The team behind IFFM and IFFS is taking Indian and South Asian cinema to Western Australia for the first time, with over 30 films across four days.
Western Australia is getting its first taste of a dedicated Indian film festival this November. The Indian Festival of Perth runs across four days, November 12 to 15, 2026, spread over multiple venues in the city, and it will screen more than 30 films spanning Indian and South Asian languages.
This isn't a standalone effort. It comes from the same team that built the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne and the Indian Film Festival of Sydney, which means Perth becomes the third Australian city to get this kind of platform. For a country where Indian-origin communities have grown steadily across the west coast too, that expansion has been a while coming.
The announcement itself had a bit of political theatre attached. Western Australian Premier Roger Cook revealed the festival during a keynote address on his visit to India, framing it as part of the deepening cultural and creative ties between the two countries. "I am pleased to announce the inaugural Indian Festival of Perth," Cook said, adding that the four-day event "will showcase more than 30 films across Indian and South Asian languages" and will host a select group of Indian filmmakers, who'll also get a look at the Perth Film Studio while they're in town.
Mitu Bhowmick Lange, who runs both the Melbourne and Sydney editions, called the Perth launch a natural next step. "We are incredibly excited to bring Indian cinema to Perth for the very first time," she said, describing it as an extension of what her team has already built in the other two cities. She's pitching it as more than a screening calendar too, talking about the festival opening up "new conversations and collaborations between India and Western Australia" for filmmakers and audiences alike.
What that actually looks like on the ground, in terms of which titles get picked, whether there's a red carpet element like Melbourne's opening night, or if any big names show up given the mention of visiting filmmakers, hasn't been detailed yet. Neither has ticketing or a full lineup.
But the timing is notable. IFFM has spent over a decade building itself into the largest Indian film festival outside India, and IFFS has been steadily growing its own footprint since launching in Sydney. Adding Perth signals the organisers see enough audience appetite in Western Australia to justify a fourth major event on their calendar, on top of whatever it took to get a state premier to make the announcement himself, on Indian soil, no less.
Expect a full slate of films and a formal programme announcement in the weeks leading up to mid-November.
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