The International South Asian Film Festival (iSAFF) returns for its 16th edition from September 23 to 27, 2026, bringing an expansive celebration of South Asian and diasporic cinema to Surrey and audiences across British Columbia.
Built around this year’s theme, “Dreamscapes,” the five-day festival will showcase 77 films from 15 countries in 19 languages, including 8 feature films and 69 shorts, with stories spanning resilience, identity, family, sport, faith, belonging and imagined futures.
ANOKHI LIFE is proud to return as an official Media Partner.
The 2026 edition opens with Sarmad Sultan Khoosat’s dark comedy LALI, which had its World Premiere at Berlinale, and closes with Shubhangi Shekhar’s audience award-winning basketball documentary HOOP LIKE THIS.
Among the festival’s other major presentations is THE GYMNASTS OF FISHERMAN COLONY, directed by Habiba Nosheen and executive produced by Malala Yousafzai and Mariska Hargitay, which will screen as the Gala Presentation.
“Over the past 16 years, we’ve grown and refined our festival to be a beautiful confluence of both local BC talent and stories, with the most exciting voices from South Asia and the diaspora around the world,” said Mannu Sandhu, Festival Producer.
Films at iSAFF 2026
Dreamscapes: Imagining Beyond Inherited Limits
At the heart of iSAFF 2026 is “Dreamscapes,” a theme centred on storytellers imagining possibilities beyond existing boundaries and inherited limitations.
“This year at iSAFF, we’ve built our program around the theme of ‘Dreamscapes,’” said Pulkit Datta, Artistic Director. “It is an invitation to imagine beyond inherited limits and to tell stories that don’t just reflect the world as it is, but shape the world as it could be. We want to honor the storytellers and their stories that dare to envision futures rooted in justice, joy, care, and possibility.”
The theme extends across a program tackling a wide spectrum of subjects, from challenging traditional social structures and rethinking intergenerational relationships to sport as a pathway to freedom, debates around faith and spirituality, and people fighting to live as their truest selves.
“Our team is proud to have curated a program that features some of the most exciting filmmakers – emerging and established,” added Pallavi Sastry and Keertana Sastry, Co-Directors of Programming. “Our selected films span a wide range of relevant and impactful topics including, challenging traditional social structures, refreshing intergenerational relationships, sports as a pathway to freedom, debates around faith and spirituality, people fighting to be their truest selves, and much more. We really have a film for everyone.”
iSAFF 2025: Festival Producer Mannu Sandhu with British Columbia Premier, David Eby
More Than Half The Program Is Premiering In Canada Or The World
For many of the films selected for iSAFF 2026, audiences in British Columbia will be among the first to see them.
Of the 77 films in this year’s program, more than half will receive their first screenings anywhere in Canada or the world.
Eight Feature Films To Put On Your iSAFF Watchlist
This year’s feature lineup spans dark comedy, coming-of-age drama, documentary, family stories, sport, horror and explorations of identity and belonging.
Opening Night: LALI
Directed by Sarmad Sultan Khoosat | BC Premiere
Set in Pakistan, LALI centres on newlyweds Zeba and Sajawal, two people carrying their own emotional wounds into a marriage shaped by desire, superstition, fear and insecurity. Zeba enters the union with a reputation for misfortune after previous suitors died before they could marry her, while Sajawal struggles with his own anxieties and growing paranoia. The result is a darkly comic, genre-bending story in which the boundaries between love, obsession and the supernatural begin to blur.
The film had its World Premiere at Berlinale, where it screened in the Panorama program.
Closing Night: HOOP LIKE THIS
Directed by Shubhangi Shekhar | Canadian Premiere
HOOP LIKE THIS traces the rise of the world’s first professional Indian basketball team, following 12 players as they put their careers, reputations and identities on the line to challenge assumptions about who belongs in the sport.
Beginning with the team’s historic 2022 debut, the documentary follows its journey through a crushing loss, a year of grassroots scouting across India, Taiwan, Canada and the United States, and a return to The Basketball Tournament in 2023 in pursuit of redemption. Beyond basketball, the story explores representation, ambition and what it means to build a path where one did not previously exist.
Gala Presentation: THE GYMNASTS OF FISHERMAN COLONY
Directed by Habiba Nosheen | Canadian Premiere Executive produced by Malala Yousafzai and Mariska Hargitay
This intimate coming-of-age documentary follows three teenage girls in Pakistan whose passion for gymnastics brings them up against deeply rooted expectations about what girls can and cannot do.
