IFFK 2025 picks: Focus on Palestine, Oscar hopefuls and global festival gems

The International Film Festival of Kerala has only been growing in size and stature since its first edition in 1994. Organised by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, the government-backed event is India’s largest, most comprehensively curated and most avidly attended event of its kind.

This year’s edition will be held from December 12 to 19. Thiruvanthapuram and its state-run cinemas, single screen theatres and multiplexes will host a smorgasbord of screenings, talks and discussions.

Oscar-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty was recently appointed chairperson of Kerala State Chalachithra Academy, while actor Cuckoo Parameswaran was named Vice Chairperson. The festival’s secretary is R Ajoy, while H Shaji serves as Deputy Director (Festivals) and NP Sajeesh as Deputy Director (Programmes).

The IFFK selection has always been sensitive to political currents, social justice concerns and minority rights, alongside acknowledging the rich legacies of filmmakers from around the world. This year, the cinema of Palestine is one of the key themes.

The international competition jury head is dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, who fled Iran in 2024 to avoid arrest in a trumped-up case. The other jury members are Santosh director Sandhya Suri, Spanish actor Angela Molina, Vietnamese filmmaker Bui Thac Chuyen and Malaysian director Edmund Yeo.

The jury will adjudge 14 films, four of which are from India. Among these is Shadowbox by Tanushree Das and Saumyananda Sahi, starring Tillotama Shome as a working-class woman whose troubled husband becomes a suspect in a murder investigation.

Unnikrishnan Avala’s Life of a Phallus is the first film made in the language spoken by the Cholanaikka tribe. The film explores tribal identity, desire and the challenges of holding on to tradition.

Sanju Surendran’s If on a Winter’s Night is about the tumultuous relationship between a couple living in Khidki Gaav in Delhi. Pradip Kurbah’s Khasi-language The Elysian Field is a futuristic film set in 2047. The Khasi Hills have been emptied out by migration leaving behind only six villagers.

There are sections devoted to contemporary Indian films and Malayalam cinema. The Indian titles include Natesh Hegde’s Tiger’s Pond, Anoop Lokkur’s Don’t Tell Mother, Tannishta Chatterjee’s Full Plate, Prabhash Chandra’s Alaav, Anuparna Roy’s Songs of Forgotten Trees, Varsha Bharath’s Bad Girl, Rohan Kanawade’s Sabar Bonda, Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound, Vinod Kapri’s Pyre, Nidhi Saxena’s Secret of a Mountain Serpent, Tribeny Rai’s Shape of Momo and Maharshi Tuhin Kashyap’s Kok Kok Kokoook.

A film market event will be held alongside the festival, between December 13 and 16. International Film Market of Kerala is organised by Kerala State Chalachitra Academy and Kerala State Film Development Corporation with the aim of aiding co-production, financing and global market access for Indian films. Leena Khobragade, former director of Film Bazaar in Goa, will oversee panel discussions, masterclasses, workshops, labs and pitching sessions.

Here are some of the other important international titles and special packages at IFFK 2025. A few films are missing from the selection, such as the Palestinian docufiction The Voice of Hind Rajab and Kokuho, the Japanese costume drama about two kabuki performers

Palestine 36

The opening film is renowned director Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36, about the Arab rebellion against British colonial rule in the 1930s. Jacir’s period drama, whose cast includes Saleh Bakri, Liam Cunningham and Jeremy Irons, is Palestine’s entry in the Best International Feature Film at the 2026 Oscars.

Jacir’s Wajib (2017), about a father-son relationship, will also be shown in a separate section.

The Sea

In Shai Carmeli-Pollak’s film, which is Israel’s entry for the Oscars, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy tries to reach the Mediterranean Sea for the first time.

All That’s Left of You

A Palestinian teenager gets involved with a protest in the West Bank. His mother recounts the journey of the family and Palestine itself that has led to this moment. Cherien Debis’s film spans 70 years and stars her alongside Saleh Bakri and Mohammad Bakri.

Once Upon a Time in Gaza

A Palestinian filmmaker hires a shop worker who resembles a slain militant for a propaganda action movie.

Yes

Nadav Lapid’s film is about a musician who has to compose Israel’s new national anthem in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks.

