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Pawlikowski’s Fatherland will open India’s IFFI in Goa: every film named so far

The 57th International Film Festival of India runs 20–28 November. Its 15-film competition reportedly includes three Indian titles, and Saudi Arabia and Qatar each co-produced six listed films.

By 13 min read
Sandra Hüller and Hanns Zischler sit side by side at a table with glasses of water in front of them, in black and white

Sandra Hüller as Erika Mann and Hanns Zischler as Thomas Mann at a 1949 press conference in Frankfurt, in Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland. Photo: Agata Grzybowska, courtesy of Neue Visionen Filmverleih

Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, which earned him a share of the best director prize at Cannes in May, will open the 57th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa on 20 November. The festival presented its programme at a curtain-raiser in Goa on Friday 13 November, where the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting promised more than 150 international films from 86 countries and 76 Indian films in 18 languages across nine days.

Alina Șerban’s I Matter, a Romanian, German and Belgian co-production in Romanian and Romani, is the mid-festival film, and Anthony Chen’s We Are All Strangers, from Singapore, closes the festival on 28 November. Spain is country of honour and Russia partner country, while a showcase of cinema from the BRICS nations opens with Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana.

Key facts

  • Dates: 20–28 November 2026, Goa; 13 screens at four locations with more than 4,000 seats in all
  • Opening film: Fatherland, Paweł Pawlikowski; mid-festival: I Matter, Alina Șerban; closing: We Are All Strangers, Anthony Chen
  • International competition: 15 films, 12 international and, as reported, three Indian; jury chaired by the Indian director Aanand L Rai
  • Golden Peacock for best film: ₹51 lakh (about $54,000), according to The Hindu BusinessLine
  • On the festival’s own pages so far: 148 different international titles, six of them with Saudi and six with Qatari co-production credits

The opening film and the competition

Fatherland follows Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller) on a drive across occupied Germany in the summer of 1949, from American-run Frankfurt to Soviet-run Weimar. Neue Visionen released it in Germany on 3 September, Pathé opens it in France on 2 December, and The Match Factory handles international sales.

The festival’s website names the competition’s 12 international titles, led by Volker Schlöndorff’s Visitation. Several come straight from the year’s major festivals, Variety noted: Maha Harada’s In My Father’s Room competed at San Sebastián, Miroslav Terzić’s 3 Weeks After at Karlovy Vary and Meritxell Colell Aparicio’s Far From the Trees at Locarno. The three Indian titles that make up the 15 have not yet appeared on the site; Variety reported them on 13 November as Rishab Shetty’s Kantara: A Legend – Chapter 1, Kamakhya Narayan Singh’s The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond, a sequel to the 2023 film and Singh’s first as director, and Gajendra Ahire’s Paro – The Untold Story of Bride Slavery, an India–US production. A separate competition for first features has seven films: five international titles on the festival’s site, including Aladdin Mostafa’s Egyptian drama The Black Sea, and two Indian films named in the ministry’s release.

Rai chairs an international jury of five. Alongside him sit the Romanian director Bogdan Mureșanu, the Argentine director Sol Berruezo Pichon-Rivière, the Thai director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke and the Colombian sound designer María Alejandra Rojas. According to the BusinessLine report, best director and the special jury award each carry ₹20 lakh (about $21,000), and best actor, best actress and best debut feature ₹15 lakh (about $16,000) apiece.

Sandra Hüller as Erika Mann sits at the wheel of a car and looks out of the side window, in black and white
Sandra Hüller as Erika Mann in Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, the opening film of the 57th IFFI. Photo: Agata Grzybowska, courtesy of Neue Visionen Filmverleih

Gulf co-productions across the programme

FilmBunch counted the production countries the festival gives for each of the 148 international titles on its section pages, counting each film once. Saudi Arabia and Qatar appear on six films each, level with China and Greece. Only nine countries appear more often: France (32), the US (21), Germany (20), the UK and Spain (13 each), Italy and Belgium (12 each), Japan (11) and the Netherlands (9).

