The National Indian Film Festival of Australia has wrapped up its inaugural edition. From February 13 to March 2, 2025, the festival concluded with a Red-Carpet Gala and the closing-night screening of Tannishtha Chatterjee's directorial Roam Rome Mein at Murdoch University in Perth, after an unprecedented seven-city tour across Sydney, Canberra, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, and Melbourne.
The festival extends its celebrations with encore screenings of select films at Dendy Cinemas over the coming weeks and the launch of NIFFA Regional, bringing Indian cinema to regional Australia for the first time.
NIFFA's all-woman Nomination Council, along with Festival Directors Anupam Sharma and Peter Castaldi, announced the winners of NIFFA.
Reema Kagti's Superboys of Malegaon won Best Film.
"I would like to thank the National Indian Film Festival of Australia for choosing Superboys of Malegaon as the Best Film and for showcasing it in cities across Australia, helping the film reach a wider audience. We are glad that festival audiences resonated with this story of dreams and determination," said the filmmaker.
Superboys of Malegaon is based on the journey of Nasir Shaikh and a group of passionate amateur filmmakers from the small town of Malegaon. The project is inspired by the 2008 documentary Supermen of Malegaon.
Directed by Reema Kagti, Superboys of Malegaon features Adarsh Gourav as Nasir, Vineet Kumar Singh as Farogh, Shashank Arora as Shafique, Anuj Singh Duhan as Akram, Riddhi Kumar as Mallika and Saqib Ayub as Irfan. Gyanendra Tripathi, Muskkaan Jaferi, Anmol Kajani, Manjiri Pupala are also part of the project.
WingMan (The Universal Irony of Love) by Anuj Gulati won Best Indie Feature Film, while Parikrama by acclaimed director Goutam Ghose won Best International Indian Film.
Maa Oori Ramayanam by Badrappa Gajula won Best Documentary Feature.
The Man Who Hurls News by prolific filmmaker Ananth Narayan Mahadevan won Best Documentary (Short).
"Winning Best Documentary (Short) at NIFFA for The Man Who Hurls News is a very special honor. The film unearths one of the oldest serving newspaper boys in the world (60 years) and analyzes the world of newspaper reading and the dissemination of news through his eyes. I am humbled that audiences in Australia related to this unusual character and even connected emotionally with his state. Kudos to the inaugural edition of NIFFA for its specially curated collection of Indian cinema for the world. Wishing it greater success in its future editions," said Mahadevan.
NIFFA has been embraced by film institutions and audiences beyond the Indian diaspora, with partnerships and screenings at Murdoch University in Perth, Mercury Cinemas in Adelaide, The Backlot Studios in Melbourne & Perth, with Dendy Cinemas as the National Screening Partner, along with SBS Australia.
NIFFA's Founder & Festival Director, Anupam Sharma, reflected on the festival's success and the road ahead: "We are so happy that a festival which aims to promote Australian-Indian film links through the celebration of Australian stories has produced two Australian winners who made their films between Australia and India with no support and full of passion. As we structure some more pioneering initiatives for next year, I cannot wait to take the amazing Indian films to regional Australia annually, something never done before."
Other winners included Best Short Film for The Last Show by Valavan Velmurugan and Best Short Film - Special Mention for The Garmentologist. A Post-Production Completion Grant was given to Misty by Raja Chatterjee.
