Melbourne, May 7, 2026: A powerful new documentary capturing one of the largest peaceful protests in modern history is drawing international attention after its award-winning festival run. It will be shown at the 73rd Sydney Film Festival (SFF – 3 to 14 June, 2026), on Wednesday, 3 June to Sunday, 14 June 2026.
The awarded documentary has not been released in India, its subject being politically sensitive. Rumours of a possible You Tube release are in the air.
Farming the Revolution, directed by acclaimed Indian filmmaker Nishtha Jain and co-directed by Akash Basumatari, documents the 13-month farmers’ protest that took place on the outskirts of Delhi between 2020 and 2021.
The film follows over 12 million farmers, primarily from Punjab, who set up vast tent-cities to oppose three contentious farm laws introduced by the Indian government. Despite extreme weather, the COVID-19 pandemic, and mounting political pressure, the protesters remained until the laws were repealed.
The 105-minute film offers an immersive, on-the-ground perspective of the movement, highlighting the daily resilience, collective care, and logistical scale of the protest. It also spotlights the central role of women as equal political participants and examines how mainstream media coverage often misrepresented the demonstrators.
Farming the Revolution premiered at Hot Docs 2024, where it won Best International Feature Documentary. Critics have called it “an astonishing work of social movement cinema” and praised its “audio-visual inquiry into protest as a cultural movement”.
About Nishtha Jain
After studying at the Film and Television Institute of India, the Delhi-born Jain launched her career in 2004 with City of Photos, a multi-layered look at neighbourhood photo studios across Kolkata and Ahmedabad. Her eleventh and most recent film, Farming the Revolution (2024) – winner of the Best International Documentary Prize at Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary festival – tackles a much larger subject: the recent, 12-million strong protest against unjust farm laws in India. Even working on this immense canvas, Jain brings her trademark sensitivity and keen eye for evocative detail.
A Member of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences, Jain has been supported in her visionary work has been supported by the likes of the IDFA Bertha Fund, the Sundance Documentary Fund, and the Alter Cine Foundation, among others.
Official SFF site:- https://www.sff.org.au/program/a-z/?type=Film
