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Cinema
Classic Legends Indian Film Festival
Celebrating the classics that shaped Indian cinema, and the writing they came from.
About
Every film screened at CLIFF carries a story that once lived somewhere else: a novel, a memoir, a biography, an oral tradition. The Canada Literature Festival brings the storytellers. CLIFF brings their stories to the screen. Together they close a loop that few festivals attempt.
CLIFF has been incubated alongside the Canada Literature Festival since 2022 and treats cinema as literature's continuation rather than a separate art form. Programming is anchored to anniversary storytelling, revisiting landmark films on their tenth, twenty‑fifth, forty‑fifth and fiftieth years.
The proof of concept came in May 2026, when CLIFF held preview screenings at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto: Umrao Jaan at forty‑five, a landmark of Urdu literary cinema, and Lagaan at twenty‑five. The festival premieres in full in October 2026.
Cinema read as literature's continuation.
4 to 11 Oct
2026
Toronto
Host city
2022
Incubated
4
Venues
Adaptation as the lens
Only films with a literary or documented source, screened next to the writing that produced them.
Anniversary programming
Landmark films revisited on milestone years, giving each edition a reason to exist.
Aga Khan Museum
Where the May 2026 preview screenings were held, and an anchor venue for the festival.
A white space
No other festival combines classic retrospective, literary adaptation and the living author in one format.
Full programme
Dates, line‑up and tickets live on the festival site.
This page is the council's overview. For the current edition, the full programme and tickets, visit the festival directly.