A first-timer at the world’s most influential film festival hobnobs with desi film fraternity and reports on how India’s regional and independent filmmakers are moving from the margins to the main stage.
When I arrived at the Cannes Film Festival for the first time, I expected to encounter Indian films and filmmakers. What I did not expect was just how commanding the presence of India’s regional and independent storytellers would prove at this year’s festival.
For decades, India’s international cinematic identity has largely been defined by Bollywood’s stars, spectacles, and global appeal. Those forces remain important. Yet at Cannes 2026, another India was equally visible: one represented by regional-language filmmakers, independent producers, women-led projects, and storytellers bringing deeply local narratives to international audiences.
That shift was evident everywhere—from packed industry sessions and project-pitching forums to screenings of regional films and conversations inside the Bharat Pavilion. By the end of the week, it was clear that India’s growing influence in world cinema no longer rests solely on its commercial film industry. Increasingly, it is being driven by the diversity of voices emerging from across the country.
To understand why this matters, it helps to understand that Cannes is far more than a film festival. It is also home to the Marché du Film, one of the world’s largest film marketplaces, where producers, distributors, financiers, and programmers gather to discover projects, strike deals, and shape the future of international cinema. It is where films find audiences, where careers are launched, and where global cinematic trends often take shape.
And this year, India was everywhere.
The Bharat Pavilion at Cannes
I visited several international pavilions — France, Germany, Japan, Thailand, China, and the United States. Their representatives were cordial, professional, and eager to talk. But only at the Bharat Pavilion did conversations slow down, stretch longer, and deepen over cups of hot chai.
The pavilion functioned simultaneously as a busi- ness center and a community gathering place. It was inaugurated by filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker and actress Alia Bhatt, a fitting pairing given Gowariker’s recent appointment as festival director of the next International Film Festival of India in Goa. His presence carried weight, but it was his ease with visitors that made him especially memorable.
The atmosphere shifted from ceremonial to celebratory with the launch of the Abhijat Marathi OTT platform and, later, with an impromptu devotional performance by singer Aarti Khetrapal. For a few moments, the room fell completely silent before erupting in applause.
The pavilion also highlighted one of the week’s most encouraging developments: the growing visibility of emerging filmmakers. Pitching sessions featuring independent, female-led regional projects generated lively discussion among international participants.
Among the standouts were two young Indian producers, Suruchi Sharma, pitching Chetak, and Jasmin A. Singh, pitching Wrecked, who were selected for the prestigious ImpACT Labs from a competitive pool of 10 filmmakers from around the world.
The New Faces of Indian Cinema
Backed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), India’s presence at Cannes has expanded well beyond Bollywood promotion. In 2026, independent voices from across the subcontinent stepped confidently into international conversations about production, distribution, and the future of filmmaking.
From the bustling floors of the Marché du Film to the warmly lit Bharat Pavilion, Indians transformed parts of the Croisette into vibrant spaces for creative exchange, networking, and collaboration.
What struck me most throughout the festival was not the presence of established names, but the confidence of emerging voices. I was particularly moved by Suruchi Sharma, a young filmmaker from Jaipur pitching stories rooted in local Indian realities to an international audience. Her presence reflected a larger shift underway in Indian cinema. Increasingly, filmmakers are finding that stories grounded in specific regions, languages, and cultural experiences can resonate far beyond their places of origin.
The change was visible not only in the projects being pitched but also in the films being screened. One of the Marché du Film’s most anticipated Indian titles was Balan: The Boy, the new Malayalam-language feature from director Chidambaram, whose previous film, Manjummel Boys, became a cultural phenomenon. Balan takes a different path, exploring a complicated mother-son relationship through a tense psychological drama. The film is scheduled for worldwide release on June 19, 2026.
The independent slate showcased a rich range of regional voices. Khoonta follows a woman spiritually bound to a Himalayan river as she waits for her missing husband while her village confronts an uncertain future.
Mehar Malhotra’s Punjabi short, Shadows of the Moonless Night, traces the life of a factory worker named Rajan through exhausting shifts and mounting personal struggles as he searches for moments of peace in a city that never slows down. The film earned the distinction of being the only Indian-language entry in the prestigious La Cinef section.
Meanwhile, the restored 4K version of John Abraham’s 1986 Malayalam classic Amma Ariyan received a standing ovation in the Cannes Classics category. Its exploration of inequality, memory, and generational trauma felt remarkably contemporary nearly four decades after its original release.
These films differed dramatically in style, language, and subject matter. Together, however, they presented a powerful argument for the depth and diversity of Indian storytelling.
Life on the Croisette
To truly experience Cannes, however, one must occasionally abandon the screening halls and red carpets for the streets. The Croisette, the festival’s iconic seaside promenade, belongs to everyone: film makers, journalists, influencers, cinephiles, and hopeful attendees clutching handwritten signs asking for spare tickets.
As evening settled over the French Riviera, the atmosphere softened into something unexpectedly intimate. Filmmakers, critics, and movie lovers from around the world gathered to share meals, conversations, and recommendations. The industry’s usual hierarchies seemed temporarily suspended by good weather and a shared love of cinema.
My own days moved at a pace that was equal parts exhilarating and disorienting. Breakfast with Gitesh Pandya and Roohi Mirza of Box Office Guru set one morning in motion. The Women in Film: Global South Cinema Campari lunch introduced me to Andira Wilson Mirza, director of ReFrame; CC (Cecelia) W’emediof WIFT Africa; Victoria Vilpa, editor-in-chief of Action Magazine; and filmmaker Marie Clémentine Dusabejambo of Rwanda, whose debut feature Ben’Imana earned a place in the Cannes Official Selection.
I crossed paths with journal- ist and critic Aseem Chhabra at the Debussy Theater during a screening of Fatherland. Sessions featuring producer Guneet Monga, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, and Film Companion founder Anupama Chopra filled the days. Screenings stretched past midnight, while Cinéma de la Plage offered films under the stars beside the Mediterranean.
For all its glamour and deal-making, Cannes remains, at its heart, a celebration of cinema itself.
India’s Larger Story
The Marché du Film is where much of the real business of Cannes takes place. Deals are negotiated, partnerships are formed, and the future of international cinema is quietly shaped.
What I witnessed there confirmed what the Bharat Pavilion, the pitching sessions, and the screenings had been suggesting all week. India’s greatest cinematic strength is not a single industry, language, or star system. It is its diversity.
The country’s filmmakers are telling stories in dozens of languages, drawing on distinct regional traditions, histories, and cultural experiences. Increasingly, those stories are finding audiences far beyond India’s borders.
Strong institutional support has helped create new opportunities. But equally important is the emergence of a generation of filmmakers, producers, writers, and technicians who are ambitious, globally aware, and unafraid to tell stories that resist easy categorization.
On my final days at Cannes, I found myself back at the Bharat Pavilion, where conversations continued over cups of chai and young filmmakers discussed projects that might one day travel the world. It was a modest scene compared with the glamour unfolding elsewhere along the Croisette. Yet it captured the festival’s most significant takeaway. India is no longer merely participating in international cinema. It is helping shape its future.
Monita Soni, MD, is a pathologist who diagnoses cancer in her day job. An impassioned film buff, she frequently reviews movies and interviews filmmakers and actors.