The London Indian Film Festival (LIFF) is the UK's and Europe's largest annual South Asian Film Festival. It showcases a rich assortment of entertaining and thought provoking Indian and South Asian independent new cinema along with outstanding masterclasses, panel discussions and industry events. It is supported by the Bagri Foundation and British Film Institute.

The festival takes place in London, Birmingham, Manchester and other cities in the UK. In 2019 there were 26 participating cinemas with 95 screenings. The 2019 festival had a PR reach of over 160 million worldwide, partly due to a multilayered relationship with BBC and Indian media.

In 2020 and 2021 we were able to bring feature films, short films, Q&A's and masterclasses to audiences via our new digital online platform LoveLIFFatHome. The guests included Ayushmann Khurrana, Frieda Pinto, Vidya Balan and Mira Nair. We also returned to the cinema in September with screenings at BFI Southbank and Ciné Lumière. Some of the films showcased included Cargo, Natkhat and The MisEducation of Bindu.

In 2022 London Indian Film Festival film festival made a hugely successful return to a full cinema programme, with the festival taking place across 27 UK venues with 109 screenings and events, including the world premiere of Anurag Kashyap's latest 'Dobaaraa' and in conversation events with Konkona Sen Sharma and Nandita Das

Over the last 13 years LIFF has showcased a wide range of cutting-edge feature length films and documentaries including opening with world premieres of successful features such as 'Delhi Belly', 'Love Sonia' and 'Article 15'. LIFF has been instrumental in showcasing the work of acclaimed talents in the UK. Some of our special guests at the festival have included Irrfan Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Mani Ratnam, Gurinder Chadha, Radhika Apte, Manoj Bajpayee, Sharmila Tagore, Ajay Devgan, Gillian Anderson and Ashutosh Gowariker.

The festival's annual Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition is a celebration of new filmmaking talent that explores themes of South Asian experience, either in South Asia, or in the Asian diaspora. It particularly aims to highlight work that in some way links to the humanist vision of the great Indian director Satyajit Ray.

Awards & Prizes

Feature films and documentaries selected for the festival will eligible for the Festival's prestigious Audience Award (Best Film).

Rules & Terms

GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR SUBMISSION OF A FEATURE OR DOCUMENTARY FILM TO LONDON INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL

1. Dates and Venues
The London Indian Film Festival will take place from 17 June -03 July. The festival extends from London to other UK cities including Birmingham and Manchester. By submitting your film, and upon selection, you are agreeing for your film to be screened at any one of our festival venues, in any city that the festival covers as well as any number of times during the course of our 2022 festival. The Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition screenings may take place on our LoveLIFFatHome platform.

2. Formats
All films for consideration should be supplied on Vimeo link. Selected films will need to be supplied in DCP format. Films to be screened on the LoveLIFFatHome platform will be needed in a digital format (such as MP4 or ProRes). The film must arrive in the required format to the confirmed address no later than six weeks before the festival opening date.

3. Selection
The terms 'South Asian' includes the following countries India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan. At least two of the production team of the film i.e. actors, director, producers etc. must be from a South Asian community.

You must have completed the work no earlier than two years preceding the date of submission deadline.

Your film must be a UK premiere and must not have been shown on a digital, or online platform before or during the Festival screenings. The Festival programming team reserve the right to pull the film out of the Festival at any time.

There is no restriction on the running time of the film, but non-English language films must have English subtitles.

Once selected the filmmaker(s) will be sent the London Indian Film Festival laurel insignia.

Filmmakers wishing to attend the Festival must do so at their own travel and stay costs (unless otherwise specified in writing), and those in attendance will be expected to take part in a post screening Q&As of their films.

4. Screening
A screening schedule will be announced after the final submission deadline. We require permission to screen the film usually at least twice within the Festival. Please note we do not pay license, or screening fees.

5. Clearance & copyrights
All entries must obtain the appropriate copyright clearances (i.e. music, images, etc). Failure to do so will result in the entry being disqualified from the competition.

6. Publicity
We reserve the right to use extracts from submissions for festival publicity and marketing purposes, before, during and after the London Indian Film Festival. You will be required to provide: press materials, high res stills from the film, poster, trailer (in HD if available), Director biography and headshot. You will be required to promote the screening on your own social media and website platforms. You will endeavour to promote the film screening to encourage audience attendance and ticket sales. You will be provided with the festival laurel and can use this in your own marketing and promotional materials.

Shorts should be no more than 2 years old and no longer than 30 minutes in duration. Films are not eligible for re-submission if previously considered by the festival. Any language is acceptable but all films are required to be English subtitled.
3 Reviews
Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Josephine David

    We were happy and excited to have our short film "Kannagi" screen here.

    January 2024
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  • Sarah Li

    A film festival of its time. Important, powerful, on point. Everyone is friendly, the films themselves feel like family. With many of the filmmakers present the networking opportunities and hospitality are second to none.

    July 2022
    Helpful
  • Iqbal Mohammed

    Thank you very much for screening my short film, Tasbeeh.
    From minute one, the communication was excellent all the way to the screening.
    The film was screened at the Barbican centre in London which exhibited great sound and picture. The Q&A after was also well co-ordinated.
    An amazing experience and I would advise anyone with a South Asian film to submit here.

    July 2022
    Helpful