Pune International Film Festival
Annual film festival held in Pune, India
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The Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) is an annual film festival held in Pune, Maharashtra, India. Open to the general public, screenings take place at venues such as the NFAI, INOX and PVR cinemas across the city. The festival is chaired and directed by Dr Jabbar Patel. The festival's trustees are Jabbar Patel, Satish Alekar, Mohan Agashe, Sabina Sanghvi, Ravi Gupta, Rajendra Kelshikar and Samar Nakhate. The deputy director — Programme and Films is Vishal Shinde, and the deputy director — International Cinema & Relations is Aditi Akkalkotkar.
 | |
| Location | Pune, India |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2002 |
| Most recent | 2025 |
| Awards | Prabhat, Sant Tukaram |
| Website | www |
The festival commences on the second Thursday and concludes on the third Thursday of January. First Edition of PIFF was started in year 2002[1] and has been running annually except for 2004.
The latest (24th edition) of the PIFF took place from 15th to 22nd January 2026.
Festival categories
- World Competition - Films released in earlier year compete for much-coveted 'Prabhat Best International Film Award'
- Marathi Competition - Marathi films released in earlier year compete for 'Sant Tukaram Best International Marathi Film Award'
- Student Section - Short films from film schools in India like FTII are screened.
- Global Cinema - Non-competition category for cinema around the globe
- Country Focus - A handful of films from one country
- Theme Section - Films relating to the theme of the festival that year
- Retrospective - Retrospective on Indian and Foreign director/actor
- Indian Cinema - Offbeat films produced in India (usually excludes Bollywood and other Indian language mainstream films)
- Tribute Section - Tribute to film personalities passed that year
- Special Screening
- PIFF Workshops - Talks, Seminars, and Workshops on varied subjects by Film Industry persons.
- Student Animation Section - Short animation films for competition by students.This section was for few years.
Awards
- Government of Maharashtra Prabhat Best International Film
- Government of Maharashtra Prabhat Best International Film Director
- Government of Maharashtra Sant Tukaram Best International Marathi Film
Sant Tukaram Best International Marathi Film Award winners
Since 2006, the Government of Maharashtra started awarding the best film in the Marathi competition section at the festival. An international jury watches the competing Marathi films to decide the winner. The award is named after the Marathi film Sant Tukaram, the first Indian entry to be screened at the 5th Venice International Film Festival.
| PIFF Edition | Year | Film | Director | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 2006 | Dombivali Fast | Nishikanth Kamat | [2] |
| 5 | 2007 | Shevri | Gajendra Ahire | [citation needed] |
| 6 | 2008 | Tingya | Mangesh Hadawale | [citation needed] |
| 7 | 2009 | Gabhricha Paus | Satish Manwar | [3] |
| 8 | 2010 | Natarang | Ravi Jadhav | [4] |
| 9 | 2011 | Baboo Band Baaja | Rajesh Pinjani | [5] |
| 10 | 2012 | Ha Bharat Maza | Sumitra Bhave, Sunil Sukhtankar | [6] |
| 11 | 2013 | Kaksparsh | Mahesh Manjrekar | [7] |
| 12 | 2014 | Fandry | Nagraj Manjule | [8] |
| 13 | 2015 | Elizabeth Ekadashi | Paresh Mokashi | [9] |
| 14 | 2016 | Rangaa Patangaa | Prasad Namjoshi | [10] |
| 15 | 2017 | Lathe Joshi | Mangesh Joshi | [11] |
| 16 | 2018 | Pimpal | Gajendra Ahire | [12] |
| 17 | 2019 | Chumbak | Sandeep Modi | [13] |
| 18 | 2020 | Anandi Gopal | Sameer Vidwans | [14] |
| 19 | 2021 | Happy My Son (Porga Majetay) | Makarand Mane | [15] |
| 20 | 2022 | Potra | Shankar Arjunn Dhotre | [16] |
Prabhat International Award Winners
The festival started an International Competition section from 2005. The Government of Maharashtra started awarding the best film and the best director in the International Competition. An international jury panel decides the awards. Select awards are listed below.
