Anurag Kashyap leads MIFFest jury seeking new film language
Indian auteur Anurag Kashyap is MIFFest jury president this year and is searching for a new cinematic language from younger filmmakers as he returns behind the camera with Bandar and leads an Unfiltered Realism masterclass at the Malaysia International Film Festival.
Kashyap told Variety he does not arrive with all the answers. As jury president, he wants to see how a new generation tells stories in ways his own generation could not.
Key Takeaways
- Anurag Kashyap is jury president at this year’s Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest).
- He is also leading a masterclass titled “Unfiltered Realism.”
- He says he is looking for a new cinematic language from younger filmmakers.
- He links shorter attention spans and streaming choice overload to shared pressures across Asian film industries.
- His latest directorial feature, Bandar, marks his return behind the camera.
What is Anurag Kashyap doing at MIFFest?
The veteran Indian filmmaker is serving as jury president at MIFFest while hosting the “Unfiltered Realism” masterclass. The dual role places him at the center of both competition and craft talk as the festival unfolds.
Rather than presenting a finished blueprint, Kashyap framed the masterclass as a conversation. He said he has many questions himself and hopes to find answers, hold meaningful talks during the festival, and maybe discover another clue about the future of cinema.
Why does the Anurag Kashyap MIFFest jury role matter now?
Kashyap argues that today’s filmmakers work in a different creative landscape shaped by AI tools, social media, and an overwhelming abundance of information. Those forces, he said, have changed not only how films are made but also how audiences receive them.
Across Asia, he sees common challenges even in mature industries. “South Korea, Japan, China and India all have mature film industries,” he told Variety. “But we’re all facing the same problem – audiences have shorter attention spans, and streaming platforms have created endless choices.” Those concerns also matter for readers following streaming and TV alerts, where platform abundance keeps reshaping how films find viewers.
What does Kashyap mean by staying real on screen?
Looking back on more than two decades of filmmaking, Kashyap pushed back on the idea that realism is optional. “Staying real isn’t a choice,” he said. “Whether I’m directing, producing or acting, you have to stay real. Only then can you fully play out reality and truly engage your audience.”
He acknowledged that limited budgets and technology earlier in his career naturally pushed his films toward grounded storytelling. Authenticity, he argued, has never been only about visual style. Local stories resonate globally, in his view, when they stay deeply rooted in their own cultures.
For festival watchers, the takeaway is clear: the Anurag Kashyap MIFFest jury brief is less about crowning a familiar style and more about spotting fresh narrative forms that can still feel true in a fragmented, streaming-heavy era.