Most of those credits sit on films from outside the Arab world. Saudi Arabia is credited on Lê Bảo’s Vietnamese competition film Hearing, Arvin Belarmino’s Filipino drama Ria, Amartei Armar’s Ghanaian Ego Reach We All, Emin Alper’s Turkish Salvation, Ashgan El-Hamus’s Al Baraneya and Shahad Ameen’s Hijra. Qatar is credited on Jessica Beshir’s Ethiopian documentary Faya Dayi, Sompot Chidgasornpongse’s 9 Temples to Heaven, Alex Camilleri’s Maltese Zejtune, Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar’s South African Variations on a Theme, Hamed Zolfaghari’s Vanishing Tracks and Mohammed Hammad’s Safe Exit.

The wider region also screens under its own flags. Nayla Al Khaja’s Baab represents the United Arab Emirates in the BRICS strand, alongside Mohammadreza Ardalan’s Poultry Farm for Iran and Hammad’s Safe Exit for Egypt. Rami Kodeih’s Lebanese–Brazilian Furies is in Cinema of the World, and Laïla Marrakchi’s Strawberries, a French, Moroccan, Spanish and Belgian co-production, competes for the ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi Medal.

Counts that do not match

The official totals vary with the source. The ministry’s release cites more than 1,900 submissions from 137 countries and more than 150 international films from 86 countries; in remarks published by the government’s Press Information Bureau, festival director Ashutosh Gowariker gave 159 films from 86 countries, chosen from 1,400 submissions. The festival’s own pages list 148 different international titles so far. Still missing are the 14 gala premieres, the five films in the Andrzej Wajda centenary tribute, three of the ten ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi Medal films and the Indian Panorama.

The two lists also disagree on detail. The ministry names four Russian films (Four, New Home, Anastasia Kuzina’s Bo Bo and Sidney Lumet’s Birthday), while the festival’s Russia page lists New Home and Herbert Rappaport’s Cherry Town. On the site, Bo Bo sits in the BRICS strand and Sidney Lumet’s Birthday in Films About Films, and Four does not appear at all. The ministry also misspells one Spanish title as “Persegiuiendo a Michael” and credits it to “Jaime Machia”; the festival lists it correctly as Juana Macías’s Looking for Michael (Persiguiendo a Michael).

According to BusinessLine, the programme includes nine world premieres, two international premieres, 24 Asian premieres and 116 Indian premieres. The Indian Panorama has 25 features and 20 non-features and opens with Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar and the Ladakhi-language documentary Becoming. The ministry says the Panorama drew 404 feature and 358 non-feature submissions, with 46 eligible entries for the best web series award, and counts 52 women directors and 62 first-time directors across the festival.

Alongside the screenings, the WAVES Film Bazaar, run by India’s National Film Development Corporation, will host 150 invited buyers, producers and other guests for its screenwriters’ lab, co-production market, viewing room and work-in-progress lab. Netflix, the bazaar’s knowledge-series partner, will hold the gala premiere of Pushpak Viman there.

The full line-up so far

Titles, directors and countries follow the festival’s website unless stated. The three Indian competition titles follow Variety’s report, the two Indian debut films the ministry’s release, and the Wajda titles The Hindu BusinessLine.

Opening, mid-festival and closing films – Fatherland, Paweł Pawlikowski (Poland, Germany, Italy, France) – I Matter, Alina Șerban (Romania, Germany, Belgium) – We Are All Strangers, Anthony Chen (Singapore)

International competition (15) – The Huntress, Suzanne Andrews Correa (Mexico, US) – 3 Weeks After, Miroslav Terzić (Serbia, Bulgaria, Italy, Croatia, Luxembourg) – Skylark, Narghiza Dotieva (Kyrgyzstan) – Far From the Trees, Meritxell Colell Aparicio (Spain, Peru, Italy) – Pray For Us, Daniel Monzón (Spain, France) – Visitation, Volker Schlöndorff (Germany) – Hearing, Lê Bảo (Vietnam, Singapore, Norway, France, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia, Thailand, Taiwan) – The River Train, Lorenzo Ferro and Lucas A. Vignale (Argentina) – A Family, Mees Peijnenburg (Netherlands, Belgium) – Aquí, Tiago Guedes (Portugal, France) – In My Father’s Room, Maha Harada (Japan) – The Meltdown, Manuela Martelli (Chile, US, Spain, Mexico) – Kantara: A Legend – Chapter 1, Rishab Shetty (India), as reported by Variety – The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond, Kamakhya Narayan Singh (India), as reported by Variety – Paro – The Untold Story of Bride Slavery, Gajendra Ahire (India, US), as reported by Variety

