IFFI 2026: 159 international, 76 Indian films; Fatherland opens, Dhurandhar leads Panorama

The Indian Panorama has 25 feature films and 20 non-feature films, chosen from more than 700 entries. Dhurandhar opens the feature section, and the Ladakhi film Becoming opens the non-feature section. Dhiraj Singh, the managing director of the National Film Development Corporation, said Dhurandhar will be the opening film of the Panorama's feature section. Madhur Bhandarkar heads the jury for the feature films and Himansu Sekhar Khatua the jury for the non-features.

Competitions and new sections

The international competition has 15 films and is judged by a jury chaired by the director Aanand L Rai, with Bogdan Muresanu of Romania, Maria Alejandra Rojas of Venezuela, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke of Thailand and Sol Berruezo Pichon-Riviere of Argentina. The Best Debut Feature competition has seven films, among them The Sledge and Birds on Ice from India, Paris from Belgium, Fading Man from Germany, The Black Sea from Egypt, L'Age d'Or from France and Italy, and Atlantic from China. Ten films compete for the ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi Medal.

Two new categories appear this year: Animation and Films About Films, with five titles each. The organisers said 52 women filmmakers and 62 first-time filmmakers are in the programme, with 10 and 12 of them in competition. The programme includes nine world premieres, two international premieres, 24 Asia premieres and 116 India premieres, and 14 gala premieres.

Prizes, tributes and countries

The Golden Peacock for best film carries a prize of Rs 51 lakh. The Silver Peacock for best director carries Rs 20 lakh, the special jury award Rs 20 lakh, and the best actor awards, male and female, and the best debut feature film of a director Rs 15 lakh each. The Gandhi Medal comes with a medal and a certificate.

Spain is the country of honour with a showcase of four films, among them Pedro Almodovar's Bitter Christmas, The Bad Son, Trinidad and Persiguiendo a Michael. Russia, the partner country, has four films. A five-film retrospective marks the birth centenary of the Polish director Andrzej Wajda, with Ashes and Diamonds, Kanal, Man of Marble, The Promised Land and Afterimage. A special screening marks 25 years of Lagaan.

The festival's selection of Ramayana for the BRICS section, which features films from the BRICS member countries and partner nations, comes as the film crosses Rs 1,000 crore worldwide at the box office, according to trade estimates. Dhurandhar, the Panorama opener, was one of the big commercial successes of the previous year. The festival's own website and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting publish the full list of titles and the screening schedule, and delegate registration details are on the festival's site.

The International Film Festival of India was first held in 1952 and has been staged in Goa since 2004. The festival's host state's Chief Minister, Pramod Sawant, described it as Asia's oldest film festival. The Indian Panorama is the section in which films selected by juries appointed by the Directorate of Film Festivals are shown as a representative picture of Indian cinema in the year, and the BRICS section brings together films from the member countries of the grouping, which includes India, Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa, and the partner nations.

The centenary tribute to Andrzej Wajda marks 100 years since the birth of the Polish director in 1926, and the 25th anniversary screening of Lagaan marks a film that was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign language film. Festival-goers can register as delegates on the festival's official website, and the Directorate of Film Festivals publishes the screening schedule closer to the opening day.