Goa witnessed a spectacle unlike anything in its cinematic history as the 56th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) discarded the conventional red-carpet routine and stepped boldly into the public arena. The opening of IFFI 2025 was not confined to auditoriums or curated stages. Instead, it spilled into the streets, into markets, boulevards, coastal bends and public squares, turning the state’s capital into a sprawling runway of art, culture and cinematic imagination.

For the first time in its seven-decade journey, IFFI opened not inside a venue, but inside the city itself, embracing the people of Goa as the festival’s co-creators. The result was an immersive, pulsating carnival that blended dance, music, state tableaux, mythic re-enactments and cinematic processions into an extrav

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