It was Just an Accident

Iranian rebel Jafar Panahi, who has been sentenced in absentia yet again in his country, directs his latest film about a man who meets the person he believes was his prison tormentor.

The Secret Agent

Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho’s political thriller is led by Wagner Moura (Narcos, Civil War). Moura plays a former professor who navigates surveillance and paranoia during the military dictatorship’s brutal rule.

Sentimental Value

In the Oscar-hopeful film by Joachim Trier (The Worst Person in the World), the already troubled relationship between a filmmaker and his daughters is tested further when he embarks on a personal film about the family.

No Other Choice

South Korea satirist Park Chan-wook directs the second adaptation of Donald Westlake’s novel The Ax. Leading actor Lee Byung-hun plays a paper company employee who resorts to desperate measures after he is fired.

A Useful Ghost

In Thai director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s breakout comedy-horror film, a man who is mourning his dead wife finds that her spirit has possessed the vacuum cleaner.

The Book of Sijjin & Illiyyin

Indonesian horror is the new thing. And midnight screenings at the open-air auditorium Nishagandhi – where bookings are not needed – have become a thing too at IFFK. Apart from Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, a highlight of this section is Hadrah Daeng Ratu’s The Book of Sijjin & Illiyyin, in which a tormented step-daughter lashes out in spectacular ways.

Amrum

Head-On director Fatih Akin is a crowd favourite at IFFK. His latest film is set on the island of Amrum in Germany, and follows a family’s experiences with World War II and its belief in Nazism.

Young Mothers

The brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne won the Best Screenplay prize at Cannes for their latest humanist drama set in a centre for teenage mothers.

Magellan

Filipino director Lav Diaz’s 160-minute period drama about colonialism stars Gael Garcia Bernal as Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan, and traces his journey to Southeast Asia in the early 16th century.

Die My Love

Lynne Ramsay’s psychological drama, based on the novel by Ariana Harwicz, is likely to be nominated for the Oscars. The intense psychological drama stars Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson as a couple torn apart by post-partum depression.

A Poet

Colombia’s entry for the international feature at the Oscars is a tragicomedy about a frustrated poet who mentors a talented teenager.

The Mastermind

Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind stars John O’Connor and Alana Haim as members of a family who plot to steal artwork from a museum during the Vietnam War in the early 1970s.

Alpha

Raw and Titane director Julia Ducournau’s latest body horror film is about a 13-year-old girl with a mysterious tattoo. The cast of the French-Berber film includes Tahar Rahim, Golshifteh Farahani and Emma Mackey.

Kontinental 25

Romanian absurdist master Radu Jude is back after Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn with a film about a bailiff who is consumed by guilt when a homeless man on her watch kills himself.

The President’s Cake

In Iraq in the 1990s, President Saddam Hussein’s birthday is being compulsorily celebrated throughout the country. A nine-year-old girl has to help in baking a cake or face punishment at her school.

Papa Buka

Papa Buka is Papua New Guinea’s first-ever official submission to the Academy Awards. The movie is also the country’s first-ever co-production with India.

Dr Biju directs the film about two Indian historians who travel to the Oceanic country to unearth the stories of Indian soldiers who fought alongside Allied forces during World War II.

The History of Sound

Oliver Hermanus’s gay romance is set against the backdrop of American folk music traditions. Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor play music students who set out to record folk songs in the winter of 1920.

The Daughter

It is no exaggeration to say that anything from Iran flies at IFFK. In Pourya Kakavand’s drama, a couple decide it’s too expensive to have a biological child. Instead, they come up with an imaginary baby.

Cinema Jazireh

Gozde Kural’s film is set in an Afghanistan reeling under the Taliban’s barbaric rule. A woman whose family has been massacred and who is looking for her missing son dresses up as a man to evade scrutiny.

Resurrection

Cult Chinese director Bi Gan’s futuristic sci-fi drama was a box office hit in China. Taiwanese star Shu Qi plays a woman who enters the dreams of the only non-human who can still have them.

Silent Friend

Hong Kong legend Tony Leung and French actor Leo Seydoux star in Ildiko Enyedi’s German­-English film about a tree – yes, a tree – that features in stories set in 1908, 1972 and 2020.

