NY Indian Film Festival Marks 25 Years with Tribute to Shyam Benegal
Benegal, who passed away in December 2024 at the age of 90, will be honoured with a special screening of Manthan (1976), his landmark film on India’s White Revolution.
The 25th edition of the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) will pay tribute to acclaimed filmmaker Shyam Benegal, celebrating his legacy as a pioneer of Indian parallel cinema. The silver jubilee edition of the festival will be held from June 20–22, spotlighting a powerful lineup of independent films from across India and its diaspora.
Benegal, who passed away in December 2024 at the age of 90, will be honoured with a special screening of Manthan (1976), his landmark film on India’s White Revolution. The newly restored 4K version, courtesy of the Film Heritage Foundation, was previously showcased at Cannes Classics in 2024.
The longest-running Indian film festival in the US, NYIFF will feature 22 feature-length films—18 narratives and four documentaries—alongside 21 short films in various Indian languages including Tamil, Odia, Assamese, Hindi, and Malayalam. This year’s theme highlights “bold new voices, storied auteurs, and urgent narratives.”
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“This year’s lineup is one of our most powerful and wide-ranging to date,” said Festival Director Aseem Chhabra, noting the festival’s evolution from a grassroots initiative into a global platform for Indian independent cinema.
The festival will also honour Oscar-winning filmmaker James Ivory through a screening of An Arrested Moment, a documentary by Dev Benegal exploring Ivory’s deep connection with Indian art.
Notable screenings include Raam Reddy’s The Fable, starring Manoj Bajpayee, as the opening film; Anurag Kashyap’s noir thriller Kennedy as the centerpiece; and Little Thomas, a coming-of-age tale set in 1990s Goa, as the closing film.
Presented by the Indo-American Arts Council, NYIFF continues to serve as a bridge between India’s cinematic past and its promising future, celebrating creativity, diversity, and cultural dialogue.
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