IFFLA 2026 Unveils Lineup Bringing The Best Of South Asian Cinema To Los Angeles

IFFLA 2026 unveils a dynamic lineup of South Asian films from around the world, bringing premieres, documentaries, and emerging voices to Los Angeles this April.

The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) has officially announced the lineup for its 24th edition, set to take place April 23–26, 2026, bringing a dynamic showcase of South Asian storytelling to the heart of Hollywood. Hosted at Landmark Sunset Hollywood and Harmony Gold, the festival continues its long-standing mission of celebrating groundbreaking cinema from South Asia and its global diaspora.

Recognized internationally as a major platform for South Asian filmmakers in the United States, IFFLA has built a reputation for spotlighting emerging voices while connecting creatives with key industry leaders. This year’s festival will present 27 films, including seven narrative features, two documentary features, and 18 short films, representing a wide range of countries including India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, France, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.

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A Star-Powered Opening And A Sharp Closing At IFFLA 2026

IFFLA 2026 will open with the U.S. premiere of Mahesh Narayanan’s Malayalam espionage thriller Patriot, one of the most anticipated Indian films of the year. The film brings together two legends of Malayalam cinema—Mohanlal and Mammootty—on screen for the first time in 18 years. Packed with covert missions, assassination attempts, and high-stakes intrigue, the film follows a researcher who discovers the illegal use of a powerful surveillance asset, igniting a national manhunt that transforms him from patriot to fugitive.

The festival will close with the North American premiere of Anusha Rizvi’s The Great Shamsuddin Family, a witty and layered social satire set over the course of a single chaotic day inside a Delhi apartment. The story follows writer Bani, who must finish a crucial deadline while navigating escalating family turmoil. Through humour and heartbreak, Rizvi crafts a portrait of generational tensions and modern urban life.

A Global Showcase Of New Voices At IFFLA 2026

IFFLA’s narrative features lineup highlights several impressive directorial debuts and award-winning films. Among them is Seemab Gul’s Ghost School, a haunting debut about a young girl navigating rumors that a jinn has possessed her teacher and haunted her village school.

Another standout is Mahde Hasan’s Sand City, which follows two strangers navigating the unforgiving urban landscape of Dhaka. The film previously won the Proxima Grand Prix at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Also screening is Tribeny Rai’s Shape of Momo, which will have its North American premiere at the festival. The story centers on a young woman returning to her Himalayan village and confronting the expectations placed on generations of women before her.

The lineup also includes Sarmad Sultan Khoosat’s Lali, a darkly comic exploration of love, superstition, and fate; and Anuparna Roy’s Songs of Forgotten Trees, which follows two migrant women forging an unexpected bond in Mumbai. Roy’s film earned her the Best Director Award at the Venice Film Festival.

Intimate Documentary Storytelling At IFFLA 2026

Two powerful documentaries round out the feature selections.

Karla Murthy’s The Gas Station Attendant offers an intimate portrait of an immigrant father’s life, told through archival footage and recorded phone calls between the filmmaker and her father during his night shifts at a gas station. The film has already received Best Documentary at the Nashville Film Festival and a Special Mention at Sheffield DocFest.

Meanwhile, Ben Rekhi and Swetlana’s Breaking The Code will make its world premiere at IFFLA. The film retraces Rekhi’s father’s journey from a modest upbringing in newly independent India to becoming a Silicon Valley tech pioneer, exploring themes of migration, sacrifice, and ambition.

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Short Films Spotlight Emerging Talent

IFFLA’s short film program continues to be a major platform for emerging filmmakers. This year, 13 of the selected shorts are directed by women, reflecting a growing surge of female voices across South Asian cinema.

Among the highlights is the world premiere of Nihaarika Negi’s Tenfa, an intergenerational Himalayan journey centered on three women searching for a rare herb that could save a mother’s life.

Other premieres include Fatima Liaqat’s Plain Folks, a horror-comedy about a Pakistani freshman navigating a disastrous college party in Utah, and Permanent Guest by Sana Zahra Jafri, a psychological thriller set in Lahore.

The lineup also features internationally recognized short films, including Bleat!, winner of the Queer Palm at Cannes Critics’ Week, and Ali, which received a Special Mention at Cannes.

Industry Days Returns At IFFLA 2026

Beyond screenings, IFFLA continues to serve as a vital hub for industry connection and collaboration through its Industry Days Forum, which returns with panels, masterclasses, screenings, and a $10,000 Pitch Competition Development Grant designed to support emerging projects.

