With equality as its unifying theme, this year’s festival explores the richness of contemporary Indian cinema across seven programme streams, featuring films spanning Bollywood to art house and documentaries.
The festival will also host the second edition of the annual Indian Film Festival of Melbourne Awards. Across two weeks IFFM will present a world-class program featuring gala events, master classes with India’s leading film figures, and over 45 films screening across four Melbourne venues.
The festival will welcome a number of India’s biggest stars as guests. The list features Anil Kapoor, who has established himself as one of Bollywood’s biggest actors over the last 30 years. He will attend with his daughter, actress and media personality, Sonam Kapoor. Other guests include Rajkumar Hirano, director of PK, the highest-grossing Indian film of all time, Simi Garewal, Imran Khan, Shonali Bose, Nagesh Kukunoor and Elahe Hiptoola.
IFFM opens with Umrika, which won the World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival for illuminating cultural divides through its portrayal of a young Indian boy’s mythologising of America.
Other highlights include Naanu Avanalla…Avalu (I Am Not He…She), which focuses on a day in the life of a transgender, Newborns, about women who survived acid attacks and PK, a film that broke box office records through its bold and courageous discussions about religion.
