The annual MAMI Mumbai Film Festival will not be held this year and its revamped version will return in 2026 with a new logo and approach, the festival director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur said in a statement on social media on Monday.
“This is to inform you that the 2025 edition of MAMI Mumbai Film Festival will not take place as we are in the process of revamping the festival with a dynamic vision and a new team to ensure that the festival returns as a premier showcase for the best of independent, regional and classic cinema from India and around the world,” reads the statement on MAMI’s Instagram page.
“We are working diligently to reschedule the festival and will announce the new dates for the 2026 edition as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding and support,” it added.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Shivendra said that when he took over as the festival director last year they had “limited funds” and “a lot of things had to be sorted out”. In 2024, the festival was held at a smaller scale at Regal cinema hall and PVR, Juhu, after Jio, which was its title sponsor for several years, withdrew its support.
Stating that “funding” is not the main hurdle in holding the festival this year, he added, “There are some past issues that need to be resolved. We are taking that time to do that. This will help us strengthen the festival. We also aim to find ways where the festival board is more effective and there is a better governance of the festival itself.”
The festival’s 2026 edition will return with a new logo. “We are excited about coming back in 2026 with these changes. We want to make it a people’s event. We are in the city of Mumbai. The festival will reflect that — whether it’s the logo or the way we approach the festival. We had problems. However, we are strong and we will come back stronger,” he said.
Director Hansal Mehta shared Shivendra’s statement and expressed his sadness in the caption. “It’s a cruel irony that Mumbai draped in the glitz of being India’s financial and cinematic capital cannot keep alive a film festival of its own,” he wrote. “Abandoned by the self-appointed gatekeepers of cinema who chased shinier stages and safer bets it was left in the hands of a few passionate believers to run on pure faith. And now that fragile flame has been snuffed out. No ceremony. No outrage. Just a slow, silent forgetting. What should have been a cultural cornerstone has been reduced to a footnote - another casualty of apathy dressed as progress,” he added.