The program also includes IFFLA Connect, which links standout film and television projects from South Asia and its diaspora with professionals who can assist with financing, production, casting, and development.

As IFFLA Artistic Director Anu Rangachar explained, the festival continues to showcase the diversity of voices shaping South Asian storytelling today:

“Apart from our impressive galas, the program travels across South Asia, from Bangladesh’s meditative Sand City to Pakistan’s emerging new wave with the haunting Ghost School and the visually arresting Lali. Alongside Indian stories like Shape of Momo and Venice-winner Songs of Forgotten Trees, this year’s lineup reflects a remarkable surge of women filmmakers across the subcontinent and the diasporas, something we are very proud to champion.”

IFFLA Executive Director Anjay Nagpal echoed that vision, emphasizing the festival’s role in bringing South Asian filmmakers and Hollywood audiences together:

“Each year IFFLA puts the spotlight on the brilliant breadth and scope of South Asian storytelling. We look forward to bringing another exciting group of filmmakers together with the Los Angeles audiences and industry vets eager to see their new work. This curated connection is what makes IFFLA such a vital and unmissable event.”

With its blend of premieres, emerging filmmakers, global perspectives, and industry engagement, IFFLA 2026 promises to once again position Los Angeles as a powerful meeting point for South Asian cinema and international audiences.

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Official Selections for 2026 Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA)

Gala Presentations

Opening Night Presentation
Patriot
US Premiere

Director: Mahesh Narayanan
Country: India; Running Time: 172 min
A top-tier researcher uncovers an illegal use of a high-level surveillance asset, triggering a national manhunt that transforms him from a patriot into a fugitive.

Closing Night Presentation
The Great Shamsuddin Family
North American Premiere

Director: Anusha Rizvi
Country: India; Running Time: 97 min
A writer faces her most important deadline while her house erupts in family chaos, forcing her to juggle a 12-hour writing sprint with an unfolding domestic emergency.

Additional Narrative Features

Ghost School
Director: Seemab Gul
Countries: Pakistan/Germany/Saudi Arabia; Running Time: 88 min
When ten-year-old Rabia finds her village school closed, rumors erupt that a jinn has possessed her teacher and now haunts the school.

Lali North American Premiere
Director: Sarmad Sultan Khoosat
Country: Pakistan, Running Time: 116 min
In a darkly comic spiral of desire and superstition, Zeba and Sajawal find their arranged union—and their very bodies—warped by an inescapable, blood-soaked fate.

Sand City
Director: Mahde Hasan
Country: Bangladesh; Running Time: 99 min
In the unforgiving metropolis of Dhaka, a young woman from the indigenous minority and an ambitious factory worker, two strangers harboring repressed desires and fantasies, find themselves connected by the city’s endless, shifting sand.

Shape of Momo North American Premiere
Director: Tribeny Rai
Country: India; Running Time: 115 min
In a remote Himalayan village, three generations of women navigate the tensions of tradition, the quiet stirrings of change, and the complexities and joys of their intertwined lives.

Songs of Forgotten Trees
Director: Anuparna Roy
Country: India; Running Time: 77 min
Amid the relentless pulse of Mumbai, two young migrant women striving to survive find themselves sharing not only space, but also an unexpected bond that reshapes both their journeys.

Documentary Features

The Gas Station Attendant
Director: Karla Murthy
Country: United States; Running Time: 83 min
A  daughter reflects on her father’s remarkable and tumultuous journey from the streets of India to the realities of life in America, weaving archival footage with recorded phone conversations they had while he worked the nightshift as a gas station attendant.

Breaking The Code World Premiere/Special Presentation
Directors: Ben Rekhi, Swetlana
Countries: USA/India; Running Time: 81 min
A son retraces his father’s journey from Indian immigrant to tech pioneer, uncovering a powerful story of migration, sacrifice, and love that broke the glass ceiling for Indians in America.

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Short Films

Ali
Director: Adnan Al Rajeev
Countries: Bangladesh/Philippines; Running Time: 15 min
In a coastal town where women are not allowed to sing, a teenager must hide his true voice for a chance to move to the city.

