At this year’s KIFF, spotlight on Poland; special tribute to Sholay

The festival will commemorate the birth centenaries of film legends Ritwik Ghatak, Guru Dutt, Santosh Dutta, Raj Khosla, Salil Chowdhury, and Richard Burton.

As a tribute to Ritwik Ghatak, the festival will screen his famous films, including ‘Ayantrik’, ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara’, ‘Bari Te Palye’, ‘Komal Gandhar’, and ‘Titas Ekti Nadir Nam’.

The film festival will feature a special tribute to the iconic film Sholay, marking its 50th anniversary, with director Ramesh Sippy delivering the Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture.

The festival’s opening ceremony will take a nostalgic trip back to 1961.

“The inaugural film is the classic Bengali comedy, ‘Saptapadi’, directed by Ajay Kar and starring Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen. The inaugural ceremony and film screening both will be held at Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium in Kolkata on November 6, 2025,” said Biswas.

The KIFF — with the tagline ‘Cinema Connects The World’— will showcase 215 films from 39 countries, including 185 feature films and 30 short films.

Films in multiple dialects and languages, including Konkani, Boro, Tulu, and Santali will also be screened.

The festival will also feature the first-ever screening of 15 contemporary foreign films.

“A total of 1,827 films had been submitted. Out of which, we will be showing 215,” said Biswas.

Indranil Sen said that this year’s KIFF will feature multiple film competitions across different categories.

One of the categories is ‘International Competition (Innovation in Moving Images)’, where winners will receive the Royal Bengal Tiger Trophy and award money.

Another category, ‘Competition On Indian Language Films’, will honor its winners with the Hiralal Sen Memorial Trophy, the FIPRESCI (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique) Award, and award money.

Additionally, films in the Asian Select 9 section will compete for the NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) Award.

The festival will also host dedicated shows for Bengali Panorama (7), Indian Short Films (19), and Indian Documentary Films (10).

At the previous edition of KIFF, the Bulgarian film ‘Tarika’ (also known as ‘Stadoto’), directed by Milko Lazarov, had won the Golden Royal Bengal Tiger Award for Best Film in the International Competition on ‘Innovation in Moving Images’
According to sources, this year special tributes will be paid to global and Indian film personalities, including Robert Redford, Claudia Cardinale, David Lynch, Shyam Benegal, Arun Roy, Raja Mitra, and Shashi Anand.