The London Indian Film festival (LIFF), recognised as one of the largest annual celebrations of Indian cinema in the UK, is set to honour filmmaker Shyam Benegal in their upcoming 2026 edition. The festival is scheduled to be held in June-July next year.
"We'll be reflecting on filmmakers like Shyam Benegal, who passed on. We want to make sure that his memory and legacy lives on. We're aiming to do one of Shyam's films, it's important to show the films and talk about the work,” festival director Cary Sawhney said. The festival will also screen a number of restored cinema classics from the 1950s.
“A lot of the 1950s films are being restored, which is quite fascinating. We're talking to some of the great Indian filmmakers who are having their anniversaries next year. So, we can't give away the names yet," he said.
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Benegal, who heralded a new era in Hindi cinema with classics such as “Ankur”, “Mandi” and “Manthan”, passed away at the age of 90 in 2024.
LIFF 2026 also aims to showcase the richness of Indian cinema by exhibiting a diverse array of films in multiple languages, including Punjabi, Gujarati, Assamese and South Indian.
“We're actively looking for films in Punjabi or Gujarati (language) to represent our big audiences from those communities, so we can put that out there but they have to be good quality films. We are actively looking for films from South India because of the underrepresentation and the overrepresentation of Hindi language in the UK,” Sawhney said.
“We're also looking out for women filmmakers and LGBTQ stories. So, at any festival in the world, there may be so many good films, but what we're looking for is a unique story,” he added.
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