The Yellowstone International Film Festival 2025 (YIFF 2025) is set to take place from Nov. 13 to 20, 2025, in Mumbai at the PVR

dynamix, Juhu. With an array of categories including documentaries, shorts, feature films, and LGBTQIA+ films, this year’s edition will

feature over 100 global films, with 50 of them being Indian and Asian premieres. A celebration of the finest picks from independent

 

 

cinema, the festival will also feature acclaimed international titles, such as Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day by Ivona Juka, which is about the lives of four Yugosalvian gay filmmakers trying to evade the communist party’s suspicion in the 1950’s, and Aisha Can’t Fly by Morad Mostafa — which depicts the rifts between African migrant groups and the underworld through the eyes of Aisha, a Somali caregiver.

Ahead of the upcoming eight-day festival, Rolling Stone India spotlights some of the Indian films from YIFF 2025 that should be on your radar.

Dream Factory (2023)
This Arushi Nigam Documentary explores the unsung heroes of the Bollywood production industry, who painstakingly work behind the scenes to bolster the hero’s journey. Ranging from light and sound operators to spot dadas, Nigam’s documentary offers an intimate glimpse into the invisible labor of Mumbai and New Delhi-based crews working backstage. Think Luck By Chance, but with the gritty realism of Faiza Ahmand Khan’s Supermen of Malegaon.

Places To Call My Own (2023)
This 28-minute film captures the conflicting emotions that bubble up when you return to the place you once called home. For Tara, a U.S. returnee in the midst of an I.V.F. procedure, coming back means confronting layers of grief, guilt, and unresolved desire. Amidst her father’s death, her mother’s denial about her sexual orientation, and her ex-girlfriend rebuilding a life with a man, Tara grapples with navigating a multitude of emotions that force her to confront what home and belonging truly mean.

Set in a house brimming with unsettling family dynamics and intergenerational trauma, this twelve-minute film unravels the chaos that follows when the matriarch, Karupy (Sumathy Balaram), calmly announces her decision to end her life. What begins as an ordinary birthday gathering slowly morphs into a claustrophobic confrontation, as buried resentments, guilt, and long-suppressed fears surface among family members. Each moment peels back another layer of tension, revealing how love, control, and despair intertwine in ways both haunting and heartbreakingly human.

Amritansh Shukhla and Uday Thakur’s gripping socio-cultural documentary follows the patriarchally entrenched tradition of ancestral sex-work carried out in the village of Natpurwa, Uttar Pradesh. With girls as young as 15 getting into the inter-generational occupation of sex trade, this gut-wrenching feature brings to light the helplessness of the prostitutes, who continue to be exploited not just by the villagers, but also by the media and government.

Stand-up comedian Manjeet Sarkar’s feature-length documentary combines humor and social taboos into a potent mix, making you, the audience, confront uncomfortable truths. Spanning statewide tours, Sarkar uses the mic to vocalize his personal journey of growing up as a Dalit individual, spotlighting the murky intricacies of the oppressive Indian caste system through razor-sharp wit and insightful observations. Notably, Sarkar is also India’s first Dalit comedian to have toured nationally and performed at the United Nations.