In Nathalia Syam’s feature film debut, Footprints on Water, she reveals the lives of a community of illegal immigrants who are always in hiding, away from the glitz and glam of Birmingham.

Hopeful young women from rural Assam journey to Northern India where they risk being trafficked as purchased brides, in Reema Borah’s soul-tearing social drama The Resonance.

In The Bird of Passage, first-time director Harsh Chauhan invites us on a wicked musician’s redemptive journey of self-discovery through the holy city of Varanasi.

Champa P. Shetty’s sophomore effort, Chicken Curry, focuses on a poor villager’s efforts to bring her daughter chicken curry, providing her some of the motherly love that she missed as a child.

The Faded Footprints by Abhik Das follows a newlywed couple’s journey home during the famine and refugee crises that occurred just before the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

In Harshad Nalawade’s well-travelled debut, Follower, a radicalized journalist in a divided community navigates the labyrinth of murderous identity politics.

Renowned cinematographer Sunny Joseph’s feature debut, Salt of the Earth, explores the uneasy dynamics between faith and desire as an enigmatic woman enters the life of a devout novice in a Keralan monastery.

Bhaskhar Maurya’s debut feature, Muthayya, recounts the tragicomic efforts of an aging villager to achieve his lifelong dream of becoming an actor.

In Kuldip Patel’s debut feature Powai, Mumbai suburb Powai becomes the set of a fascinating triptych as the lives of three women from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds interlock in small, unexpected ways.