| Edition | Year | Award | Film | Director | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2005 | Best Film | Yesterday | Darrell Roodt | |
| Jury Award | Earth and Ashes | Atiq Rahimi | |||
| Best Director | Dias de Santiago | Josué Méndez | |||
| 4 | 2006 | Best Film | L'Enfant (The Child) | Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne | |
| Best Director | L'Enfant (The Child) | Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne | |||
| 5 | 2007 | Best Film | The Old Barber | Hasi Chaolu | |
| Best Director | The Axe | Costa-Gavras | |||
| 6 | 2008 | Best Film | XXY | Lucía Puenzo | |
| Best Director | Sleepwalking Land | Teresa Prata | |||
| 7 | 2009 | Best Film | Lake Tahoe | Fernando Eimbcke | [17] |
| Best Director | Tulpan | Sergey Dvortsevoy | |||
| 8 | 2010 | Best Film | White Lightnin' | Dominic Murphy | |
| Best Director | Who Is Afraid of the Wolf? | Maria Procházková | [18] | ||
| 9 | 2011 | Best Film | Dooman River | Zhang Lu | [19] |
| Best Director | Reverse | Borys Lankosz | |||
| 10 | 2012 | Best Film | If Not Us, Who? | Andres Veiel | [20] |
| Best Director | A Separation | Asghar Farhadi | |||
| 11 | 2013 | Best Film | Barbara | Christian Petzold | |
| Best Director | The Delay | Rodrigo Plá | |||
| 12 | 2014 | Best Film | Papusza | Krzysztof Krauze & Joanna Kos-Krauze | |
| Best Director (shared) | Papusza | Krzysztof Krauze & Joanna Kos-Krauze | |||
| Best Director (shared) | Foreign Bodies | Mirko Locatelli | |||
| 13 | 2015 | Best Film | Behaviour | Ernesto Daranas | |
| Best Director (shared) | Like Never Before | Zdeněk Tyc | [21] | ||
| Best Director (shared) | Test (Ispytanie) | Alexander Kott | |||
| 14 | 2016 | Best Film | Immortal | Seyed Hadi Mohaghegh | [22] |
| Best Director | Thithi | Raam Reddy | |||
| 15 | 2017 | Best Film | Lost in Munich | Petr Zelenka | |
| Best Director | The Student | Kirill Serebrennikov | |||
| 16 | 2018 | Best Film | Free and Easy | Geng Jun | |
| Best Director | Zama | Lucrecia Martel | |||
| 17 | 2019 | Best Film | Girls of the Sun | Eva Husson | |
| Best Director | A Translator | Rodrigo Barriuso & Sebastian Barriuso | |||
| 18 | 2020 | Best Film | A Son (Bik Eneich: Un Fils) | Mehdi Barsaoui | [23] |
| Best Director | Supernova | Bartosz Kruhlik | |||
| 19 | 2021 | Best Film | Should the Wind Drop (French: Si le vent tombe) | Nora Martirosyan | [24] |
| Best Director | Barah By Barah | Gaurav Madan | [25] | ||
| 20 | 2022 | Best Film | Between Two Dawns | Selman Nacar | [26] |
| Best Director | 107 Mothers | Peter Kerekes | [27] |
PIFF Distinguished Award
PIFF Distinguished Award for Outstanding Contribution to Indian Cinema.
| Edition | Year | Awardees | References |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2002 | Dilip Kumar | [28] |
| Mrinal Sen | |||
| 2 | 2003 | Lata Mangeshkar | [29] |
| Dev Anand | |||
| 3 | 2005 | Waheeda Rehman | [30] |
| Shakti Samanta | |||
| 4 | 2006 | Vyjayantimala | [31] |
| Yash Chopra | |||
| 5 | 2007 | Asha Parekh | |
| Dharmendra | |||
| 6 | 2008 | Sharmila Tagore | [32] |
| Shammi Kapoor | |||
| 7 | 2009 | Shashi Kapoor | [33] |
| Sulochana Didi | |||
| Hema Malini | |||
| 8 | 2010 | Shriram Lagoo | [34] |
| Rajesh Khanna | |||
| 9 | 2011 | Shashikala | [35] |
| Saira Banu | |||
| 10 | 2012 | Amitabh Bachchan | [36] |
| Asha Bhosale | |||
| 11 | 2013 | Ramesh Deo | [37] |
| Jeetendra | |||
| 12 | 2014 | Adoor Gopalakrishnan | [38] |
| Vinod Khanna | |||
| 13 | 2015 | N. D. Mahanor | [39] |
| Shatrughan Sinha | |||
| Tanuja Mukerjee | |||
| Krzysztof Zanussi | |||
| 14 | 2016 | Soumitra Chatterjee | [40] |
| Shyam Benegal | |||
| 15 | 2017 | Aparna Sen | [41] |
| Seema Deo | |||
| 16 | 2018 | Ramesh Prasad | [42] |
| Ramesh Sippy | |||
| Rajdutt | |||
| 17 | 2019 | Dilip Prabhavalkar | [43] |
| Govind Nihalani | |||
| 18 | 2020 | B. P. Singh | [44] |
| Vikram Gokhale | |||
| 19 | 2021 | Ashok Saraf | [45] |
| 23 | 2025 | Anupam Kher | [46] |
| Shubha Khote |
S.D. Burman PIFF Award
| Edition | Year | Awardees | References |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 2010 | Pyarelal Sharma | [47] |
| 9 | 2011 | Mohammed Zahur Khayyam | |
| 10 | 2012 | Ilaiyaraaja | |
| 11 | 2013 | Shivkumar Sharma | [48] |
| Hariprasad Chaurasia | |||
| 12 | 2014 | Hridaynath Mangeshkar | [49] |
| 13 | 2015 | Anandji Virji Shah | |
| 14 | 2016 | Uttam Singh | |
| 15 | 2021 | Zakir Hussain | [50] |
| 16 | 2017 | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam | [51] |
| 17 | 2018 | Raamlaxman | [52] |
| 18 | 2019 | Usha Khanna | [53] |
| 23 | 2025 | Kavita Krishnamurti | [46] |