has been jointly organised in Goa by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, and the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG).