Birmingham Indian Film Festival is BACK for 2026

• Birmingham Indian Film Festival returns 10 – 19 July 2026, part of Europe’s largest South Asian film festival, London Indian Film Festival.
  
  
• Expect cutting-edge new independent cinema, restored classics, a pioneering LGBTQIA+ film showcase and a look back at British Asian history with the best emerging British Film talent.
  
  
• For the full programme and to book tickets visit: www.birminghamindianfilmfestival.co.uk

Birmingham Indian Film Festival (BIFF) returns – 10 – 19 July – with a rich array of cutting-edge new cinema premieres from India and around South Asia, many of them cherry-picked from the finest film festivals around the world, plus restorations of magnificent classics of Indian cinema. BIFF also presents a pioneering LGBTQIA+ showcase as well as the best emerging British Asian film talent.

The Festival sits as part of Europe’s largest South Asian film festival, London Indian Film Festival (LIFF), with editions in Manchester as well as in Birmingham. This is the 12^th outing in the city with all screenings taking place at Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), and a special one off the LGBTQIA+ screenings taking place at Lockworks Cinema, Wolverhampton.

The Festival is supported by the BFI Audience Projects Fund, awarding National Lottery Funding.

BIFF head of cinema Dharmesh Rajput said: “Birmingham Indian Film Festival is a festival for everybody, and our 2026 programme is the boldest yet, spanning themes of disability, motherhood, LGBTQIA+ stories, political dramas and Indian cinema classics.”

Dharmesh added: “I think the Festival is about widening our horizons, understanding stories from other parts of the world, understanding cultures, understanding people. At the heart of it, storytelling is one of the oldest forms of helping to increase knowledge and helping people understand each other.”

Launching this year’s festival is the European Premiere of the euphoric rites-of-passage story, 52 Blue, directed by the award-winning Ali El Arabi (Captains of Zaatari), starring Adil Hussain and Neha Dhupia, at Midlands Arts Centre (Birmingham) on 10 July, the director and cast will be present.

Speaking about the festival’s programme, CEO and Programming Director, Cary Rajinder Sawhney said, “We are delighted to open the festival with 52 Blue, a riveting and inspirational film about youth finding a way against impossible odds, which seems to wonderfully go against the grain of these despondent times.”

Cary added: “We are proud that the festival has continued to strengthen its reputation in the city and the West Midlands region, and delighted that our programmers have excelled this year in bringing rare UK premieres of films that started their lives at some of the world’s major festivals. Our mission is to warmly server all audiences, you don’t need to be South Asian to enjoy the film fare on offer. Everyone is welcome.”

52 Blue Director, Abi El Arabi said: “It goes beyond words to express how deeply grateful and happy I am, not only because the film is screening at Europe’s largest South Asian film festival, reaching an audience that has always felt close to my heart and profoundly moved me, but also because of the privilege of working with extraordinary actors such as Adil Hussain and Neha Dhupia, alongside the remarkable team that brought this story to life, the same spirit that once made the World Cup feel possible.”

UK Premieres this year include In Search Of The Sky (Dir. Jitank Singh Gurjar) to be screened in Birmingham (13 July) and London – a powerful tale of a young man with disabilities whose poor, elderly parents in a village in India are unable to cope and take him to the Kumbh Mela (the world’s largest religious fair) in search of a cure or resolution.

New Bangladeshi film, screened at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam 2026, will have its premiere at Birmingham on 16 July. Master (Dir: Rezwan Shahriar Sumit) – winner of the Big Screen Competition at IFFR – follows a socialist schoolteacher whose electoral victory in rural Bangladesh gives way to political compromise, exposing the corrosive machinery of power and bureaucracy.

Family dramas include debut director Neel Dutt’s All About Weddings, which presents a dazzling upper class Kolkata wedding that spirals into a chaotic showdown over the course of one day (12 July); while the skin is peeled off family patriarchy in Anmol – Lovingly Ours (Dir: Priyankka Saha), (12 July) where young parents are put to the ultimate test when their newborn’s gender identity forces them to confront their own beliefs and prejudices. A post screening Q&A will be supported by the British Council.

Driven forward by last year’s success at the festival, legendary director Peter Brook’s The Mahabharata,depicting the Hindu ancient epic story, will have its Midland Premiere at MAC closing the Birmingham festival on 19 July.

A special profile this year will recognise and spotlight British South Asian talent, with a series of short films under the banner Britain through South Asian Eyes on 15 July. Along with a Q&A expect four films After Eight: The Story of Satpal Ram, Shop Dada, More Punk Than Punk and The Dhabba.

Mos Hannan, Director of After Eight: The Story of Satpal Ram commented: “Satpal’s story is a Brummie story at heart. It all started in Handsworth. The campaign began there and then went on to an international movement, so it means a lot to us to finally bring it to where it all started.”

Satpal Ram himself said: “It’s important that the film comes back to Birmingham because that’s where it all began”.

The festival’s pioneering LGBTQIA+ film showcase, Too Desi Too Queer returns on 17 July in Birmingham and 19 July in Wolverhampton, with a fresh selection of groundbreaking and thought-provoking queer films. From heartwarming love stories to inspiring documentaries, these eye-opening shorts celebrate and amplify the voices of South Asian queer individuals.

Additionally, the festival will be expanding accessibility for Deaf and hard-of-hearing people including closed captions along with more screenings featuring BSL-interpreted Q&A’s across all festival cities.

BIFF is delighted to welcome back its major funder, the BFI Audience Projects Fund, awarding National Lottery funding, as well as additional support from Birmingham City University and Sampad. BIFF is presented by London Indian Film Festival.

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About the BFI National Lottery Audience Projects Fund

The BFI National Lottery Audience Projects Fund will award £19.7m of National Lottery funding over three years (April 2026-March 2029) to support the exhibition and distribution of ambitious, audience-facing, film and immersive projects. It is an open fund supporting distributors, exhibitors and festivals to bring independent films and immersive activity to audiences across the UK in a dynamic and original way. The activity supported by the fund will demonstrate cultural ambition and encourage audiences to take risks in the viewing choices they make. The £19.7 million for BFI National Lottery Audience Projects Fund is part of a total £33.5 million allocated for Audiences as part of the National Lottery Funding Plan 2026-2029.

All activity funded under the Funding Plan will deliver against the objectives set out in the 10-year BFI National Lottery Strategy (2023-2033), which details what the BFI aims to achieve in using National Lottery funding for the public and industry over the decade. The Audience Projects Fund addresses one of the strategy’s core objectives, seeking to ensure everyone across the UK can experience a great range of film and moving image.

More information:

https://www.bfi.org.uk/audience-projects-fund

About the BFI

The BFI is a cultural charity, a National Lottery distributor, and the UK’s lead organisation for film and the moving image.

About the BFI

The BFI is a cultural charity, a National Lottery distributor, and the UK’s lead organisation for film and the moving image.

Our mission is:-

• To support creativity and actively seek out the next generation of UK storytellers.
• To grow and care for the BFI National Archive, the world’s largest film and television archive.
• To offer the widest range of UK and international moving image culture through our programmes and festivals -delivered online and in venue.
• To use our knowledge to educate and deepen public appreciation and understanding.
• To work with Government and industry to ensure the continued growth of the UK’s screen industries.
  
  

Founded in 1933, the BFI is a registered charity governed by Royal Charter.

The BFI Board of Governors is chaired by Jay Hunt OBE.

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