Best debut feature competition (7) – A Fading Man, Welf Reinhart (Germany) – The Golden Age (L’Âge d’or), Bérenger Thouin (France, Italy) – The Black Sea, Aladdin Mostafa (Egypt) – Paris, Paris, Isabelle Tollenaere (Belgium) – Atlantic Rhapsody, Zhong Kaifeng (China) – The Sledge (India), named in the ministry’s release – Birds on Ice (India), named in the ministry’s release

ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi Medal (7 of 10 published) – Ego Reach We All, Amartei Armar (Ghana, France, Saudi Arabia) – Call Me Queen, Emily Atef (Germany, France, UK, Kenya) – The Farm, Elif Eda (Türkiye) – Strawberries, Laïla Marrakchi (France, Morocco, Spain, Belgium) – Will You Still Be My Friend, Lu Po-Shun (Taiwan, Singapore) – Rahma, Faysal Soysal (Türkiye, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy) – Marie Madeleine, Gessica Généus (Haiti, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada)

International jury – Aanand L Rai, director and producer, India (chair) – Sol Berruezo Pichon-Rivière, director and screenwriter, Argentina – Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, writer and director, Thailand – María Alejandra Rojas, sound designer, Colombia – Bogdan Mureșanu, writer, director and producer, Romania

Country of honour: Spain – Trinidad, Laura Alvea and José Ortuño – The Bad Son, Jaime Lorente – Looking for Michael (Persiguiendo a Michael), Juana Macías – Bitter Christmas, Pedro Almodóvar

Partner country: Russia (festival page; the ministry’s list differs, see above) – Cherry Town, Herbert Rappaport – New Home, Nikita Grushin

Emerging Filmmakers – Ria, Arvin Belarmino (Philippines, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Norway) – At Night, Beatrice Gibson (UK, France) – Roid, Mejbaur Rahman Sumon (Bangladesh) – Titanic Ocean, Konstantina Kotzamani (Greece, Germany, Romania, France, Spain, Japan) – Until the Day Ends, Jelena Maksimović (Serbia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Montenegro, Germany, Croatia) – Forever Your Maternal Animal, Valentina Maurel (Belgium, France, Mexico) – Oasis, Jannis Lenz (Germany, Austria) – Atonement, Reed Van Dyk (US) – Congo Boy, Rafiki Fariala (Central African Republic, France, Congo, Italy) – I Grew an Inch When My Father Died, P. R. Monencillo Patindol (Philippines)

BRICS – Ramayana: Rise of a Legend (Part 1), Nitesh Tiwari (India), opening film of the strand – Faya Dayi, Jessica Beshir (Ethiopia, US, Qatar), listed a second time as Faya Day – 1982, Nguyen Hoang Diep (Vietnam) – Bo Bo, Anastasia Kuzina (Russia) – Baracoa, Luis Ernesto Doñas (Italy, Cuba) – Amadeo and the Hypothetical New World, Brenda Lígia and Edu Felistoque (Brazil) – Embers, Sun Aoqian (China) – The Cord, Darkhan Tulegenov (Kazakhstan) – The Trek, Meekaaeel Adam (South Africa) – The Sea Speaks His Name, Yosep Anggi Noen (Indonesia) – Safe Exit, Mohammed Hammad (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Qatar, Germany) – 9 Temples to Heaven, Sompot Chidgasornpongse (Thailand, Singapore, France, Norway, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Qatar) – Poultry Farm, Mohammadreza Ardalan (Iran) – Dreaming of Serenada, Katrine Weber (Uganda, Denmark, US) – Baab, Nayla Al Khaja (UAE) – And the Snow Was Falling, Andrei Egorov (Belarus) – Hijra, Shahad Ameen (Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UK, Egypt) – Lady, Olive Nwosu (UK, Nigeria) – Baga: Tomorrow Belongs to No One, Ariff Zulkarnain (Malaysia) – The Condor Daughter, Álvaro Olmos Torrico (Bolivia, Peru, Uruguay) – Cotton, Rashid Malikov (Uzbekistan)

