10 Global Films Vie for ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi Medal at 56th International Film Festival of India

The 56th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) has announced the 10 films vying for the prestigious ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi Medal, an international honor recognizing cinema that promotes peace, tolerance, and inter-cultural dialogue.

Instituted during IFFI’s 56th edition in collaboration with the International Council for Film and Television (ICFT) Paris under UNESCO, the award celebrates films that embody Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of non-violence and harmony, according to Variety.

Leading the field is Iraqi filmmaker Hasan Hadi’s directorial debut, The President’s Cake, which recently won both the Audience Award and the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. The film, selected as Iraq’s official 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. sanctions and political unrest.

Speaking about the selection, the festival noted, “Hadi’s debut captures a child’s resilience in the face of political turmoil, embodying the values of courage, hope, and humanity that the Gandhi Medal seeks to honor,” as quoted by Variety.

Other highlights in the lineup include Chilean director Sebastián Lelio’s musical drama The Wave, inspired by the 2018 Chilean feminist protests, and Sundance-selected Nadia Falls’ Brides, a British-Muslim coming-of-age drama exploring radicalization, identity, and belonging.

Norwegian filmmaker Eirik Svensson’s Safe House, winner of the Audience Dragon Award at the Göteborg Film Festival, depicts 15 tense hours inside a Doctors Without Borders hospital during the 2013 Central African Republic civil war.

Meanwhile, Kosovian debut Hana by Ujkan Hysaj explores an art-therapy program for women recovering from war trauma.

Iranian actor-turned-director Ebrahim Amini’s K Poper, which screens at Tallinn Black Nights, follows a teenage girl obsessed with a K-pop idol, while Japanese auteur Kawase Naomi’s Yakushima’s Illusion, starring Vicky Krieps, premiered at Locarno with a Golden Leopard nomination, tracing the existential search of a French transplant coordinator for her missing partner in Japan.

Variety states, “Indian entries include Anupam Kher’s ‘Tanvi the Great’, about a woman with autism fulfilling her father’s dream at Siachen Glacier; Praveen Morchhale’s Urdu-language drama White Snow, exploring censorship and artistic freedom; and Jitank Singh Gurjar’s Vimukt (In Search of The Sky), a Braj-language film about an elderly couple taking their son with intellectual disabilities on a pilgrimage to the Maha Kumbh festival.”

‘The Gandhi Medal’ jury will be chaired by Ahmed Bedjaoui, artistic director of the International Film Festival of Algiers. Other jury members include Xueyan Hun, vice-president of ICFT; Serge Michel, vice president of UNICA; Tobias Biancone, former director-general of the International Theatre Institute; and Georges Dupont, director-general of ICFT and former UNESCO senior civil servant.

A festival spokesperson said, “This year’s selection represents an extraordinary range of stories from across the globe, all reflecting cinema’s power to inspire peace, empathy, and cross-cultural understanding.”

The award-winning film will be announced during IFFI Goa, which runs from November 20–28.