Through gymnastics, the young athletes carve out space for joy, ambition and possibility, creating a portrait of girlhood and quiet defiance as they navigate life on the margins of society and pursue a future on their own terms.
Set in the aftermath of 9/11, JERSEY BOY is a coming-of-age drama about a Sikh boy struggling with identity, acceptance and belonging in America.
Told across three stages of his life, the film follows his relationships with his family, the woman he loves and the rapidly changing country around him as he searches for a place where he feels he truly belongs.
Films at iSAFF 2026
Marquee Presentation: NAMASLAY
Directed by Rish and Kanish Arhant-Sudhir Produced by Venk Potula through Khrisp Entertainment
After arriving in Los Angeles, Gayatri accepts an invitation from her friend Judy to visit an upscale yoga studio. When the studio’s owner, Reyna, offers her a place in an instructor-training program, Gayatri accepts despite the eccentricities surrounding her new environment.
As she reconnects with the yoga practice she first learned from her grandmother, Gayatri is invited to a prestigious instructor retreat, where she begins to discover that there may be more behind the invitation than she realized.
Producer Venk Potula previously produced and starred in the Tribeca-premiering FOUR SAMOSAS, released by Independent Film Company (IFC).
LOVE CHAOS KIN
Directed by Chithra Jeyaram
Spanning 12 years, LOVE CHAOS KIN follows an Indian immigrant family navigating the complexities of transracial adoption.
When an Indian immigrant mother decides her adopted children deserve to know the full story of where they come from, including their white birth mother and Navajo father, the family embarks on an intimate journey through identity, culture, family connection and the many different ways people can belong to one another.
iSAFF’s current festival program lists LOVE CHAOS KIN as its Documentary presentation.
52 BLUE
Directed by Ali El Arabi
For Ashish, a sheltered young man from rural Kerala, a dream of meeting football icon Lionel Messi becomes the catalyst for a journey far beyond the world he knows.
Determined to see his idol at the World Cup in Qatar, Ashish leaves home and eventually finds work as a stadium worker. What begins as a quest to meet Messi evolves into a coming-of-age journey as he encounters a much larger world and begins discovering more about himself along the way. The film stars Neha Dhupia, Adil Hussain and Yadav Shashidhar.
STRONG SON
Directed by Ian Bawa | World Premiere at TIFF
A former South Asian bodybuilder moves back into his aging father’s home to become his primary caregiver, forcing him to reckon with a very different understanding of strength.
As he balances the physical strength that once defined him with the mental and emotional demands of caring for the man who raised him, STRONG SON explores masculinity, caregiving, family dynamics and what happens when the roles between parent and child begin to reverse.
iSAFF’s current program lists the film as its Spotlight Feature.
Films at iSAFF 2026
iSAFF Goes Beyond The Screen
The 16th edition of iSAFF will also extend beyond film screenings with programming focused on professional development, connection and supporting local British Columbia talent.
The festival will host a filmmaker retreat day geared towards professional networking and uplifting local BC talent.
Its iSAFF InFocus industry sessions will present a series of in-depth conversations covering topics ranging from getting films made in Canada and building an IP multiverse to South Asian visual design in films and a spotlight on pathbreaking actors.
Together, the screenings and industry programming reflect the festival’s broader focus on supporting filmmakers while connecting local talent with South Asian creative voices from around the world.
iSAFF is committed to contributing towards a strong, diverse and inclusive Canadian society, recognizing the role arts and culture can play in strengthening communities and economies.
Through progressive, innovative and inclusive programming, iSAFF works to celebrate South Asian stories, artists and filmmakers of South Asian descent while connecting them with a global audience.
With 77 films, 17 World Premieres, major Canadian and British Columbia premieres, filmmaker development programming and stories spanning 15 countries, iSAFF’s 16th edition offers audiences five days to discover where South Asian cinema is going next.
iSAFF 2025 Film Screening
iSAFF 2026 runs September 23 to 27 in Surrey, British Columbia.
Full film schedules, ticket information and venue details are available through iSAFF.
Farah Khan manages the editorial department at ANOKHI LIFE, overseeing content production, publishing, and the annual editorial calendar, while also supporting operations, projects, systems, events, and vendor coordination.
