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The IIFA Awards 2026 Best International Film category is the kind of first that usually leads every entertainment feed for a week. This one almost slipped by. It arrived inside a single wire report that also confirmed IIFA moving to Asia, five new initiatives at once, and a farewell tribute to Dharmendra.
For 26 years IIFA has celebrated Hindi cinema. Now it wants a seat at the global table, and it’s built a brand-new prize to get there. Founder Andre Timmins is pitching it as IIFA’s Oscars moment. It’s more complicated than that, and honestly more interesting.
Below: what’s genuinely new, where the Oscars comparison breaks, and why the Dharmendra tribute is going to wreck a few people.
What’s New at IIFA 2026
The logistics first. IIFA turns 26, and the show spreads across Asia in August-September 2026 (DNA India). There’s no single host city this time. The plan is deliberately multi-country.
Then come the five new things everyone’s talking about:
- Best International Film. IIFA’s first award pointed squarely at global cinema.
- IIFA Honours. Recognition for living legends with 30-plus years in the industry.
- IIFA Connex. A monthly Mumbai networking night.
- IIFA Tributes. A permanent programme honouring artists who’ve passed.
- IIFA Digital Awards. Back for a second round.
Most reports treat all five as shiny debuts. A couple aren’t as new as they sound. More on that below. Indian films are having a genuine global year at the box office, so the timing for a bigger-stage push makes sense.
The IIFA Awards 2026 Best International Film Category, Explained
Timmins put it plainly: “For the first time this year, we are going to introduce an international best film (category), like what Oscars does for the rest of the world” (Newsdrum).
Great soundbite. The rules are where it gets real, and no wire report actually prints them. This is the plain-English version from IIFA’s official rulebook (IIFA.com):
- The film must be English-language, original and live-action. Fully animated films are out, and so are animation/live-action hybrids.
- Minimum runtime: 60 minutes.
- It needs a paid theatrical run in India and in at least one territory outside the subcontinent.
- The release window is 1 January to 31 December 2025.
- Studios have to apply. No film gets a nomination automatically; production houses enter their own titles.
That application rule matters more than it looks. If you’ve ever wondered how theatrical runs and ticketed numbers get counted in the first place, we broke that down separately.
Wait, is it really like the Oscars?
Not really. The Academy’s Best International Feature Film works the opposite way. It’s for non-English films, one entry per country, picked by a national committee (Academy Award for Best International Feature Film). IIFA’s version is English-only, studio-entered, with no country gatekeeping. Same vibe, different machine.
There’s another gap. Fans decide IIFA’s flagship Popular Awards for acting, direction and music through public online voting (Wikipedia). The Oscars aren’t a fan vote. So “IIFA’s Oscars moment” is a fun line for a headline. Just know the plumbing underneath is very different.
The Dharmendra Tribute: Sholay, His Legacy, and Why It Hits Now
This is the part that’ll get you.
Dharmendra died on 24 November 2025, aged 89, weeks short of his 90th birthday (Al Jazeera). Six decades on screen. More than 300 films, and roughly 94 box-office hits, reportedly the most of any Hindi-film star ever (Gulf News). Fans called him the He-Man of Bollywood, and Veeru in Sholay is why.
So IIFA centring its tribute on Sholay screenings isn’t a random choice (OdishaBytes). And here’s the timing nobody’s connecting. Sholay just had its own enormous moment. A three-year 4K restoration brought “Sholay: The Final Cut” back to Indian cinemas on 12 December 2025 (Variety). It even restored the original uncut ending the censors made Ramesh Sippy soften back in 1975.
That’s barely three weeks after Dharmendra passed.
Sit with that sequence. The man dies. His most famous film returns, restored, for its 50th anniversary. Then IIFA builds a tribute around it. Nobody scripted that overlap. It’s just how the calendar fell, and it makes the 2026 tribute land far harder than a standard montage.
He was already back in the global frame, too. In February 2026, Dharmendra was the only Indian face in BAFTA’s In Memoriam segment, remembered alongside Robert Duvall, Val Kilmer and Gene Hackman (Outlook India). His daughter Esha Deol called him “the purest soul who touched millions of hearts across continents.”
The goodbye at home matched it. A “Celebration of Life” prayer meet at Mumbai’s Taj Lands End drew Salman Khan, Rekha, Aishwarya Rai and Jackie Shroff. Sonu Nigam sang “Yeh Dosti Hum Nahi Todenge” (Bollywood Life). Losing one golden-era giant after another stings. We felt it when Asha Bhosle passed too. A career this size deserves a full profile of its own, the kind we give stars whose journeys we keep circling back to.
Every Other New IIFA 2026 Initiative
Quick tour of the rest.
IIFA Digital Awards. Reported everywhere as new. It isn’t. It debuted at the 25th IIFA Weekend in 2025, judging 2024 content. The 2026 run is officially its second edition, now covering online content from 2025 (IIFA.com). Original Hindi or English titles only, nothing dubbed, 40-minute minimum.
IIFA Honours. A fresh award for living legends with 30-plus years behind them. Anil Kapoor’s name is doing the rounds, though IIFA hasn’t confirmed anything (Tribune India). Timmins frames the whole 2026 push as soft power: “The idea is to take India abroad, connect stars with global audiences, and open new markets.”
IIFA Connex. A monthly Mumbai platform linking cinema, fashion and digital culture. It launched on 28 May 2026 with a “From Styled to Screen” evening, Karan Johar and Dia Mirza on the green carpet (BollySpice).
IIFA Tributes. The permanent home for tributes like Dharmendra’s. That gives the gesture institutional weight, not just a one-off slot in the run of show.
When and Where: IIFA 2026 Dates, Venue and IIFA Utsavam
The main IIFA Weekend and Awards run across Asia in August-September 2026, with Telangana signed on as the official partner state (NewsX). A single locked venue hasn’t gone public yet, which fits the multi-country plan.
Don’t mix up the main show with IIFA Utsavam. Utsavam is the sister ceremony for South Indian cinema: Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. It first ran in Hyderabad in January 2016 (1st IIFA Utsavam). Now it’s back there for three straight years, 2026 to 2028, under the same Telangana deal. Two ceremonies, one state, one big year for Hyderabad.
So, is IIFA finally growing up?
Here’s where I land. The new Best International Film category is a smart flex, even if the “IIFA’s Oscars” tag oversells a studio-entered English-film prize. But the soul of IIFA 2026 is the Dharmendra tribute. It arrives in the same season as Sholay‘s restoration and his BAFTA farewell. That’s the moment people will actually remember.
One honest caveat before the hype train leaves the station. IIFA’s “cinema is soft power” pitch carries a real price tag. In 2019, Nepal’s plan to spend around $40 million of public money hosting the show collapsed after lawmakers revolted (Kathmandu Post). Global ambition, global bills.
Bookmark this one. We’ll track the eligibility surprises, the winners, and every reaction to the tribute as the dates firm up. Want more of the stories shaping this film year? Our Drishyam 3 breakdown is a good place to keep going.
