Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari curates ‘Femme Lens’ at Red Lorry Film Festival 2026

The Red Lorry Film Festival (RLFF) returns to Mumbai from March 13 to 15, 2026, with a renewed focus on women-led cinema through its dedicated Femme Lens category. Curated by filmmaker Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, the section brings together a diverse slate of fiction, documentary and cross-genre films directed by women from India and around the world.

Tiwari steps into the role of curator with an emphasis on women as creators shaping cinematic language and perspective. The Femme Lens programme is designed to reflect a wide range of storytelling approaches, spanning international premieres, Indian features and award-recognised documentaries.

The international line-up includes Peak Everything, Isola, The Portuguese House and The Remnants of You, which also feature as part of the festival’s Hola Spain collaboration. In the Hollywood Showcase strand under Femme Lens, audiences will see Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee, a musical biopic centred on belief, defiance and womanhood. The section also includes Couture and Wardriver, the latter directed by Rebecca Thomas and headlined by Sasha Calle, offering a female-led take on the contemporary thriller.

Indian cinema is represented through Turtle Walker, screening within the Indian Spotlight/Femme Lens segment. The Reality Bytes/Femme Lens category highlights documentary storytelling, featuring Baby Doe, Circusboy, and the Czech Oscar submission I’m Not Everything I Want to Be, directed by Klára Tasovská. The film traces the life and work of photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková through personal diaries and archival images.

The programme further expands through the Rendezvous with French Cinema/Femme Lens section, which includes titles such as You Found Me and NINO, reinforcing the international scope of the showcase.

Speaking about the initiative, Tiwari said Femme Lens aims to foreground women’s creative choices and points of view, bringing together stories that are personal, politically aware and emotionally grounded. Festival director Ashish Saksena noted that the category is intended as a core pillar of RLFF 2026 rather than a peripheral sidebar, reflecting the festival’s broader curatorial direction.

Passes for the Red Lorry Film Festival 2026 are available via BookMyShow.