Top header Banner
Top header Banner
Middle top Banner

Women directorial films set for London Indian Film Festival this month

The Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival and Birmingham Indian Film Festival, UK & Europe’s largest South Asian film event, are back at BFI Southbank London, Ciné Lumière London, and Millennium Point (Birmingham) from 17th to 20th September. The Festival is supported by The Bagri Foundation, and a BFI Audience Fund Award, awarding National Lottery funding.

This strong 100% women directorial line-up follows the hybridised festival’s successful outing on their own platform, LoveLIFFatHOME.com which beholds In Conversation events with top film talent from Oscar nominees Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta, India’s A Listers Shabana Azmi, Anurag Kashyap, Ayushmann Khurana, and crossover talents, Freida Pinto & Adil Hussain (Life of Pi, Star Trek), alongside LIFF “best of” classic features and short films soon to hit a TVOD format.

The festival runs in accordance with UK government guidelines, with health and safety measures that cinemas have mindfully set up.

At BFI Southbank, Arati Kadav brings the Anurag Kashyap produced Sci Fi film Cargo, and Deepti Gupta showcases top Indian musician Sona Mohapatra, getting candid about the discrimination of women in music, having faced death threats, and ousted big names in the Indian Me Too movement, in the documentary ‘Shut Up Sona’.

At Ciné Lumière, the festival is bookended with a double bill with the highly anticipated Busan hit ‘Roam Rome Mein’, the directorial debut by ‘Brick Lane’ actress, Tannishtha Chaterjee, who also stars in it, alongside an Italian cast, and Indian stalwart, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and Bollywood star Vidya Balan produced short film ‘Natkhat’ (The Brat) that she also stars in.

The ups and downs of the American Asian immigrant experience is examined often comedically, in The MisEducation of Bindu by Prarthana Mohan, starring David Arquette, Priyanka Bose and rising Hollywood star, Megan Suri, executive produced by the Duplass brothers.

Cary Rajinder Sawhney MBE, Executive & Programming Director of LIFF said, “It’s been an adventure this year to transform Europe’s largest South Asian film festival into both a digital version that continues to attract good audiences and an actual physical film festival and we are delighted to be dipping our toes into cinemas again with the support of our regular cinema partners BFI Southbank and Ciné Lumière and new partners Millennium Point in Birmingham, presenting a power packed all female programme”.

Title Sponsor, Alka Bagri, trustee of the Bagri Foundation said, “Championing diverse filmmaking has always been a big part of the work that the Bagri Foundation does, and to highlight this stellar line-up of women-made films, is a particular delight. The highs and lows of human lives, told through the female gaze, continues to be rare. We congratulate LIFF on their resilience in this tough year, and as cinemas reopen to the public, for those who feel comfortable, we hope you enjoy this glimpse into important narratives on the big screen.”

Ben Luxford, BFI Head of UK Audiences said, “During these extremely challenging times the Festival has not only adapted to new circumstances, they’ve developed innovative ways to engage with people across the UK. The team at LIFF have done an incredible job delivering their programme and have unearthed some truly astonishing rare gems for audiences to enjoy. Thanks to National Lottery funding, the BFI is extremely proud to have supported this activity and we hope to see it continue.”