The 56th International Film festival of India (IFFI) is scheduled to be held in Goa’s Panaji from November 20 to 28. On Monday, the festival’s organisers unveiled its jury for the Indian Panorama section. While filmmaker Shekhar Kapur will be serving as the festival’s director, the feature film jury is headed by actor Raja Bundela, while Dharam Gulati leads the jury for non-feature category. Other jury members include Krishna Hebbale, Kamlesh K Mishra, Malay Ray, Subhash Sehgal, Jadumoni Dutta, Aroon Baksi, Asim Sinha, Ashok Sharan, Sukumar Jatania, BS Basavaraju, Amaresh Chakrabarti, and Napoleon Thanga. With all men on the panel, the internet was quick to point out.
The comments section on IFFI’s post were filled with people highlighting this. “Women filmmakers are busy making the headlines so they felt a little left out hence, they made a Manel!!” said one user. “Is there a separate panel for women with women only feature films with an all women jury? or… ?” posted another. “Lack of women in the jury is glaring, do better!” said another Instagram user.
In the past year, female filmmakers have been receiving recognition for their work both at home and abroad. Payal Kapadia won the Cannes Grand Prix for her film All We Imagine As Light, Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies was India’s official entry to the Oscars last year while Sandhya Suri’s gritty cop-drama Santosh was selected as UK’s official Oscars entry.
This year, the festival received a record 2,314 submissions from 127 countries, including 1098 entries from 18 different languages from India.
The opening film of IFFI 2025 is Brazilian auteur Gabriel Mascaro's The Blue Trail, a sci-fi and fantasy feature following a 75-year-old woman's defiant voyage through the Amazon. The film won the Silver Bear - Grand Jury Prize at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival.
The Gala Premieres segment will feature 18 titles, including 13 world premieres, two Asia premieres, one India premiere, and two special showcase screenings.