‘Sitaare Zameen Par’, ‘Kantara: Chapter 1’, ‘Kohrra S2’ lead nominations at IFFM 2026 awards

Mumbai, Jul 8 (PTI) Aamir Khan’s “Sitaare Zameen Par”, Mohit Suri-directed “Saiyaara”, Rishab Shetty’s “Kantara: A Legend - Chapter 1”, and critically-acclaimed series “Kohrra 2” are among the films and shows nominated for the upcoming edition of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM). Recognising excellence across cinema and streaming content, the IFFM awards celebrate achievements in Indian storytelling across languages, genres, and platforms over the past year. The festival, billed as the largest celebration of Indian cinema outside India, will be held from August 13 to 23 in Melbourne, with support from the Victorian Government. In the Best Film category, the nominations are Aamir’s “Sitaare Zameen Par”, Shetty’s “Kantara: A Legend - Chapter 1”, Yami Gautam’s “Haq”, “Saiyaara” featuring newcomers Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda, Malayalam superhero film, “Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra”, Marathi-language movie, “Jarann”, Bengali film, “Sharthopor”, and direct-to-digital release, “The Great Shamsuddin Family”. Filmmakers in contention for Best Director award include Mohit Suri for “Saiyaara”, Shetty for “Kantara: A Legend - Chapter 1”, R.S. Prasanna for “Sitaare Zameen Par”, Shazia Iqbal for “Dhadak 2”, Rima Das for “Not a Hero”, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari for her OTT-series “System”, and Ramalingam Gowtham for his Tamil movie, “Members of the Problematic Family”. In acting categories, nominees for Best Performance (Male) include Aamir for “Sitaare Zameen Par”, Shetty for his layered performance in “Kantara/; A Legend – Chapter 1”, Ranveer Singh for his blockbuster hit, “Dhurandhar”, both father-son duo Mammootty and Dulquer Salmaan are nominated for their respective films “KalamKaval: The Venon Beneath” and “Kaantha”, and Sanjay Mishra for “Vadh 2”. While the Best Performance (Female) list features Rani Mukerji for her hard-hitting performance in “Mardaani 3”, Yami Gautam Dhar for “Haq”, Neena Gupta for “Vadh 2”, Kirti Kulhari for “Full Plate”, newcomer Aneet Padda for “Saiyaara”, Rajshri Deshpande for Marathi movie, “Baapya”, Kalyani Priyadarshan for “Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra”, and Rituparna Sengupta for Bengali movie, “Bela”. The Best indie film lineup features titles such as “Ammang Haelbeda (Don’t Tell Mother in Kannada), “Members of the Problematic Family” (Tamil), “Mayilaa” (Tamil), “Not a Hero” (Assamese), “Full Plate” (Hindi), “Pankhudiyaan (Petals in the Wind – in Hindi), “Lala and Poppy” (Hindi), and “Kikkran De Phull (Flowers of Acacia – in Punjabi). The awards also recognise excellence in streaming. Series such as Sudip Sharma’s “Kohrra: Season 2” is nominated in three categories including the best series, best actor male for Barun Sobti and best actor female Mona Singh. Nagraj Manjule’s debut OTT show, “Matka King” is nominated in two categories, best series and best actor male for Vijay Varma, similarly, Nikkhil Advani’s “Freedom at Midnight: Season 2” also is selected for best series award and best actor award for Arif Zakaria. Other nominees in best series are Aryan Khan’s fan-favourite, “Ba***ds of Bollywood”, TVF’s “Sapne Vs Everyone”, Pankaj Tripathi-produced, “Perfect Family”, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub and Manav Kaul-starrer, “Real Kashmir Football Club”, and Marathi show, “Baai Tujhyapayi”. In the best Actor male (series) categories the nominations are Kunal Kemmu for “Single Papa”, Paramvir Singh Cheema and Ambrish Verma for the same show, “Sapne vs Everyone season 2”, Manoj Pahwa for “Perfect Family”, Manav Kaul’s “Real Kashmir Football Club”. Actors Shefali Shah and Rasika Dugal are nominated in best actress category for “Delhi Crime season 3”, alongside Seema Pahwa for “Perfect Family”, Swastika Mukherjee for Bengali show, “Kaalipotka”, Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli for “Kuttram Purishavan: The Guilty One” (Tamil), and Anandhi for “Arabia Kadali” (Telugu). In the Best Documentary Film category, the nominations include Madhusree Dutta’s “Flying Tigers”, Paromita Vohra’s “Working Girls”, Johnny Burke and Andrew Hinton’s “Loving Karma”, P. Abhijith’s “Njaan Revathi (I am Revathi)”, Ben Rekhi and Swetlana’s “Breaking The Code”, Karla Murthy’s “The Gas Station Attendant”, Surabhi Sharma’s “Music in a Village Named 1PB”, and Lesley Branagan’s “Bride of Aravan”. Under the Best Film from the Subcontinent category, the nominated titles comprise Mahde Hasan’s “Sand City” (Bangladesh), Mejbaur Rahman Sumon’s “Roid” (Bangladesh), Vimukthi Jayasundara’s “Spying Stars” (Srilanka), Sahara Sharma’s “Ek Mutthi Badal (My Share of Sky - Nepal)”, Shahrbanoo Sadat’s “No Good Men” (Afghanistan), Alexander Murphy’s “Goodbye Sisters” (Nepal), Mohammad Touqir Islam’s “Delupi” (Bangladesh), and Brishkay Ahmed’s “In The Room” (Afghanistan). The winners will be chosen by an esteemed jury comprising some of the most respected names from Australia's film industry and cultural landscape, ensuring a rigorous and globally informed evaluation of this year's nominees. The 17th edition of the festival will feature an exciting programme of movie premieres, special screenings, panel discussions, masterclasses, industry events, cultural celebrations, and the awards ceremony. PTI KKP BK BK