Aditya Dhar’s Hindi-language “Dhurandhar” will open the Indian Panorama section of the 57th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa. Rishab Shetty’s Kannada-language “Kantara: A Legend – Chapter 1” is also in the lineup.
Leena Yadav’s “Becoming,” in Ladakhi, will kick off the non-feature program. In all, IFFI’s annual survey of Indian filmmaking will present 25 features and 20 non-features this year.
“Dhurandhar” and “Kantara: A Legend – Chapter 1” both sit in the five-title Mainstream Cinema strand. They are joined there by Samir Tewari’s Marathi-language film “Baapya,” Anil Ravipudi’s Telugu-language title “Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu (Pandaga Ki Vastunnaru)” and Pravin Vitthal Tarde’s “Deool Band 2,” also in Marathi.
A 12-member jury chaired by Indian National Film Award-winning filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar picked the features from 404 submissions. The other 20 titles cover 12 languages, from Hindi, Tamil and Bengali to Tulu and Nyishi.
Among them are Kamakhya Narayan Singh’s “The Kerala Story 2 Goes Beyond,” Bharatbala Ganapathy’s “Banaras,” Akhil Sathyan’s Malayalam film “Sarvam Maya,” P. Sheshadri’s Kannada title “Ruby-Cube” and Singeetham Srinivasa Rao’s Telugu feature “Sing Geetham.” Sahil Shah’s “Birds on Ice,” in Ladakhi, and Duyu Tabyo’s Nyishi-language “Urum” also made the cut.
The same jury shortlisted five films for IFFI’s best debut director of an Indian feature film award. The nominees are Ravi Varma Namburi’s “Chennai Love Story” (Telugu), Samarpan Sengupta’s “Pratyabartan” (Bengali), Jeejivisha Kale’s “Tighi” (Marathi), Raja Shabir Mohd Khan’s “Sledge” (Kashmiri) and Vishal Chaturvedi’s “Hanuman Ansh” (Hindi). The festival has also named five nominees for its best web series prize.
On the non-feature side, a six-member jury led by director and educator Himanshu Sekhar Khatua whittled 358 entries down to 20. Picks include Bhasker Vishwanathan’s “The Unseen Holy River – Saraswati,” Aimee Baruah’s Assamese film “Red Carpet,” Suraj Kumar’s English-language “Nirmanjali: The Chandigarh of Maciej Nowicki” and Baba Tassaduq Hussain’s Kashmiri title “Naqsh-e-Daur.”
The full Indian Panorama 2026 selection:
Feature Films
“Paro – The Untold Story of Bride Slavery” (Hindi), dir. Gajendra Ahire
“Laalo – Krishna Sada Sahaayate” (Gujarati), dir. Ankit Bhupatbhai Sakhiya
“The Kerala Story 2 Goes Beyond” (Hindi), dir. Kamakhya Narayan Singh
“Krishnavataram” (Hindi), dir. Hardik Gajjar
“Birds on Ice” (Ladakhi), dir. Sahil Shah
“Scroll” (Tamil), dir. Kannan S
“Pagla Ghora” (Bengali), dir. Sekhar Das
“Aadi Anant” (Marathi), dir. Mahesh Limaye (aka Shivkumar Limaye)
“Urum” (Nyishi), dir. Duyu Tabyo
“Banaras” (Hindi), dir. Bharatbala Ganapathy
“Kabir Sir Ka Akhri Lesson” (Hindi), dir. Sarfaraz
“Sing Geetham” (Telugu), dir. Singeetham Srinivasa Rao
“Ohh My Dog” (Hindi), dir. Amit Rai
“Ruby-Cube” (Kannada), dir. P. Sheshadri
“Sev Micchar” (Hindi), dir. Muskan Asthana
“Pili Channe” (Tulu), dir. Anupama Sharadhi
“The Great Grand Superhero Aliens Ka Aagman” (Hindi), dir. Manish Saini
“Thaai Kizhavi” (Tamil), dir. Sivakumar Murugesan
“Surjyamukhi” (Assamese), dir. Antara G.G. Choudhury
“Sarvam Maya” (Malayalam), dir. Akhil Sathyan
Mainstream Cinema
“Kantara: A Legend – Chapter 1” (Kannada), dir. Rishab Shetty
“Baapya” (Marathi), dir. Samir Tewari
“Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu (Pandaga Ki Vastunnaru)” (Telugu), dir. Anil Ravipudi
“Dhurandhar” (Hindi), dir. Aditya Dhar
“Deool Band 2” (Marathi), dir. Pravin Vitthal Tarde
Best Debut Director of Indian Feature Film Nominees
“Chennai Love Story” (Telugu), dir. Ravi Varma Namburi
“Pratyabartan” (Bengali), dir. Samarpan Sengupta
“Tighi” (Marathi), dir. Jeejivisha Kale
“Sledge” (Kashmiri), dir. Raja Shabir Mohd Khan
“Hanuman Ansh” (Hindi), dir. Vishal Chaturvedi
Non-Feature Films
“The Unseen Holy River – Saraswati” (Hindi), dir. Bhasker Vishwanathan
“Becoming” (Ladakhi), dir. Leena Yadav
“Shat-Shat Atal” (Hindi), dir. Atul Pandey
“The Hug of Emptiness” (Kannada), dir. Pradeep Kumar Shetty K
“Red Carpet” (Assamese), dir. Aimee Baruah
“Demography Is Destiny” (Hindi), dir. Kamakhya Narayan Singh, Anshuman Shekhar
“Echoes of the Last Shelter” (Hindi), dir. Bharat Arora, Rajesh Bhatia
“Win” (Telugu), dir. Praveen
“Ulididdu Sampige Maatra” (Kannada), dir. Abhishek
“Nirmanjali: The Chandigarh of Maciej Nowicki” (English), dir. Suraj Kumar
“Shiksha” (Marathi), dir. Amyth Patkar
“Naqsh-e-Daur” (Kashmiri), dir. Baba Tassaduq Hussain
“Chandoba” (Marathi), dir. Nipun Dharmadhikari
“Abhal-Vriksh” (Marathi), dir. Santosh Davakhar
“Attappadi” (Tamil), dir. Vijeesh Mani
“Save the God” (Hindi), dir. Niraj Kumar Mishra
“Amit Atal” (Hindi), dir. Hitesh Shankar
“Switch Off” (Malayalam), dir. Sandeep Francis
“Chalo Indian With Eric Ji – Mizoram” (English), dir. Rajdeep Choudhury
“Kathar Katha” (Bengali), dir. Dhritisree Sarkar
