Australian Centre for Indian Cinema announces National Indian Film Festival of Australia

Hugh Jackman with wife Deborah Lee and festival directors Anupam Sharma and Peter Castaldi in Mumbai, at AFFI, 2011
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The Australian Centre for Indian Cinema announced an initiative to create a celebration of Indian cinema in Australasia with Australia’s first and only National Indian Film Festival of Australia (NIFFA) from 13-16 February 2025. The plans will see the festival held across seven cities in Australia in February 2025.

The festival is the brainchild of filmmaker and Australia’s leading expert on Indian cinema, Anupam Sharma, who will head the festival with industry veteran Peter Castaldi serving as festival director. Sharma and Castaldi bring a long history in the industry to the project, with both involved in some of the first Indian festivals in Australia in the 1990s.

The NIFFA will see a weekend of screenings around Australia in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, the Gold Coast, Darwin and Hobart. One yet-to-be-decided city will host the opening night party, workshops, the closing night film and panels on investments, coproduction, development and collaboration. The festival will also offer development grants for Australian screen content related to India and awards, to be announced in November.

The festival has also received support from all the major distributors of Indian films in Australia, NZ, and Fiji, including Forum Films and others. Other major partners, brand ambassadors and retrospectives will be announced at a press conference in November at IFFI Goa in which Australia is a focus country. The program and award details will be announced on 6 January 2025, with the festival to occur around Australia from 13-16 February 2025.