Cinema of the World – Mudras. Dancing Invisible Threads, Maria Salgado Gispert (Spain, India), listed a second time as Mudras. Dancing To Invisible Strings – The Fortunate Isles, Helena Girón and Samuel Delgado (Spain, Greece) – Magazine, Alexandra Pechman (US) – Zejtune, Alex Camilleri (Malta, Germany, Qatar) – Ground Floor, Gábor Reisz (Hungary, Italy) – The State of Us, Ollie Gardner and Jake Harvey (UK) – Tago, Aleksandr Anisimov (Georgia) – Come With Me, João Lameira (Portugal) – Chica Checa, Šimon Holý (Czech Republic, France, Slovakia) – Good Trip, Norris Wong and Wong Hoi (Hong Kong) – 17, Kosara Mitic (North Macedonia, Slovenia, Serbia) – Coward, Lukas Dhont (Belgium, France, Netherlands) – Queen at Sea, Lance Hammer (UK, US) – Nobody’s Violence, Denis Côté (Canada) – Djinn Wedding, Ferit Karahan (Türkiye) – Skintown, Kieron J Walsh (Ireland, UK) – Diane in the Loop, Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni (Belgium, France) – Furies, Rami Kodeih (Lebanon, Brazil) – Anesthesia, Jaro Vojtek (Slovakia) – A Few Days in the Sun, Mauro Mueller (Mexico, Dominican Republic, Germany, US) – The Samurai and the Prisoner, Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Japan) – The Quiet Applause, Byun Sung-bin (South Korea) – Serpenti, Roberto de Paolis Maino (Italy) – Children Untold, Miwa Nishikawa (Japan) – La Chaleur, Stéphane Demoustier (France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland) – Drumskin, Joaquín Cambre (Argentina) – The Daughters of Abraham, Hanaël El Yousfi (France) – Al Baraneya, Ashgan El-Hamus (Belgium, Egypt, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia) – Look Back, Hirokazu Kore-eda (Japan) – Small Gods, Asher Rosen (Uganda, UK) – From Inside Out: The Architecture of Peter Zumthor, Wim Wenders (Germany, Switzerland) – The Shadow’s Edge, Larry Yang (China, Hong Kong) – Hold Onto Me, Myrsini Aristidou (Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, US) – Ulya, Viesturs Kairišs (Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Lithuania) – Sunspots, Anton von Heiseler (Germany)

From Festivals Worldwide – Elephants in the Fog, Abinash Bikram Shah (Nepal, France, Germany, Brazil, Norway) – Fruit Gathering, Aung Phyoe (Myanmar, Czechia, France) – You Don’t Belong Here, Florin Şerban (Romania) – Josephine, Beth de Araújo (US) – Nuisance Bear, Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman (US, Canada, UK) – Everytime, Sandra Wollner (Austria, Germany) – The Dreamed Adventure, Valeska Grisebach (Germany, France, Bulgaria, Austria) – Variations on a Theme, Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar (South Africa, Netherlands, Qatar) – Everybody Digs Bill Evans, Grant Gee (Ireland, UK) – Woman Unknown, May el-Toukhy (Denmark, Sweden, Latvia) – Nowhere to Lay My Eyes, Hong Sang-soo (South Korea) – Salvation, Emin Alper (Türkiye, France, Netherlands, Greece, Sweden, Saudi Arabia) – Shame and Money, Visar Morina (Germany, Kosovo, Slovenia, Albania, North Macedonia, Belgium)

