Shyam Benegal to be honoured at silver jubilee edition of New York Indian Film Festival

The NYIFF, the longest-running and prestigious US festival dedicated to Indian independent cinema, will celebrate its milestone 25th edition from June 20–22

The legacy of legendary Indian filmmaker Shyam Benegal will be honoured at the New York Indian Film Festival, which will celebrate its silver jubilee this year with a repertoire of diverse cinematic works featuring celebrated artists such as Manoj Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, James Ivory and Rasika Dugal.

The festival, the longest-running and prestigious US festival dedicated to Indian independent cinema, will celebrate its milestone 25th edition here from June 20–22, spotlighting “bold new voices, storied auteurs, and urgent narratives” from the Indian subcontinent and its global diaspora.

"What began as a grassroots platform is now a global stage for Indian independent cinema,” Festival Director Aseem Chhabra said in a press statement Monday.

"This year’s lineup is one of our most powerful and wide-ranging to date. From deeply personal documentaries to regional narratives that rarely reach global audiences, the 25th edition of NYIFF reflects the evolving language of Indian cinema.” The festival will pay tribute to Benegal, a "titan of Indian parallel cinema”, who passed away in December 2024 at the age of 90. NYIFF will screen a 4K restoration of Manthan, Benegal's landmark 1976 film about India’s White Revolution, restored by the Film Heritage Foundation. The film premiered at the Cannes Classics in 2024.

It will also honour the work of Oscar-winning film director James Ivory, with An Arrested Moment, a short documentary from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, directed by Dev Benegal. The film explores Ivory's “enduring fascination with Indian art and culture.”

The 2025 NYIFF lineup includes 22 feature-length films—18 narratives and four documentaries—spanning more than a dozen languages and regions. The festival program also includes 21 short narrative and documentary films.

From Tamil and Odia to Assamese, Hindi, and Malayalam, the selection of the works to be showcased at the festival “reflects both the diversity and the evolving language of Indian cinema,” it said. Chhabra said Siddiqui, who has won two NYIFF best actor trophies, will be attending this year’s festival.