IFFI in Panaji: can visitors attend, and how do you register?

Yes, visitors can attend the International Film Festival of India, but you can't buy a ticket at the door. Seats in the festival cinemas go only to registered delegates aged 18 or over, so register online before you travel, then book each film through the festival's portal or app. The 57th edition runs from Friday 20 to Saturday 28 November 2026 in Panaji, and for most visitors the pass to get is the ₹1,180 Cine Enthusiast one.

Some of it happens outside the cinemas. In 2025 the festival opened with a street parade and ran free music evenings, though no public events had been announced for 2026 when we published on 30 October.

IFFI 2026 at a glance

We checked these on the official IFFI and WAVES Film Bazaar websites on 30 October 2026. The festival schedule was still marked 'coming soon', so check again the week before you travel.

• Dates: Friday 20 to Saturday 28 November 2026, in Panaji
• Delegate registration: open since 15 September 2026, with no closing date published
• Cine Enthusiast and Film Professional passes: ₹1,180 each, including 18% GST
• Student passes: free, for film and mass communication students
• Minimum age for every delegate category: 18
• WAVES Film Bazaar (the industry market): five days in November, separate pass
• Media accreditation: through the Press Information Bureau, deadline extended to 4 November 2026

Which delegate pass do you need?

Most film-loving holidaymakers want the Cine Enthusiast pass. It's meant for film lovers and members of active cine clubs, and you apply with a short profile about yourself and a government-issued ID that serves as address proof. It lets you book up to four screenings a day and gives access to the festival's panels.

Students of film and mass communication at recognised institutions in India register free, with a letter from the head of their institution naming them, a college ID and a government ID, and also get four tickets a day. The Film Professional pass, also ₹1,180, is for people working in cinema, television, radio, theatre or the performing arts, and for writers on cinema and culture. It adds a fifth daily ticket and a listing in the festival's online guide to film professionals.

Two passes sit outside this system. Journalists apply through the Press Information Bureau, not the delegate portal. WAVES Film Bazaar, the market for producers, sales agents, distributors and financiers, has its own registration, priced on its official site at ₹20,000 until 6 November 2026 and ₹25,000 from 7 November. To simply watch films, the IFFI delegate pass is all you need.

How to register, step by step

Registration runs through the MyIFFI portal, linked from the official site's Delegate Registration page. Apply early: no closing date is published, but every application is checked before approval, and you can't book a seat until then.

• Create a MyIFFI account. Each email address can hold only one person's registration.
• Choose your category and fill in your profile.
• Upload a government-issued ID as address proof; students add their institution's letter and college ID.
• Wait for approval, which arrives by email with a payment link. Pay online by net banking or card, or with a fee challan at an HDFC Bank branch; cash isn't accepted at the venue.
• Install the official IFFI Goa app, which you can use alongside the portal to book screenings.
• If you spot a mistake after applying, don't start again: the festival's FAQ asks you to email the correction to registration@iffigoa.org.
• Keep your delegate card safe. It's scanned at every screening, and the FAQ lists a ₹100 fine for replacing a lost one.

How booking a seat works once you're registered

A pass gets you into the festival, not into a particular film: you still book every screening. Under the 2025 ticketing policy (the 2026 version wasn't out when we wrote this), bookings opened at 8 AM two days before each screening, on the portal or the app, and stayed open until the film began. No paper tickets were issued: only delegates with a valid e-ticket could enter, and their QR-coded card was scanned at the door.

The same policy barred tickets for two films in the same slot, and anyone moving between the Porvorim and Panaji cinemas needed at least an hour between the end of one film and the start of the next. Cancel at least 30 minutes ahead if your plans change: an unused ticket counted against your daily quota, and three no-shows could get your accreditation deactivated.

A film shown as full is not always lost. In 2025, some reserved seats could be released online an hour before the show, so check the app again near start time. Ticketing help desks at INOX Panjim, INOX Porvorim and Kala Academy handled booking problems that year, including e-tickets that never arrived.

What you can see without a pass

The formal ceremonies are by invitation only, and a delegate pass doesn't include them. In 2025, though, the opening moved onto the streets for the first time: a parade of more than two dozen floats and tableaux from states and production houses ran through Panaji, from the old GMC building to Kala Academy, and families were invited to line the route. The same year, the IFFIESTA music evenings at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Auditorium in Taleigao were free for everyone.

Open-air screenings are the other possible way in. The festival's venue page lists open-air sites at Miramar, Anjuna and Vagator beaches and at Ravindra Bhavan in Margao, but its title still read 2024 when we checked, and it doesn't say who can attend. None of these events had been announced for 2026 when we published, so watch the News and Updates page on the official site before you travel.

Where the screenings are

The festival's hub is a compact stretch of Panaji's Mandovi waterfront, along Dayanand Bandodkar Marg. It takes in the INOX Panjim multiplex, Maquinez Palace in the old GMC building, home to the Entertainment Society of Goa, and Kala Academy at Campal, which the venue page lists for masterclasses and in-conversation sessions.

The same page lists INOX Porvorim, on the Calangute side of the river, the Ashok and Samrat screens in Panaji, and venues further out in Margao and Ponda. Confirm the 2026 venues once the schedule is out, before booking films at opposite ends of the map.

Getting to Panaji from Calangute

Panaji is 13 km from Ocean Palms Goa, and the usual route runs through Porvorim and across the Mandovi; our location page has the map. Our team can arrange a taxi or a car with a driver for festival days, help with scooter or self-drive hire, and arrange a shuttle to the city on request. Buses run between Calangute and Panaji too; see our guide to Kadamba bus routes from Calangute.

Allow more time than the distance suggests, especially in the evening and on opening day. The 2025 parade ran along the waterfront road that links the main venues, so expect diversions and be ready to walk the last stretch. After a late screening or a drink with dinner, don't drive or ride home: ask our team to book you a car.

Fitting festival days around the beach

You don't have to use all four daily tickets. One easy rhythm from Calangute is to cluster films on two or three days and keep the rest for the coast, remembering that each day's seats went on sale at 8 AM two days ahead in 2025. Our nearest beach is about 650 m away and the main Calangute beach about 2.5 km, so a morning swim before an afternoon of films is realistic. Swim only in the zones lifeguards mark with flags, never after a drink, and stay out of the sea after dark.

Panaji fills the gaps between films well. A morning in Fontainhas, the old Latin Quarter, suits a day that starts late at the cinema, and our self-guided Fontainhas walk shows how to explore it respectfully. For a free evening, our guide to Mandovi river cruises from Panjim helps you pick a boat. IFFI has also run a dedicated Goa section in recent years (in 2025 it opened with the Konkani film Halad), and if it leaves you curious about Goa's own songs and stage, our guide to mando, dulpod and tiatr explains them.