IFFSA Toronto

IFFSA Toronto IFFSA Toronto is the largest South Asian film organization in North America

FESTIVAL

IFFSA Toronto is the largest South Asian film organization in North America, dedicated to the development, promotion, and celebration of South Asian cinematic arts in Canada. It plays a vital role in shaping the narrative of the South Asian Canadian experience through the medium of film, supported by its year-round activities. IFFSA Toronto showcases a diverse and language-independent selection of the finest films from around the world, exploring themes of South Asian cultures and identities. In addition to screenings, the festival hosts grand gala celebrations, red carpet premieres, musical performances, interactive audience sessions, forums, panel discussions, workshops, masterclasses, and vibrant networking opportunities. A cornerstone of this vision is the IFFSA Film Summit, a dynamic industry platform that convenes filmmakers, storytellers, and industry leaders facilitating dialogue, knowledge exchange, and opportunity development to shape the future of South Asian and Canadian screen storytelling. Both established luminaries and emerging talents—including film stars, cultural icons, and industry professionals— attend the festival. The highly festive and interactive atmosphere brings artists and audiences together in deeply engaging ways. The programming carefully balances tone and form, creating an entertaining buzz while simultaneously sparking meaningful conversations.

TRUST ME, I’M A DOCTOR by Thane Economou, starring KAL PENN. Set amid the frenzy of the early-2000s tabloid era, this da...
10/02/2026

TRUST ME, I’M A DOCTOR by Thane Economou, starring KAL PENN. Set amid the frenzy of the early-2000s tabloid era, this darkly comic true story follows Dr. Sandeep Kapoor after he is implicated in the death of his former patient, model and reality television star Anna Nicole Smith. As he fights to clear his name, Kapoor finds himself confronting the intersection of celebrity, justice, politics and personal redemption.

Gala Premiere
Oct 8 | Cineplex Courtney Park, Mississauga

Details & Passes 👉🏽 iffsatoronto.com

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IFFSA Film Festival 2026
Oct 8 - 18

IFFSA Film Summit 2026
Oct 10.11.12

Your Stories, Your Festival
The Largest South Asian Film Festival In North America

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Part of the South Asian Screen Council of Canada (SASC Canada)—Canada’s largest 360° South Asian screen ecosystem

NO GOOD MEN by Shahrbanoo Sadat—the opening film of the 2026 Berlinale—will open IFFSA Toronto 2026. This vivid, tender ...
10/02/2026

NO GOOD MEN by Shahrbanoo Sadat—the opening film of the 2026 Berlinale—will open IFFSA Toronto 2026. This vivid, tender and satirical feminist love story asks: Could there be a good man out there after all?

Details & Passes 👉🏽 iffsatoronto.com

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IFFSA Film Festival 2026
Oct 8 - 18

IFFSA Film Summit 2026
Oct 10.11.12

Your Stories, Your Festival
The Largest South Asian Film Festival In North America

•••••

Part of the South Asian Screen Council of Canada (SASC Canada)—Canada’s largest 360° South Asian screen ecosystem

MAHIMA by Naveen Kumar S—a gripping thriller in which a late-night hit-and-run leaves a young vlogger with a secret she ...
10/01/2026

MAHIMA by Naveen Kumar S—a gripping thriller in which a late-night hit-and-run leaves a young vlogger with a secret she cannot escape. When an unsettling presence enters her life and inexplicable deaths begin to follow, a police investigation into disturbing video evidence draws her toward a chilling truth buried in that fateful night.

Gala Premiere
Oct 12 | 7 PM | Cineplex Courtney Park, Mississauga

Details & Passes 👉🏽 iffsatoronto.com/movie/mahima/

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IFFSA Film Festival 2026
Oct 8–18

IFFSA Film Summit 2026
Oct 10.11.12

The Largest South Asian Film Festival in North America

•••••
Part of the South Asian Screen Council of Canada (SASC Canada)—Canada’s largest 360° South Asian screen ecosystem.

STRONG SON by Ian Bawa arrives at IFFSA following an acclaimed TIFF debut—a deeply human story of a former bodybuilder w...
09/30/2026

STRONG SON by Ian Bawa arrives at IFFSA following an acclaimed TIFF debut—a deeply human story of a former bodybuilder who returns home to care for his aging father, confronting old wounds while discovering a different measure of strength in responsibility, vulnerability and care.

