Birmingham Indian Film festival returns with ‘cutting edge’ premieres
The annual Birmingham Indian Film Festival is returning for 2026 with a programme of cutting-edge premieres from India and across South Asia.
The line-up features films cherry-picked from leading international film festivals, alongside restored classics of Indian cinema.
The festival will also showcase pioneering LGBTQIA+ films and the best emerging British Asian filmmaking talent.
Part of the London Indian Film Festival (LIFF) – Europe's largest South Asian film festival the event also has editions in London and Manchester.
The festival returns to Birmingham for its 12th edition, with all screenings taking place at Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), apart from a special one-off LGBTQIA+ screening at Lockworks Cinema in Wolverhampton.
The festival is supported by the BFI Audience Projects Fund, awarding National Lottery Funding.
Dharmesh Rajput head of BIFF cinema, said: “Birmingham Indian Film Festival is a festival for everybody, and our 2026 programme is the boldest yet, spanning themes of disability, motherhood, LGBTQIA+ stories, political dramas and Indian cinema classics. “I think the festival is about widening our horizons, understanding stories from other parts of the world, understanding cultures, understanding people.
“At the heart of it, storytelling is one of the oldest forms of helping to increase knowledge and helping people understand each other.”
Launching this year’s festival is the European Premiere of the euphoric rites-of-passage story, 52 Blue, directed by the award-winning Ali El Arabi (Captains of Zaatari), starring Adil Hussain and Neha Dhupia, at Midlands Arts Centre (Birmingham) on 10 July, the director and cast will be present.
Cary Rajinder Sawhney, CEO and programming director, said: “We are delighted to open the festival with 52 Blue, a riveting and inspirational film about youth finding a way against impossible odds, which seems to wonderfully go against the grain of these despondent times.
“We are proud that the festival has continued to strengthen its reputation in the city and the West Midlands region and delighted that our programmers have excelled this year in bringing rare UK premieres of films that started their lives at some of the world’s major festivals.
“Our mission is to warmly server all audiences, you don’t need to be South Asian to enjoy the film fare on offer. Everyone is welcome.”
For 2026, the festival will be expanding its accessibility for deaf and hard-of-hearing people including closed captions along with more screenings featuring BSL-interpreted Q&As across all festival cities.
