The India Film Project (IFP), a festival celebrating creativity and culture, is set to return for its 15th season. The event will take place on November 29th and 30th, 2025, at Mehboob Studios in Mumbai.
IFP began in 2011 as the Ahmedabad Film Project, a local filmmaking competition. It was renamed the India Film Project in 2013 and opened to international participants in 2014. In 2022, the festival was rebranded as IFP to reflect its expansion beyond film into other creative domains such as digital media, literature, visual arts, performing arts, audio, podcasting, photography, gaming, technology, and culture.
The festival is known for its 50-hour challenges, which attract participants from over 42 countries. These challenges include filmmaking, music, design, photography, writing, and performing arts. In 2024, the challenges drew over 53,000 participants worldwide.
The 15th season of IFP received an overwhelming response, with over 40,000 participants from more than 350 cities and 23 countries participating in the six categories of the 50-Hour Creative Challenges.
This year's jury includes Dibakar Banerjee (filmmaker), Hariharan (musician), Sheeba Chaddha (actress), Bilal Siddiqi (screenwriter and novelist), Santhy Balachandran (writer), Ravi Jadhav (writer, director, producer, actor), Kanu Behl (filmmaker), Mukesh Chhabra (casting director and filmmaker), and Gajesh Mitkari (designer).
The festival will feature performances, workshops, conversations, and storytelling sessions. IFP aims to unite creative minds from around the world. IFP founder Ritam Bhatnagar said that the festival began as a small idea and has grown into a global celebration of creativity and culture. He added that IFP continues to be a space where creative people can come together, experiment, and grow.
Past speakers and artists at IFP have come from a variety of creative fields. IFP has hosted over 125,000 attendees in the last eight years. The festival has produced over 13,000 minutes of short films, 5,500 minutes of music tracks, and 1,500 scripts, stories, and designs each year.
The 50 Hour Challenge begins on September 26th, 2025, at 8 PM and ends on September 28th, 2025, at 10 PM. The top nominations will be announced on November 20th, 2025. The awards ceremony will be held at the IFP Festival on November 29th and 30th, 2025.