Gala Premiere
Oct 11, 5:00 PM | Cineplex Courtney Park, Mississauga

Details & Passes 👉🏽 iffsatoronto.com/movie/strong-son/

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IFFSA Film Festival 2026
Oct 8–18

IFFSA Film Summit 2026
Oct 10.11.12

The Largest South Asian Film Festival in North America

GUEST OF HONOUR — SHANT JOSHIIFFSA Toronto is delighted to welcome award-winning producer Shant Joshi as a Guest of Hono...
09/30/2026

GUEST OF HONOUR — SHANT JOSHI

IFFSA Toronto is delighted to welcome award-winning producer Shant Joshi as a Guest of Honour for our 15th edition.

Shant Joshi has built a producing career around cinema with a point of view. As President of Fae Pictures, he has championed singular filmmakers and culturally specific stories, bringing work of remarkable individuality to some of the world’s most significant screens.

His credits include In Flames, Framing Agnes, Streams Flow From a River, Runs in the Family, Queen Tut and Scaring Women at Night, with films premiering at Cannes, Venice, Sundance, TIFF, BFI London and Hot Docs, and earning honours across the international festival landscape. As executive producer of Nisha Pahuja’s To Kill a Tiger, he contributed to a film that went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature—one of many projects across a career defined by an instinct for fiercely individual storytelling and the ability to carry it into the world.

Beyond producing, Joshi has been an active force in Canadian screen culture. An alumnus of the Canadian Film Centre and Rotterdam Lab, co-founder of the Future of Film Showcase, former Co-Chair of BIPOC TV & Film, and a member of the CMPA Regulatory Committee, his engagement with cinema extends from the films themselves to the structures, spaces and opportunities that determine whose work gets made and seen.

IFFSA celebrates Shant Joshi as a producer for whom cinema is both creative possibility and cultural intervention—backing distinctive voices, challenging inherited boundaries and widening the possibilities of Canadian storytelling.

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IFFSA Film Festival 2026
Oct 8 - 18

IFFSA Film Summit 2026
Oct 10.11.12

11+ Days | 120+ Films | 50+ Events

Details & Passes 👉🏽 iffsatoronto.com

The Largest South Asian Film Festival In North America

•••••
Part of the South Asian Screen Council of Canada (SASC Canada)—Canada’s largest 360° South Asian screen ecosystem
sas360.ca

GUEST OF HONOUR — IAN BAWAIFFSA Toronto is delighted to welcome Ian Bawa, a singular new voice in Canadian cinema, as a ...
09/30/2026

GUEST OF HONOUR — IAN BAWA

IFFSA Toronto is delighted to welcome Ian Bawa, a singular new voice in Canadian cinema, as a Guest of Honour for our 15th edition.

With an intensely personal filmmaking language, Bawa has built a body of work exploring family, masculinity, grief and identity with vulnerability, humour and emotional precision. His acclaimed short films have screened at festivals across Canada and internationally, with his journey taking him through TIFF and the Canadian Film Centre, and earning the support of Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch.

This year marks a defining moment in that journey. His debut feature, Strong Son, premiered at TIFF 2026 and now comes to IFFSA Toronto—an important new chapter for a filmmaker whose work has grown from deeply personal beginnings onto one of the world’s major festival stages.

For IFFSA, that journey carries particular meaning. An IFFSA Talent Fund alumnus, Bawa represents the evolution the Fund exists to champion: filmmakers developing their voice, expanding their ambition and carrying their work onto larger stages.
IFFSA celebrates Ian Bawa and is proud to present Strong Son as part of IFFSA Toronto 2026.

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IFFSA Film Festival 2026
Oct 8 - 18

IFFSA Film Summit 2026
Oct 10.11.12

11+ Days | 120+ Films | 50+ Events

Details & Passes 👉🏽 iffsatoronto.com

The Largest South Asian Film Festival In North America

•••••
Part of the South Asian Screen Council of Canada (SASC Canada)—Canada’s largest 360° South Asian screen ecosystem
sas360.ca

GUEST OF HONOUR — AGAM DARSHIIFFSA Toronto is delighted to welcome acclaimed actor, writer, director and producer Agam D...
09/29/2026

GUEST OF HONOUR — AGAM DARSHI

IFFSA Toronto is delighted to welcome acclaimed actor, writer, director and producer Agam Darshi as a Guest of Honour for our 15th edition.

A distinctive voice in Canadian screen, Darshi has built a career that moves confidently between performance and authorship. Her work spans film and television, from Sanctuary, DMZ and Sight Unseen to Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy, for which her performance earned a Canadian Screen Award nomination and a Leo Award.

With Donkeyhead, Darshi stepped fully behind the camera as writer, director and producer, while also taking the lead role. Executive produced by Deepa Mehta and released internationally by ARRAY, the film marked an important evolution in her creative journey—establishing Darshi not simply as a performer interpreting stories, but as a filmmaker shaping them from the ground up.

