Some films you make to tell a story. Some films arrive at exactly the right moment in history — and tell a story that needs to be told.

We are deeply honoured to announce that The Last Shelter, directed by Bharat Arora and Rajesh Bhatia, has been officially selected for the 19th Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF 2026) in the National Competition Section — Viksit Bharat / 150 Years of Vande Mataram / Bharat@2026 category.

The film will be screened on 20th June 2026 at 3:45 PM, Audi 2, FD-NFDC Complex, Pedder Road, Mumbai.

Established in 1990 and organised by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, MIFF is South Asia’s oldest and most prestigious festival dedicated to documentary, short fiction, and animation cinema.

This is not simply a film festival selection. The Last Shelter has been selected in one of the most significant thematic categories of MIFF 2026 — a category that honours cinema celebrating the spirit, heritage, and future of India.

150 years of Vande Mataram. A song that became a nation’s heartbeat. Films selected in this category carry that weight — they are stories that speak to who we are and where we are going as a people. To have The Last Shelter in that conversation is something we feel deeply.

Set in the snow-covered winter landscape of Ladakh, The Last Shelter (Hindi title: आख़िरी पनाह) follows a lone figure making her way through a blizzard toward a Winter Help Shelter — one of the government-run refuges that stand as silent sentinels of care across the harshest terrain in India. The film is a story about survival, duty, and the quiet heroism of those who keep the last light burning when everything else goes dark.

Rooted in the Ladakhi landscape and in the spirit of Viksit Bharat, The Last Shelter asks what it means to be sheltered — and what it means to be the one who provides shelter — in a country as vast and varied as India.

The Last Shelter joins The Echo Monastery — also selected at MIFF 2026 under the MIFF Prism section — making this a historic moment for OpenFrame AI Lab. Two films. Two categories. One festival. Both directed by Bharat Arora and Rajesh Bhatia.

This is, to our knowledge, an exceptional distinction — to have two films simultaneously selected at MIFF in the same edition, across different competitive sections.

MIFF’s National Competition Section is among the most rigorous in Indian non-feature cinema. Films here are not simply selected — they are placed in direct conversation with the finest documentary, short fiction, and animation work being made in India today.

To be in that conversation, in a category celebrating 150 years of Vande Mataram and the vision of a Viksit Bharat, is to be part of something larger than a film festival. It is to be part of the cultural record of this country at a significant moment in its history.

We do not take that lightly.

— Bharat Arora & Rajesh Bhatia, OpenFrame AI Lab
bharatarora.com