The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) is rolling out the red carpet for its silver jubilee with a program that bridges cinematic generations, connecting Oscar-winner James Ivory‘s enduring fascination with India to contemporary star power led by Manoj Bajpayee in the festival’s opening night selection.
Set to run June 20-22 at Manhattan’s Village East by Angelika, NYIFF’s milestone 25th edition will spotlight “An Arrested Moment,” a short documentary from The Metropolitan Museum of Art directed by Dev Benegal that explores Ivory’s long-standing relationship with Indian art and culture.
The festival kicks off with the East Coast premiere of “The Fable,” starring acclaimed actor Manoj Bajpayee alongside Priyanka Bose and Deepak Dobriyal. Directed by Raam Reddy, whose debut “Thithi” captured the Golden Leopard at Locarno, the film debuted at the 2024 Berlinale.
This year’s lineup reflects both reverence for cinema’s past and excitement for its future. The festival will honor the late master filmmaker Shyam Benegal with a screening of the 4K restoration of his 1976 landmark “Manthan” about India’s White Revolution, which premiered in the Cannes Classics section last year.
Anurag Kashyap‘s noir thriller “Kennedy,” which premiered in Cannes’ Midnight section, serves as the centerpiece selection featuring Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone, while debut director Kaushal Oza’s coming-of-age dramedy “Little Thomas” will close the festival with stars Rasika Dugal and Gulshan Devaiah in attendance.
“What began as a grassroots platform is now a global stage for Indian independent cinema,” said festival director Aseem Chhabra. “This year’s lineup is one of our most powerful and wide-ranging to date.”
The program features 22 feature-length films – 18 narratives and four documentaries – plus 21 shorts, spanning more than a dozen languages and regions from Tamil and Odia to Assamese, Hindi, and Malayalam. Notable titles include Rima Das’ “Village Rockstars 2,” Sharmila Tagore’s return to Bengali cinema in “The Ancient,” and Shonali Bose and Nilesh Maniyar’s deeply personal documentary “A Fly on the Wall.”
“This festival has long been a space where India’s cinematic legacy meets its most daring futures,” said Suman Gollamudi, executive director of the Indo-American Arts Council, which presents NYIFF. “At 25, we are not just celebrating the past – we are investing in what’s next.”
