I View World Film Festival 2025 Opens star studded night

Organised by Engendered, a trans-national arts and human rights organisation, the festival will commence with the Premiere of My Melbourne, an anthology by four iconic Indian filmmakers — Onir, Rima Das, Imtiaz Ali, and Kabir Khan worked with emerging creatives from underrepresented backgrounds to create this film about identity and belonging based on authentic migrant experiences.

The star studded red carpet evening was attended by Imtiaz Ali, Onir, Kabir Khan, Sanjay Suri, Rituparna Sengupta, Sanjay Suri, Alka Pandey Shazia Ilmi, Nelofar Currimbhoy among others.

Festival director Myna Mukherjee, Founder Engendered said, “We are extremely happy to bring the I View World Film Festival once again to New Delhi. Cinema is a perfect getaway to open up universal conversations around identity/ marginalities, gender/sexuality, justice, class/class, oppression/migration and many other aspects of life as a whole. With I view World we aim to create global awareness of issues which needs a much needed attention in today’s time and age.”

Elated being a part of I View World, acclaimed Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali said “Cinema is a bridge that unites cultures and this is a testament to that. It’s rare to see a project that so seamlessly blends multiple narratives while staying true to a shared vision of inclusivity.”

Director Onir said, “ In a world where we are constantly nurturing ‘othering’ and hate , this film seeks to dismantle the image of the enemy. Celebrate the Us that we are forgetting , nurture love and empathy with our film My Melbourne at Iview World Film Festival.”

This year's I View World Film Festival’s centerpiece is the Premiere of ‘The Shameless’, with Anasuya Sengupta, Omara and producer Mohan Nadaar. Directed and written by Konstantin Bojanov. It premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Anasuya Sengupta won the Un Certain Regard award for Best Actress at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival for her role.

In the dead of night, Renuka escapes from a Delhi brothel after stabbing a policeman to death. She takes refuge in a community of sex workers in northern India, where she meets Devika, a young girl condemned to a life of prostitution. Their bond develops into a forbidden romance. Together, they embark on a perilous journey to escape the law and forge their path to freedom.

City premiere of Puratwan- The Ancient, With Rituparna Sengupta. Directed by Suman Ghosh and produced by Rituparna Sengupta, this film marks the return of veteran actor Sharmila Tagore to Bengali-language cinema after a considerable hiatus.

Rittika returns to her ancestral house with her husband Rajeev to celebrate her mother’s 80th birthday. After reaching her house she finds that her mother is not the same as she had always believed her to be. Initially jolted with this realization, she slowly comes to terms with her condition and its irreversibility. Through her mother she comes to change her perspective on life and being. What seemed like an ostensibly routine and ritualistic event turns to a larger metaphysical enquiry into human existence and how the past dictates our current state. The film deftly braids questions of failing memory, cherishing the past, a fear of obsolescence and reconciliation into a haunting, moving story that is at its heart about burying the ghosts of the past in order to make peace with what has happened so that one can move on.

The Festival will conclude with the premiere of - ‘Five Films For Freedom’ which is an online celebration of global LGBTQIA+ stories, in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual rights. This is a British Council global programme in partnership with BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival. The initiative presents five films for free to audiences globally and invites everyone everywhere to show solidarity with LGBTQIA+ communities.

I-View-World is an international film festival that provides new ways of seeing human rights cinema through the lens of gender marginalities and contemporary culture. It was conceived and convened in New York for several years as I View Film by Engendered (an umbrella arts organization). For more than four years, it was the one of the leading and only South Asian film festivals on gender and sexuality. After making a powerful debut in 2016 in India, I-View is ready for its next edition and is currently the only human rights film festival in Delhi. In the past, the festival has brought together big names from the world of cinema, media, academia and the development sector on a common platform and created robust conversations using the arts as a catalyst to engage, uplift and transform viewer perceptions around issues pertaining to human rights and contemporary culture across the globe.