The team behind Europe’s largest Indian film festival are launching a new, Northern event in Summer 2021 thanks to National Lottery funding from Film Hub North’s Film Exhibition Fund. Manchester Indian Film Festival joins events in London and Birmingham to provide a UK-wide showcase of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi films online and in cinemas from 17 June – 4 July 2021.

In-person events in Manchester see the festival take over Everyman St. John’s from 23 – 27 June for a series of screenings focusing on the experiences of South Asian women. Special guests from the casts and crews behind the films will be in attendance for live Q&As following the screenings.

The Manchester line-up includes the UK premiere of WOMB (Women of My Billion) – a documentary following Srishti Bakshi’s monumental journey from the Southern tip to the Northernmost edge of India on foot, and the remarkable women she meets along the way. Northern stories feature elsewhere in the Manchester programme courtesy of two classics of British Asian cinema. Flight tells the story of a young woman forced to flee Accrington for London following a family dispute, while Bhaji on the Beach follows a gregarious group of women heading off on a much-needed holiday to Blackpool.

The festival continues online over on the LoveLIFF At Home platform. As well as In Conversation events with leading figures in the Indian film industry, the online programme includes a host of premieres showcasing the young rebels, extraordinary lives, environmental activists and emerging filmmakers currently making waves in South Asian film.