The Los Angeles Indian Film Festival has announced the full program for its third annual Industry Days Forum, a two-day event aimed at connecting South Asian film and television creatives with Hollywood executives and companies. The forum will be held at Landmark Sunset Hollywood on April 24th and 25th.
Executives and creators participating in this year’s forum represent companies including Color Creative, Film Independent, HBO, Jaya Entertainment, Library Pictures International, MACRO, Maharani Productions, Marginal Mediaworks, Netflix, NBC, Universal, Onyx, South Stack Studios, Sundance Institute, and Zero Gravity Management.
Industry Days Producer Megha Kadakia said, “There is incredible depth of storytelling coming out of creatives in South Asia and the diaspora right now. IFFLA Industry Days aims to create a space for those stories to connect with the right partners so they can travel, scale, and reach their intended audiences.”
Now in its second year, IFFLA Connect showcases a select group of South Asian and diaspora film and television projects and matches them with Hollywood executives who can help develop and advance the projects. The six projects chosen this year are Keshni Kashyap’s ‘The Lie’; ‘Mayapuri’ by Aranya Sahay. ‘Nisa’ by Ambalien Alkadar, produced by Neeraj Churi, Sharib Khan, Vikas Kumar and Eugene Sun Park. “Reagan Doctrine” by Abish Raghavan, produced by Steven Snyder. Soham Mehta’s “Remember Ivy Coat,” written by Jonathan John and Mehta and produced by Rajiv Maikri and Craig Stable. and “Sound vs. Cochrane” by Mridu Chandra.
The Launchpad Pitch Competition will feature six finalists who will present their projects in development to a panel of industry experts and a live audience, with one project receiving a $10,000 development grant. The final candidates are: Amalik Singh Khosa’s TV series ‘Blind Tiger’. Neha Dutta’s TV series ‘Dead Serious with Maya and Momo’. Monisha Dadlani’s feature project ‘The Fiddler’. Mariam Mir’s featured project ‘Sapna’. Raj Krishna and Sudhanshu Saria’s featured project ‘Silverfish’. Priyanka Krishnan and Raman Ninmala’s featured project “Total Poo Malaram” (Flowers Bloom When Touched).
Mentors in the competition include Tanuj Chopra, showrunner and executive producer of “Delhi Crime” seasons 2 and 3; Actor/writer/director Agam Darshi (“Donkey Head”). Producer/Director/Screenwriter Shruti Ganguly. screenwriter and director Ravi Kapoor (“Patel,” “For Samosas”); screenwriter and director Meera Menon (“Didn’t Die”); and Sanjay Shah, showrunner and executive producer of “Everybody Still Hates Chris.”
A Forum staple since 2004, the One-on-One program gives festival filmmakers direct access to studio, production, distribution and agency executives through a series of short, one-on-one meetings.
Three panel discussions conclude the program. An animation-focused conversation moderated by Megha Davalas of Netflix Animation Studios will explore how South Asian intellectual property can expand into streaming, gaming, publishing, and merchandise. The Games Panel will bring together developers, narrative designers and producers to consider what the interactive entertainment sector has to offer for South Asian creators looking to build culture-based worlds for audiences around the world. The third panel presented by Kinema looks at the state of independent film distribution in 2026 and discusses how filmmakers are combining event-based and direct-to-audience approaches with more traditional sales and streaming routes.
South Stack Studios will host a masterclass that examines how filmmakers can hone and communicate their creative vision across the various materials (pitch, logline, deck) that determine how a project is received in the marketplace.
The festival also announced changes to its opening night selection. Ben Recki’s documentary ‘Breaking the Code’ is set to begin its 24th edition following the previously announced worldwide release date change of director Mahesh Narayanan’s opener ‘Patriot’. This US-India co-production, co-directed by Rekhi and Swetlana, will have its world premiere at the festival. The film follows Rekhi as he assembles the story of his father’s life, from his childhood in post-independence India to his groundbreaking career in Silicon Valley, while uncovering a multi-generational story of ambition, forced migration, and the path forged by early Indian immigrants in America’s tech industry.
The 24th Los Angeles Indian Film Festival will be held from April 23rd to 26th at Landmark Sunset Hollywood and Harmony Gold.