Sound of Falling

Mascha Schilinski’s German drama follows four girls from different historical periods – the 1920s before World War I, the end of World War II in the mid-1940s, East Germany in the 1980s, and the 21st century.

Romeria

Alcarras director Carla Simon returns with another film about family ties that bind and gag. In Romeria, a young woman travels to Vigo in Spain to find out more about her biological father, who died of AIDS.

The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo

Diego Cespedes’s drama is set in Chile during the 1980s, at a time of rampaging homophobia, transphobia and misconceptions about the AIDS virus.

The Love That Remains

A married couple have decided to get divorced. The Love That Remains examines a year in the life of their family.

The Things You Kill

Terrestrial Verses co-director Alireza Khatami’s latest film is set in Turkey. Burning Days actor Ekin Koc plays Ali, a lecturer whose relationship with his father goes sideways after his mother’s suspicious death. With the help of his gardener Reza, Ali embarks on an increasingly surreal quest.

A Sad and Beautiful World

Cyril Aris’s film explores the turmoil in Lebanon through the relationship between Nino and Yasmina that unfolds over three decades.

Father Mother Sister Brother

Jim Jarmusch’s anthology film stars Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Vicky Krieps and Sarah Greene. The Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion winner looks at family relationships in America, Ireland and France.

Sirat

Oliver Laxe, one of the hottest talents in Europe at the moment, directs his fourth feature. At a rave in Morocco, a man and his son hunt for his missing daughter – but then run into an entirely unanticipated situation.

Where the Wind Comes From

In Amel Guellaty’s film, two friends set out on a road trip across Tunisia, with an art contest as their destination.

Calla Malaga

Spanish acting legend Carmen Maura is the chief draw of a film about an elderly woman who fights to prevent her daughter from selling her ancestral home in Morocco.

DJ Ahmet

This potential crowd-pleaser is set in a conservative village in North Macedonia, where a 15-year-old boy falls in love for the first time and vows to be a DJ.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Mary Bronstein’s psychological thriller about a therapist and her daughter fetched lead actor Rose Byrne the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

Aisha Can’t Fly Away

In Morad Mostafa’s film, a Somali medical attendant bears witness to tensions between African migrants and local gangs in the Cairo underbelly.

Franz

Agnieszka Holland’s biopic of the writer Frank Kafka begins in his adolescence and follows him until his untimely death at the age of 40 in 1924. Idan Weiss plays the writer whose existential writings inspired the adjective “Kafkaesque”.

Miroirs No 3

German director Christian Petzold is back after the award-winning Afire (2023). Miroirs No 3 is about the bond that develops between a car crash survivor and an unknown woman who takes care of her.

What Does That Nature Say

Hong Sang-soo is one of the world’s most prolific filmmakers. He is also an IFFK veteran, with a dedicated following for his improvisation-heavy, slice-of-life films. In What Does That Nature Say, a young poet meets his girlfriend’s brilliant parents.

The Stranger

Francois Ozon’s adaptation of the Albert Camus novel The Stranger stars Benjamin Voisin as Meursault, the emotionally distant French settler in Algeria who randomly kills an Arab man.

Little Trouble Girls

From Slovenia comes the story of 16-year-old Lucija, a student at a Catholic school whose friendship with Ana-Marija is exciting as well as upsetting.

Fragments From the East

Erkan Yazıcı’s period drama, filmed in harsh conditions in Turkey, is about a family that flees an invasion by Russia in 1969. The journey causes a death, leading to the hunt for a cemetery.

The Little Sister

Actor-turned director Hafsia Herzi directs a drama about a young Algerian French woman who struggles with her sexuality and her orthodox Muslim upbringing.

Two Seasons, Two Strangers

Japanese director Sho Miyake’s drama won the top prize at the Locarno Film Festival. The movie revolves around a scriptwriter grappling with her problems over two seasons.

Chopin, Chopin!

Andrzej Wajda’s producer Michal Kwiecinski directs a biography of the Polish composing great Frederic Chopin. Eryk Kulm plays Chopin as a young man in the 1830s.

My Father’s Shadow

In British-Nigerian director Akinola Davies Jr’s feature debut, a pair of brothers spend a day with their father in Lagos during the 1993 Presidential election.

Two Prosecutors

Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa’s latest film is about a trial that takes place during Russian leader Joseph Stalin’s Great Purge in the late 1930s.

