Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar and Rishab Shetty’s Kantara: A Legend – Chapter 1 are among the prominent titles selected for the Indian Panorama section of the 57th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), scheduled to take place in Goa from November 20 to 28, 2026. While Dhurandhar has been chosen as the opening feature film, Kantara: A Legend – Chapter 1 will be included in the Mainstream Cinema section. This year’s Indian Panorama brings together 25 feature films and 20 non-feature films, offering a selection of contemporary Indian cinema across multiple languages, regions and filmmaking styles.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting announced the selections on November 14. The feature-film programme was chosen from 404 submissions, while the non-feature category received 358 entries. Together, the two sections account for 762 submissions considered for this year’s Indian Panorama, reflecting the range of films competing for inclusion in the festival’s national showcase.
Directed by Aditya Dhar, Dhurandhar will open the Indian Panorama feature-film programme. The Hindi-language film is also one of five titles included in the Mainstream Cinema section. It will be joined by Rishab Shetty’s Kannada film Kantara: A Legend – Chapter 1, which is among the selections highlighting mainstream productions from different Indian film industries.
The other three films in this section are Samir Tewari’s Marathi film Baapya, Anil Ravipudi’s Telugu-language Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu (also known as Pandaga Ki Vastunnaru) and Pravin Vitthal Tarde’s Marathi film Deool Band 2. The five selections bring together titles from Hindi, Kannada, Telugu and Marathi cinema, representing different regional industries within the mainstream feature-film programme.
The remaining 20 films form the Indian Panorama Feature Film section. This part of the selection includes productions from a wider range of languages and filmmaking backgrounds. Among the titles are Gajendra Ahire’s Paro – The Untold Story of Bride Slavery, Ankit Bhupatbhai Sakhiya’s Gujarati film Laalo – Krishna Sada Sahaayate, Kamakhya Narayan Singh’s The Kerala Story 2 Goes Beyond and Hardik Gajjar’s Krishnavataram.
Other selections include Bharatbala Ganapathy’s Banaras, Singeetham Srinivasa Rao’s Sing Geetham, Akhil Sathyan’s Malayalam film Sarvam Maya and Sivakumar Murugesan’s Tamil film Thaai Kizhavi. The wider programme also features films in languages such as Ladakhi, Nyishi, Tulu, Assamese, Bengali and Kashmiri, alongside Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati and Marathi.
The inclusion of films across this range of languages gives the feature-film programme a broader regional representation. Alongside established film industries, the selection also brings attention to cinematic work from linguistic and cultural communities that receive comparatively less visibility in mainstream theatrical distribution. The Indian Panorama’s wider selection therefore extends beyond the five titles in its Mainstream Cinema section.
The non-feature programme will open with Becoming, a Ladakhi-language film directed by Leena Yadav. It is one of 20 films selected from 358 submissions, with the category bringing together documentaries and other non-feature formats. The selection includes works in several languages, adding another dimension to the festival’s presentation of Indian filmmaking.
Among the selected non-feature titles are Bhasker Vishwanathan’s Hindi film The Unseen Holy River – Saraswati, Aimee Baruah’s Assamese film Red Carpet, Suraj Kumar’s English-language Nirmanjali: The Chandigarh of Maciej Nowicki and Baba Tassaduq Hussain’s Kashmiri film Naqsh-e-Daur. Other selections include Nipun Dharmadhikari’s Marathi film Chandoba, Vijeesh Mani’s Tamil film Attappadi and Sandeep Francis’s Malayalam film Switch Off.
In addition to the Indian Panorama selections, five films have been nominated for the Best Debut Director of Indian Feature Film Award. The nominees are Ravi Varma Namburi’s Telugu film Chennai Love Story, Samarpan Sengupta’s Bengali film Pratyabartan, Jeejivisha Kale’s Marathi film Tighi, Raja Shabir Mohd Khan’s Kashmiri film Sledge and Dr Vishal Chaturvedi’s Hindi film Hanuman Ansh. The nominations bring together first-time feature filmmakers working across different regional film industries and languages.
The feature-film jury, comprising 12 members, was chaired by National Film Award-winning filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar. The non-feature jury consisted of six members and was headed by filmmaker and educationist Himanshu Sekhar Khatua. The two categories were evaluated by separate juries, with their respective selections reflecting the distinct requirements of feature and non-feature filmmaking.
Introduced in 1978, Indian Panorama is one of IFFI’s key sections, dedicated to showcasing Indian feature and non-feature films. Its selection also offers opportunities for participating films to be screened at other film festivals and Indian film showcases in India and abroad. This gives the programme a role beyond the annual festival, providing selected films with additional platforms for visibility among audiences and industry representatives.
The 57th edition of IFFI will run in Goa from November 20 to 28, with Dhurandhar opening the feature-film programme and Kantara: A Legend – Chapter 1 featuring among the Mainstream Cinema selections. Alongside these titles, the wider Indian Panorama lineup brings together films from established regional industries and a variety of linguistic and filmmaking traditions. With 25 feature films, 20 non-feature films and five debut-director nominees, the 2026 selection presents a broad cross-section of Indian cinema.
