Champions of The Golden Valley (Ben Sturgulewski) USA

Champions of The Golden Valley
Ben Sturgulewski
USA. 2025. 81 min

After narrowly missing his chance to become Afghanistan’s first Olympic skier, Alishah Farhang returns to the remote mountains of his homeland to inspire a vibrant new ski culture. Bringing together young athletes from rival villages with makeshift wooden skis and secondhand gear, he organizes a ski race like no other, uniting his community in a rare moment of hope and triumph. When their world is suddenly upended, he and the athletes must call upon those lessons learned on the slopes to find their way forward. Revealing a stunning unseen side of Afghanistan, the film is a captivating and uplifting story about how champions can be made by more than Olympic medals.

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Hassan Fazili, Jury at Imagineindia 2026

Hassan Fazili is an award-winning Afghan filmmaker who has developed theater plays, documentaries, short films, and several popular television series in Afghanistan and abroad.

He began his professional career as an actor under the guidance of “Ustad Abdul Qayum Besed”, widely regarded as the “Father of Afghanistan Theater.” Fazili has acted in numerous stage plays, films, and television series, earning recognition and awards for his performances.

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Muska Stanakzai, Jury at Imagineindia

Born in Afghanistan and raised in Canada, Muska Stanakzai embodies the harmony between two worlds — one rooted in resilience and tradition, and the other in freedom and possibility. Growing up in Canada, Muska recognized her privilege early on and felt a deep sense of responsibility toward her Afghan roots. She has since dedicated her life to bridging cultures, amplifying Afghan voices, and creating understanding between communities.

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Child of Dust (Weronika Mliczewska) Poland

Child of Dust
Weronika Mliczewska
Poland. 2025. 93 min

Sang is one of countless children left behind by American soldiers after the Vietnam War—unwanted, discriminated against, and scarred by a war that took more than just his father. When Sang unexpectedly locates his gravely ill father in the U.S., he becomes determined to meet him, even though it comes at a price. The only way to fulfill this need is to move to the U.S. permanently, leaving behind his beloved wife, daughter, and grandson. In this foreign land, he struggles to find his place—not only in a society that sees him as an outsider but also within an American family that never knew of his existence. Cultural barriers collide when the past catches up with the present in the least expected ways.

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Searching for The Band (Musa AK, Hasan Basri Ozdemir) Turkey

Searching for The Band
Musa AK, Hasan Basri Ozdemir
Turkey. 2024. 74 min

The documentary tells the story of the Eroğlu Girls’ Orchestra, which was founded in 1968 as the first girls’ orchestra in Turkey and gained great popularity by appearing on television and radio programs on TRT and in newspaper reports in the 1970s, and how it was brought together again by Cenk Eroğlu and the process of making music. It tells the story of the artists of the period, the understanding of music and art, social developments, and the characters’ past lives in a way that intertwines their present and past lives.

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Ky Nam Inn (Leon Le) Vietnam

Ky Nam Inn
Leon Le
Vietnam. 2025. 140 min

Ten years after the war, Saigon is still in the midst of reconstruction. Widowed Ky Nam runs a small restaurant in a communal housing complex, where residents share a central courtyard and know every detail of each other’s lives. She has adopted and is raising Su, a French–Vietnamese mixed-race child. One day, Khang, a young man translating Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince into Vietnamese, moves into the unit upstairs. With his privileged background and natural charm, it is only natural that he draws the attention of those around him. Yet from the very first day, Khang finds himself gradually drawn to Ky Nam, who once saved him from a crisis. The highlight of this film, which evokes the tenderness of a romantic watercolor painting, is the late sequence in which the two walk through the streets of Saigon all night, enacting a dreamlike farewell ritual. Carried along by the young man’s narration, the scene leaves their shared story suspended in an eternal present.

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Hirokazu Koreeda Honoured at Imagineindia 2026

The japanese director will be given Honorary Award at the 25th edition of the Festival to be held in Madrid from 1 to 16 September 2026.

Hirokazu Kore-eda (born 6 June 1962) is a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor. He began his career in television and has since directed more than a dozen feature films, including Nobody Knows (2004) and Still Walking (2008).

He won the Jury Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for Like Father, Like Son and the Palme d’Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival for Shoplifters.

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Raindrops on A Roof (Zhou Jiali) China

Raindrops on A Roof
Zhou Jiali
China. 2025. 106 min

Single mother Shi’ning visits a ‘spiritual salon’ out of curiosity and joins a group activity that promises to erase the past. At first glance, only Shi’ning seems to be obsessively attached to the loss and trauma she, her three siblings, and her mother experienced. But in reality, everyday life is often harsh for her mother and younger brother Shi’an as well. Ordinary images, such as an orange sock hanging on the clothesline, a wardrobe where a child hides, a stripped mannequin, or an old sweater trigger painful reminders of both personal and historical trauma for this family. Zhou Jiali’s feature debut Raindrops on a Roof suggests that what matters is not cutting out memories like burning photographs but bringing pain into the open and facing one another—much like the family working together to restore their mother’s cheap, shrunken sweater.

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Susana Fialho, Jury at Imagineindia

Writer / Director / Actress
Susana Fialho Mota, born in Lugo (Galicia) of Portuguese origin. She trained as an actress at Colegi del Teatre (Barcelona) and at William Layton’s Theatre Laboratory (Madrid). She started working in theatre when she was only 16 years old and at the age of 18, she formally enrolled in these two schools of Dramatic Art, which are among the most
important and prestigious in Spain. At the end of her studies, she began to work in TV series and theatre at the same time that she made her debut in Cinema with Albert Boadella, a renowned theatre director who was carrying out a daring cinematographic project with his theatre group (Els Lloglars). Soon after, she would work again with another well-known director, Sigfrid Monleòn, in a film about the poet and writer Jaime Gil de Biedma. A choral film in which Susana would play an important role.

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Nazgul Omurzhanova wins Best Editing at Imagineindia 2025

She has won the Best Editing Award along with Bakyt Mukul for the film Deal at The Border (Dastan Zhapar Ryskeldi) Kyrgystan.

Nazgul Omurzhanova (born in 1999 in Kyrgyzstan) is a film editor and filmmaker whose work bridges emotional storytelling with poetic visual rhythm. She graduated from Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University with a degree in Communication and Media Studies, specializing in Radio, Television, and Cinema.

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