International Film Festival of India Showcases Cannes Winner

The 56th International Film Festival of India has unveiled the 10 films competing for the ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi Medal, an award that honors cinema promoting peace and inter-cultural dialogue. According to Variety, this prestigious medal is presented in collaboration with the International Council for Film and Television under UNESCO's aegis, celebrating works that reflect Mahatma Gandhi's vision of non-violence and peace.

Leading the lineup is Iraqi filmmaker Hasan Hadi's directorial debut, The President's Cake, which won both the Audience Award and the Camera d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival's Directors Fortnight section.

The film, which is also Iraq's entry for the international feature Oscar at the 98th Academy Awards, follows nine-year-old Lamia in 1990s Iraq as she scrambles to bake the President's birthday cake amid U.N. food sanctions and political unrest.

Competing alongside The President's Cake is Chilean auteur Sebastián Lelio's musical drama The Wave, which premiered at Cannes. This film is loosely inspired by the 2018 Chilean feminist protests and follows university student Julia as she navigates the aftermath of a recent sexual assault within the context of a burgeoning movement.

Other contenders include Nadia Fall's Brides, which premiered at Sundance and earned a grand jury prize nomination in the World Cinema Dramatic category. This British-Muslim coming-of-age drama follows two teenage girls who run away from troubled lives, confronting radicalization, identity, and belonging.

Norwegian filmmaker Eirik Svensson's Safe House, which won the Audience Dragon Award for best Nordic film at the Gothenburg Film Festival, depicts 15 harrowing hours inside a Doctors Without Borders hospital during the 2013 Central African Republic civil war.

Kosovian filmmaker Ujkan Hysaj's debut Hana makes its world premiere at IFFI, exploring an actor who joins an art therapy program at a women's rehabilitation center in Kosovo, helping war survivors transform pain into expression.

Iranian actor Ebrahim Amini's directorial debut K Poper, which screens at Tallinn Black Nights, follows an Iranian teenage girl obsessed with a K-pop idol who dreams of traveling to Seoul despite her mother's refusal.

Japanese auteur Kawase Naomi's Yakushimas Illusion, starring Vicky Krieps, premiered at Locarno with a Golden Leopard nomination. The existential drama follows a French transplant coordinator in Japan searching for her missing partner who has become a Johatsu, one of Japan's thousands of annual disappearances.

Rounding out the selection are Anupam Kher's Tanvi the Great, about a woman with autism who resolves to complete her deceased father's dream of saluting the flag at Siachen Glacier; Praveen Morchhale's Urdu-language drama White Snow, about a young filmmaker whose work is banned by a religious leader; and Jitank Singh Gurjar's Toronto Netpac Award winner Vimukt, a Braj-language film about an elderly couple taking their son with intellectual disabilities on a pilgrimage to the Maha Kumbh festival.

The jury for the ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi Medal will be chaired by Ahmed Bedjaoui, artistic director of the International Film Festival of Algiers, alongside notable figures such as Xueyan Hun, vice-president of ICFT, and Serge Michel, vice president of UNICA, among others.