NYIFF 2026-How To Not Have Sex and Distance

How To Not Have Sex
Director: Sudharshan Narayanan
Starring: Aakash Prabhakar, Nishank Verma, Amrita Bagchi
Run time: 1 hour 39 minutes
Language: Hindi

Synopsis:
Three high school friends - Jai, Vikram and Amrita, come together after 10 years for their school reunion and are faced with an uncomfortable truth. Vikram, who used to love Amrita in high school, resents the fact that she left him towards the end of high school and started dating his best friend Jai. But he never understood why their relationship abruptly ended after school. Ten years later, the three friends meet at Vikram’s place, where Vikram engages them in a conversation to find out about what had happened between them in high school. But Jai's version of the incident is completely different from what Amrita reveals in the end. As the difficult conversations unfold and layers of denial are peeled, we discover the thin lines that lie between misogyny, sexual consent and persuasion.

Born in Kerala and raised in Chennai, Sudharshan honed his craft at the prestigious Mindscreen Film Institute under the mentorship of renowned filmmaker Rajiv Menon. He gained invaluable experience assisting acclaimed directors like Anjali Menon and Soundarya Rajnikanth before directing three multilingual short films and multiple music videos for major platforms. How to Not Have Sex will be his debut feature film.

Distance
Director: Swapnil Sonawane
Starring: Rajshri Deshpande, Archana Patel, Vijay Maurya, Rudra Patwardhan
Run time: 26 minutes
Language: Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi

Synopsis:
Distance covers a road journey undertaken by Ambika to drop her best friend Meera’s 13 year old son Dhruv back to his boarding school a few months after the sudden death of his father.

The air of grief and loss hangs heavy through the ride, as does an added layer of animosity that the boys bears her for no clear reason. Things only get worse when her careless driving causes Dhruv’s prized possession– a science project of a windmill he’s laboured over for weeks, to break.

Ambika, dealing with silent demons of her own, attempts to redeem herself with several acts of empathy, but the more she tries to reach out to Dhruv, the further he seems to pivot from her. She dutifully soldiers on, safely ensconcing him back in school.

Till finally, he confronts her with the painful secret that she till then felt was hers alone to bear.

Swapnil S. Sonawane grew up in an environment of image making; his family owned and ran a photo colour lab in Pune, Maharashtra. He started his career by shooting the groundbreaking travel documentary shows, ‘Dewarists' (Bronze Lion Cannes 2012) and ‘Sound Trippin’. Pan Nalin’s ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’ (TIFF 2015) was Swapnil’s debut feature fiction film, earning him his first nomination for best cinematography at the Indian Filmfare Awards. He was nominated for a second time with ‘Newton’ (Berlin 2017). Post that and apart from a slew of Indian feature films, Swapnil co-shot 'Sacred Games’ (2018/9), Netflix’s first ever Indian series, and its season 2 earned him an OTT Indian Filmfare Award for Best Cinematography. Swapnil also shot – ‘Last Film Show’, directed by Pan Nalin which was India’s official entry to the Oscars 2023, while his work on ‘Monica Oh My Darling’ directed by Vasan Bala was awarded another OTT Indian Filmfare Award for Best Cinematography. His recent work includes Alia Bhatt starrer ‘Jigra’ directed by Vasan Bala, Reema Kagti’s ‘Superboys of Malegaon’ (TIFF 2024) & Subhadra Mahajan’s ‘Second Chance (Karlovy Vary Proxima Competition 2024) on which he is also Executive Producer.

‘Distance’ (2025) commissioned by Fujifilm is his directorial debut.

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Host or Publisher Indo-American Arts Council