Untamable

Thomas Ngijol’s seriocomic police procedural is set in a broken-down society where nothing seems to work – except the dedicated Superintendent Billong, who investigates his colleague’s murder while battling domestic woes.

Gloaming in Luomu

Zhang Lu’s films focus on displacement and identity, especially among Koreans living in China. In Gloaming in Luomu, Bai Baihe plays a woman who arrives in Luomu to look for her ex-boyfriend, who disappeared some years ago.

Enzo

Laurent Cantet (The Class) co-wrote and was meant to direct this coming-of-age queer romance about a rich teenager who falls for a Ukrainian bricklayer. After Cantet’s death in 2024, 120 BPM director Robin Campillo took over the reins.

Cotton Queen

The festival continues its focus on the cinemas of Africa. Suzannah Mirgani’s film is set in a Sudanese village, and examines the repercussions of a businessman’s visit on Nafisa and her grandmother.

Eagles of the Republic

Tarik Saleh’s Eagles of the Republic concludes a trilogy that began with The Nile Hilton Incident in 2017. In the latest film, Egyptian actor George Fahmy (Fares Fares) is forced to participate in a propaganda film.

Girls on Wire

Vivian Qu, producer of Black Coal, Thin Ice and director of Angels Wear White, helms a thriller about a single mother who goes on the run with her cousin’s help after killing a drug dealer.

Black Rabbit, White Rabbit

Iranian actor Babak Karimi (A Separation) is among the actors in this production about three people’s lives that are connected through unrelated events. The director, Shahram Mokri, has previously made Invasion.

Special packages

Abderrahmane Sissako: The Mauritanian filmmaker will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. Five of Sissako’s films will be shown at IFFK: Life on Earth (1999), Waiting for Happiness (2002), Bamako (2006), Timbuktu (2014) and Black Tea (2024). Sissako will also deliver the Aravindan Memorial Lecture.

Garin Nugroho: The Indonesian director is this year’s Contemporary Filmmaker in Focus. Nugroho’s Letter to an Angel (1994), A Poet: Unconcealed Poetry (2000), Birdman Tale (2000), Samsara (2024) and Whispers in the Dabbas will be screened – but sadly neither Of Love and Eggs (2004) nor his masterpiece Opera Jawa (2006), a musical based on the Ramayana.

Pablo Larrain: The Chilean director has been a constant at IFFK ever since his No was shown here in 2012. Larrain will hold a master class. His black-and-white vampire satire El Conde will be screened too.

Country focus on Vietnam: Five Vietnamese films are part of the discovery of this South East Asian country’s burgeoning film scene: The Tree House (2019), Glorious Ashes (2022), Cu Li Never Cries (2024), Don’t Cry, Butterfly (2024), Once Upon a Love Story (2024).

Animation: A package of contemporary animation films comprises Allah is not Obliged, Arco, Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake and The Girl Who Stole Time.

Youssef Chahine: The Egyptian titan will be celebrated through the classics Cairo Station, Alexandria Again and Forever and The Other.

Ritwik Ghatak: The Bengali filmmaker’s centenary will be marked with screenings of Megha Dhaka Tara, Komal Gandhar, Subarnarekha and Titas Ektis Nadir Naam.

Saeed Mirza: A homage to the Indian New Wave maven will be accompanied by screenings of Arvind Desai KIAjbeed Dastan, Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro and Naseem.

Suvarna Chakoram winners: IFFK’s top prize is Suvarna Chakoram, or the Golden Pheasant. As a way to celebrate the festival’s 30th anniversary (there was a gap year in between), there will be screenings of previous winners, such as Flowers of Shanghai, Abouna, About Elly, Clash, Ottal, Sta Nina, Parviz, Wajib and The Dark Room.

Homage: Several classics pay tribute to actors and filmmakers who died in 2025. The list comprises Federico Fellini’s 8½, Alan J Pakula’s All The President’ Men, David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, Woody Allen’s Annie Hall and Shyam Benegal’s Bhumika.

The Malayalam films that will be shown are the all-time classic Chemmeen, MT Vasudevan Nair’s Nirmalyam and Kadavu, and Shaji N Karun’s Kutty Srank and Vanaprastham.