The 83rd Venice International Film Festival opens today, September 2, on the Lido, beginning a 10-day edition that runs through September 12. For Indian cinema, this year’s presence extends beyond a single feature selection, spanning an Orizzonti competition film, a major restoration, a Venice Immersive title and an Indian feature project at the Venice Gap-Financing Market.
The centrepiece of the Indian presence is Anuparna Roy’s Lovers in the Blue Night, an India-US production selected for Orizzonti, Venice’s international competition focused on contemporary cinematic languages, emerging filmmakers and independent cinema. The Hindi-language feature runs 107 minutes and is produced by Vikas Kumar’s Khan & Kumar Media, Sharib Khan’s Ammi Media, Bibhanshu Rai, Romil Modi and others.
Roy returns to Venice after winning the Orizzonti Award for Best Director at the 2025 festival for Songs of Forgotten Trees. Lovers in the Blue Night is scheduled for its industry screening on September 10, followed by a public screening on September 11.
English, August returns to Venice
India also has a significant presence in Venice Classics, where a restoration of Dev Benegal’s 1994 debut feature English, August will be presented.
The restoration has been carried out by the Film Heritage Foundation. The 118-minute film, based on Upamanyu Chatterjee’s novel, retains its original mix of English, Telugu, Bengali and Marathi and stars Tanvi Azmi, Rahul Bose and Rupen Bose.
The return of English, August is notable not simply as a restoration, but as a revival of a landmark of Indian independent cinema from the 1990s. Venice's Classics programme is specifically devoted to significant restorations undertaken by film archives, cultural institutions and productions around the world.
India in Venice Immersive competition
India is also represented in Venice Immersive, the festival's dedicated XR section.
Anokhya: The Origin, directed by Anand Kishore, is one of the 30 projects competing in Venice Immersive. The Indian virtual-reality work runs 27 minutes and features Milind Soman, Namritha MV, Sudhana and Nikhat Khan.
Venice Immersive this year comprises 68 projects from 26 countries, including 30 competition works, 35 projects in Best of Immersive and three Biennale College Cinema–Immersive projects.
Indian artist Nalini Malani also has a presence in the wider immersive programme with Of Woman Born, a new work commissioned by the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. The work extends Malani’s Animation Chambers practice and examines violence, war, accountability and women's agency through the myth of Orestes. It is presented at Magazzini del Sale rather than on the Venice Immersive Island.
Kurinji takes India to the market
The Indian presence extends into the Venice Production Bridge, which begins alongside the festival.
Director Payal Sethi’s Kurinji is the sole Indian feature project in the 2026 Venice Gap-Financing Market, running September 4–6. The India-France-Germany fiction project is produced by FilmKaravan, Blue Monday Productions and 70 Steps.
Kurinji is among 65 projects selected for this year's Gap-Financing Market from more than 370 applications. The selection includes 37 feature-length fiction and documentary projects, 14 immersive projects, 11 Biennale College Cinema–Immersive projects and three Biennale College Cinema projects.
The market is designed specifically for projects in advanced stages of development and financing. Selected teams meet international producers, financiers, sales agents, distributors, broadcasters, streamers and other industry decision-makers in one-to-one meetings aimed at closing financing.
India will have an additional industry presence through the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC). The organisation is participating in the new VPB Locations Market, which brings film commissions, studios and production facilities together with producers on September 7–8. NFDC is among the participating national film bodies.
NFDC is also scheduled to present WAVES 2027 – Connecting Creators, Connecting Countries at the Venice Production Bridge on September 6, promoting India's audiovisual sector, co-production opportunities, investment and emerging technologies.
The Venice International Film Festival runs September 2–12, while the Venice Production Bridge runs September 3–9, with the Gap-Financing Market taking place September 4–6.
