The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) has been rescheduled from August to late 2020 due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. IFFM’s 2020 programme will be devised in keeping with public health guidance and a compact schedule taking place over a week from October 30 to November 7. The festival is retaining the Short Film Competition and the popular dance competition (to be held on October 31, pending easing of restrictions). However, the IFFM Awards Gala will be postponed until 2021.

The festival has also introduced the IFFM Film Club where fans can enrol for a virtual masterclass with leading filmmakers discussing their works in detail. Functioning like a book club, the festival invites participants to watch a classic film and then discuss it at the virtual film club with the filmmaker. The virtual talks are open for registration and can accommodate 100 early-bird users.

“This is a unique intimate way for film lovers to stay engaged, entertained and educated while at home in these unprecedented times,” said IFFM Festival Director Mitu Bhowmick Lange. “We already have a strong line up of filmmakers from various parts of India. Well-known film journalist Rajeev Masand will moderate the session as he opens the film and its maker to a world of questions from curious fans.”

Previously, the festival has hosted masterclasses with Raju Hirani, Rani Mukherjee, Karan Johar, Rima Das, Zoya Akhtar, Onir, Vijay Sethupathi, Nag Ashwin, Kabir Khan, and others.

The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2019. In February this year, IFFM hosted an event in Mumbai where Shah Rukh Khan awarded the four-year scholarship named after him to Gopika Kottantharayil Bhasi from Thrissur (Kerala), as a part of the festival’s long association with Melbourne’s La Trobe University.