Animation (new section) – Magic Atlas, Sun Xun (Singapore) – Cherry and Virgin, Masanao Kawajiri (Japan) – Light Pillar, Xu Zao (China) – Jim Queen, Nicolas Athané and Marco Nguyen (France) – Ray Gunn, Brad Bird (US)

Films About Films (new section) – Sidney Lumet’s Birthday, Raul Geidarov (Russia) – Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean, Barnaby Thompson (UK, US) – The Mad Dog of Europe, Rubika Shah (France, Germany) – Vittorio De Sica: Staging Life, Francesco Zippel (Italy) – Supporting Role, Ana Urushadze (Georgia, Estonia, Türkiye, Switzerland, US)

Macabre Cinema – We Are Aliens, Kohei Kadowaki (Japan, France) – The Blood Countess, Ulrike Ottinger (Austria, Luxembourg, Germany) – Arrested Memory, Sabu (Taiwan, Japan) – Drag, Raviv Ullman and Greg Yagolnitzer (US) – Nightborn, Hanna Bergholm (Finland, Lithuania, France, UK)

Mission Life – Like Any Other Mortal, María Molina Peiró (Netherlands, Spain) – Tropical Fractals, Leonardo Pirondi (Portugal, Brazil) – The Clearing, Sabine Groenewegen (Netherlands, Indonesia) – We Are the Fruits of the Forest, Rithy Panh (Cambodia, France) – Nunkui, Verenice Benítez (Ecuador, Chile, Germany)

Restored Classics – Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Don Siegel (US) – Trainspotting, Danny Boyle (UK) – Wild at Heart, David Lynch (US) – Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, F. W. Murnau (US) – To Be or Not to Be, Ernst Lubitsch (US)

Docu Montage – Masayume, Nao Yoshigai (Japan) – Vanishing Tracks, Hamed Zolfaghari (Iran, France, Norway, South Korea, Qatar) – Dust, Tsai Ming-liang (Taiwan, Spain) – Jaripeo, Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig (Mexico, US, France) – Shumei: The Living Legacy of Kabuki, Takashi Miike (Japan) – Waking Hours, Federico Cammarata and Filippo Foscarini (Italy)

Experimental Films – Uchronia, Fil Ieropoulos (Greece, Netherlands) – Joy Boy: A Tribute to Julius Eastman, Mawena Yehouessi, Fallon Mayanja, Rob Jacobs, Anne Reijniers, Paul Shemisi and Victoire Karera Kampire (Belgium, Democratic Republic of Congo, France) – Suzhou Quartet, Cai Chengjie (China) – Erratics, Thomas Woodroffe (Chile, France, Argentina) – Chronovisor, Jack Auen and Kevin Walker (US)

Andrzej Wajda centenary tribute (titles as reported by The Hindu BusinessLine) – Ashes and Diamonds – Afterimage – Man of Marble – Kanal – The Promised Land

Still to come from the festival: its own listing of the three Indian competition titles, the 14 gala premieres, the remaining three Gandhi Medal films and the 45 Indian Panorama titles. FilmBunch will add them as they appear. Our other festival line-ups include Marrakech and Tallinn Black Nights.

Our reading

Nine world premieres against 116 Indian premieres tell you what IFFI is for: it brings the year’s festival films to Indian audiences rather than launching new ones. For sellers, its value lies in that audience and in the WAVES Film Bazaar running alongside. The pattern that stands out in the international list is Gulf money. Saudi Arabia and Qatar each have as many production credits as China, and nine of their 12 credits are on films from outside the Arab world, from Vietnam and the Philippines to Ghana and Ethiopia. That is a measure of how far Gulf co-production money now reaches into world cinema, well beyond the region’s own stories. Ramayana, which FilmBunch reported grossed an estimated ₹221 crore ($23.5m) worldwide in its first two days, gets its festival slot about a fortnight after opening in cinemas. The next evidence to watch is the festival’s own Indian competition listing and, after 28 November, which titles leave the WAVES Film Bazaar with deals.

Sources

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Tags: Fatherland, Festival line-ups, International Film Festival of India, Paweł Pawlikowski

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