Bleat!
Director: Ananth Subramaniam
Countries: Malaysia/Philippines/France; Running Time: 15 min
An elderly Malaysian-Tamil couple discovers their male goat, set for ceremonial slaughter, is pregnant. Torn between faith and the expectations of their community, they struggle to decide whether to slaughter it or face the wrath of the gods.

Dekho (Look)
North American Premiere
Director: Manjinder Virk
Country: UK; Running Time: 18 min
Ten-year-old Arjun’s world unravels when his grandmother, who suffers from dementia, unexpectedly moves in, competing for his mother’s attention.

Harvest Party At Camp Two
World Premiere
Directors: Rajan Gill, Reaa Pur
Country: USA; Running Time: 16 mins
Director(s): Rajan Gill, Reaa Pur
Summer in Northern California in the 1980s is a time of race wars and rock’n’roll. Unable to attend their local prom, the Punjabi farmworkers throw the biggest party their small town has ever seen.

Hidden Sun
North American Premiere
Director: Shuchi Talati
Country: Japan; Running Time: 24 min
An encounter with a Japanese flamenco dancer rattles the stagnant rhythms of a middle-aged couple, unearthing suppressed emotion and reawakening desire.

O’Sey Balamma
Director: Raman Nimmala
Country: India; Running Time: 13 min
During the Sankranti festival celebrations, a matriarch and her housekeeper confront solitude through the intimacy of each other’s company.

Pakka
Director: Iniyavan Elumalai
Country: Netherlands; Running Time: 18 min
When the captain of an all-gay male cricket team announces he is leaving the Netherlands to marry a woman in India, the precious bond amongst four friends is put to the test.

Peanut
World Premiere
Director: Sheila Sawhny
Country: USA; Running Time: 10 min
In a moment of despair, a middle-aged man finds himself alone in the woods, where he discovers the strangest of offerings.

Permanent Guest
Director: Sana Zahra Jafri
Country: Pakistan; Running Time: 14 min
Shaken to the core by the unexpected arrival of an unwelcomed uncle, a young woman must weigh familial duty against her growing rage.

Plain Folks
World Premiere
Director: Fatima Liaqat
Country: USA; Running Time: 13 min
The promise of the perfect all-American college party turns into a nightmare for a Pakistani freshman at a mostly white campus, when she finds herself alone and at odds with a hostile crowd.

Rihanna
Director: Suraj Paudel
Country: Nepal; Running Time: 17 min
In rural Nepal, thirteen-year-old Saraswati changes her name to Rihanna. The school principal scolds and disciplines her for blindly imitating Western culture, but Saraswati wants to prove herself with quiet support from her watchful mother.

Room At The Farm (Khooh Waala Ghar)
Directors: Jasmine Kaur Roy, Avinash Roy
Country: India; Running Time: 23 min
A vicious debt trap and the imminent fear of losing his land prevent a newly married young farmer from expressing his love for his wife.

Ruse
Director: Rhea Shukla
Country: India; Running Time: 9 min
On a rainy afternoon, three adolescent girls find themselves in the middle of a dance that takes on a life of its own—urging forth a sense of desire they can’t yet name.

Skin
Director: Urvashi Pathania
Country: USA; Running Time: 12 min
Feeling insecure about her dark skin and defying her sister’s objections, a young woman visits a glamorous skin bleaching clinic, only to find herself trapped in its treacherous machinery.

Sulaimani
Director: Vinnie Ann Bose
Country: France; Running Time: 20 min
One evening in Paris, two strangers, both young women from Kerala, find themselves in an Indian restaurant where the sights, sounds, and smells take them on a journey of bittersweet memories of their uprooting and emancipation.

Sūnna
North American Premiere
Director: Radha Mehta
Country: USA; Running Time: 13 min
When sudden hearing loss shatters her identity, a young Indian musician is left in silence until the echoes of memory, touch, and culture help her reclaim music and herself.

Tenfa
World Premiere

Director: Nihaarika Negi
Country: India; Running Time: 30 min
When a childbirth goes awry, a midwife, a grandmother, and a teenager embark on a journey across a remote Himalayan landscape scarred by ecological destruction. To save the mother’s life, they must find an endangered indigenous herb, with an old folksong as their only guide.

Unfriend (Katti)
Director: Kanishka Aggarwal
Countries: USA/India; Running Time: 14 min
In a bustling Indian household celebrating a long-awaited baby boy, an eight-year-old girl grapples with the first sting of gender bias and emotional turbulence of sibling rivalry.

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