The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) has announced its nominations for the 2025 edition, with Neeraj Ghaywan’s critically acclaimed Homebound and the much-anticipated horror-comedy Stree 2 leading the pack.
Scheduled to take place from August 14 to 24, 2025, in Melbourne, Australia, the festival will once again celebrate the best in Indian cinema and streaming content.
Homebound, which had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, headlines the Best Film category alongside major productions such as Kalki 2898 AD, L2: Empuraan, Maharaj, Meiyazhagan, Stree 2, and Superboys of Malegaon.
The Best Indie Film nominations spotlight fresh voices in cinema with Aranya Sahay’s Humans in the Loop, Fasil Muhammed’s Feminichi Fathima, Tanushree Das and Saumyananda Sahi’s Baksho Bondi, along with Angammal, Boong, Village Rockstars 2, and We Are Faheem and Karun.
In the acting categories, there are a mix of veterans and fresh faces. The Best Actor nominees include Ishaan Khatter and Vishal Jethwa for Homebound, Junaid Khan for his debut in Maharaj, Abhishek Bachchan (I Want to Talk), Malayalam superstar Mohanlal (L2: Empuraan), Adarsh Gourav (Superboys of Malegaon), Gugun Kipgen (Boong), and Manoj Bajpayee (The Fable).
The Best Actor (Female) race features stalwarts like Sharmila Tagore (Puratawn), Shraddha Kapoor (Stree 2), Kareena Kapoor Khan (The Buckingham Murders), alongside rising stars Anjali Sivaraman (Bad Girl), Bhanita Das (Village Rockstars 2), Geetha Kailasam (Angammal), Shamla Hamza (Feminichi Fathima), and Tillotama Shome (Baksho Bondi).
For Best Director, here are some names of those competing: Reema Kagti (Superboys of Malegaon), Neeraj Ghaywan (Homebound), Aranya Sahay (Humans in the Loop), Lakshmipriya Devi (Boong), Onir (We Are Faheem and Karun), Rima Das (Village Rockstars 2), Varsha Bharath (Bad Girls), and Vipin Radhakrishnan (Angammal).
The OTT section sees a strong slate in the Best Web Series category, with nominations for Black Warrant, Gyaarah Gyaarah, Kota Factory Season 3, Paatal Lok Season 2, Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper, Khauf, Manorathangal, and Thallivattam Palayam.
In the Best Actor (Female) Web Series category, nominees include Ananya Pandey (Call Me Bae), Monika Panwar (Khauf), Nimisha Sajayan (Dabba Cartel), Parvathy Thiruvothu (Manorathangal), Rasika Dugal (Mirzapur 3), Shabana Azmi (Dabba Cartel), and Tillotama Shome (Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper).
For Best Actor (Male) for Web Series, the nominees are Abhishek Kumar (Thalaivettiyaan Paalayam), Ali Fazal (Mirzapur 3), Jaideep Ahlawat (Paatal Lok Season 2), Jitendra Kumar (Kota Factory Season 3), Mammootty (Manorathangal), Manav Kaul (Tribhuvan Mishra CA Topper), and Zahaan Kapoor (Black Warrant).
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