Across acting, writing, directing and producing, her work reflects the growing creative ambition of South Asian Canadian cinema and a generation of artists increasingly claiming authorship over the stories that reach the screen.

IFFSA celebrates Agam Darshi as an artist whose journey embodies creative independence, artistic evolution and an expanding vision of what it means to build a life in cinema.

•••••
IFFSA Film Festival 2026
Oct 8 - 18

IFFSA Film Summit 2026
Oct 10.11.12

11+ Days | 120+ Films | 50+ Events

Details & Passes 👉🏽 iffsatoronto.com

The Largest South Asian Film Festival In North America

•••••
Part of the South Asian Screen Council of Canada (SASC Canada)—Canada’s largest 360° South Asian screen ecosystem
sas360.ca

IFFSA Special Guest: Karen Thorne-Stone, President and CEO of Ontario CreatesIFFSA Film Festival 2026Oct 8 - 18 IFFSA Fi...
09/29/2026

IFFSA Special Guest: Karen Thorne-Stone, President and CEO of Ontario Creates

IFFSA Film Festival 2026
Oct 8 - 18

IFFSA Film Summit 2026
Oct 10.11.12

11+ Days | 120+ Films | 50+ Events

Details & Passes 👉🏽 iffsatoronto.com

The Largest South Asian Film Festival In North America

•••••

Part of the South Asian Screen Council of Canada (SASC Canada)—Canada’s largest 360° South Asian screen ecosystem
sas360.ca

GUEST OF HONOUR — SAYANI GUPTAIFFSA Toronto is delighted to welcome acclaimed actor and filmmaker Sayani Gupta as a Gues...
09/29/2026

GUEST OF HONOUR — SAYANI GUPTA

IFFSA Toronto is delighted to welcome acclaimed actor and filmmaker Sayani Gupta as a Guest of Honour for our 15th edition.

One of the most distinctive performers of contemporary Indian screen, Gupta has built a career defined by curiosity, versatility and an instinct for characters that resist easy definition. From her breakthrough performance in Margarita with a Straw to Parched, Jolly LLB 2, Article 15, Axone and Zwigato, her film work has moved fluidly between independent cinema and the mainstream.

On television and streaming, Four More Shots Please! brought her to audiences around the world, while Inside Edge and, most recently, Delhi Crime have further demonstrated the remarkable breadth of her work across genres and forms.

Now expanding her creative language behind the camera, Gupta has stepped into writing, directing and producing with her short film Aasmani—marking another dimension in a journey increasingly shaped not only by the characters she inhabits, but by the stories she chooses to create.

IFFSA celebrates Sayani Gupta as an artist whose body of work reflects an enduring commitment to bold choices, artistic exploration and an ever-evolving relationship with the craft of cinema.

Catch Sayani Gupta in the masterclass Becoming a Star, Remaining an Actor on October 10 at 5:30 PM, followed by the premiere of her directorial debut, Aasmani, at 7:00 PM. Details & Passes 👉🏽 iffsatoronto.com

•••••
IFFSA Film Festival 2026
Oct 8–18

IFFSA Film Summit 2026
Oct 10.11.12

Details & Passes 👉🏽 iffsatoronto.com

The Largest South Asian Film Festival in North America

SPECIAL GUEST — KAL PENNIFFSA Toronto is delighted to welcome Kal Penn as a Special Guest of our 15th edition.Few actors...
09/27/2026

SPECIAL GUEST — KAL PENN

IFFSA Toronto is delighted to welcome Kal Penn as a Special Guest of our 15th edition.

Few actors have moved as fluidly between the irreverent and the intimate, the mainstream and the deeply personal. From the cult phenomenon of Harold & Kumar and the quiet emotional terrain of Mira Nair’s The Namesake to defining television turns in House and Designated Survivor, Penn has built a body of work marked by range, wit and an enduring presence on screen.

Across more than two decades, his career has unfolded alongside a changing North American screen landscape—one in which South Asian performers have moved from the margins toward increasingly complex, expansive and unexpected roles.

IFFSA welcomes Penn this year with the Gala Premiere of his latest film, Trust Me, I’m a Doctor—a fitting new chapter in a career that has continually resisted being defined by any single role, genre or expectation.

KAL PENN — SPECIAL GUEST | IFFSA TORONTO 2026

•••••

IFFSA Film Festival 2026
Oct 8–18

IFFSA Film Summit 2026
Oct 10.11.12

Details & Passes 👉🏽 iffsatoronto.com

The Largest South Asian Film Festival in North America

Address

Toronto, ON

Telephone

+14166390764

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