About the Festival
Film Society of Bhubaneswar (FSB) completes two decades of its work (starting from 2005) and returns with the 15th Indian Film Festival Bhubaneswar, a programme that draws its shape from conversations and nearly two decades of screenings, retrospectives and archive-led initiatives. Over the years we have brought restored classics and retrospectives of major film makers, showcased bold regional debuts and established auteurs, and foregrounded films that probe gender, migration, indigenous life-worlds, technology and uneven development.
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This year’s festival continues with a retrospective of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, alongside a handpicked selection of contemporary features and shorts from across the subcontinent.
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The poster is live; passes and the full schedule will be announced soon — we invite students, cinephiles and the public to join us for a week of screenings and conversations that connect the rich history of our past festivals to urgent stories being made today. The festival is free for all our Film Society Members.
Retrospective: Adoor Gopalakrishnan
"I am not interested in creating a reality that engages the audience just on its surface. I want the audience to explore beneath the surface."
Born in Kerala in 1941 into a family with a strong tradition in Kathakali theatre, Adoor Gopalakrishnan has always emphasized the "disciplined, ritualistic storytelling" of his heritage. A graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India (1965), he founded the Chitralekha Film Cooperative to champion non-commercial cinema. His work refuses to imitate the West, insisting instead that "cinema has a lot to do with one's own culture".
Adoor Gopalakrishnan's cinema is a study of "dying worlds" and "cosmic disorder". His films are not merely stories; they are experiences where the narrative is often just an excuse to keep the audience exploring deeper layers of reality. Rooted in the soil of Kerala, his works reflect the gentle pace of life in the south while exposing the underlying moments of dramatic crisis and disorienting change. From the moral ambiguities of Swayamvaram to the oppressive feudal decay in Elippathayam, Gopalakrishnan’s films strip away the "story" to reveal the essential mystery of the human condition.
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His works to be screened are listed here.
Ritwik Ghatak Centenary
Born in 1925 in Dhaka, Ritwik Ghatak was a poet, playwright, and director. A leading figure in the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) during the 1940s, he developed a leftist political identity and a strong feeling for people’s culture. Ghatak served as a teacher at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), where he influenced a generation of filmmakers, emphasizing that cinema is a "tool to end the sorrows of people". Though he completed only eight fiction features, his "burning" intellectual depth and unique use of sound and music have secured his place as a revolutionary master of world cinema.
His cinema is a profound meditation on the Partition of India, an event that physically rent his homeland and haunted his creative spirit until his death. Far more than a filmmaker, Ghatak was a "vertical invader" of the Indian psyche, using melodrama and cultural memory to explore the trauma of dislocation and the loss of home. From the self-sacrificing tragedy of Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960) to the epic, rhythmic life of the river in Titash, Ghatak’s lens remains a searing indictment of history and a testament to the undying spirit of a fractured people.
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We will be screening two of his works listed here.
Indian Contemporary Cinema
Beyond the retrospectives of the masters, the 15th IFFB presents a window into the current state of Indian filmmaking. This selection highlights young filmmakers working across the country—from the remote villages of Kashmir to the heart of rural Bengal—exploring urgent themes of migration, gender, and the resilience of the human spirit.
A still from praveen Morchale's White Snow
This section of the festival honors the idealism of a new generation of filmmakers who refuse to imitate the West, insisting instead that cinema remains rooted in one's own culture.
The lineup of films is here.
A still from Bakshobandi
Director Interactions
Beyond the screenings, the festival serves as a platform for direct engagement with the creators behind the craft. We are honoured to host a distinguished group of filmmakers for post-screening dialogues and interactive sessions - Praveen Morchhale, Suman Mukhopadhyay, Susant Misra, Nareshkumar Hegde Dodmari, Deepankar Prakash, Maharshi Tuhin Kashyap, Sreehari B, and Jagdish Mishra.
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The list of all directors is here.