[2] The opening ceremony was attended by Special Chief Guest India Super Star Salman Khan West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Anil Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha, Mahesh Bhatt and cricketer Sourav Ganguly among others.

Paying tribute to legends Indian filmmaker Mrinal Sen, Indian actor Dev Anand, British feature-film, theatre and documentary director Lindsay Anderson, English actor, film director and producer Richard Attenborough, American actor Charlton Heston, Senegalese film director, producer and writer Ousmane Sembène, Indian playback singer Mukesh and Indian Hindi-Urdu Poet, lyricist and film producer Shailendra all having birth centenary this year will be given special tribute in the festival.

[5] Exhibitions of Mrinal Sen and Dev Anand were unveiled at Nandan and Nazrul Tirtha on 7 December.

[7][8] Paying homage through special tribute Italian actress, model, photojournalist Gina Lollobrigida; Spanish film director, photographer Carlos Saura; English film critic and historian Derek Malcolm; Indian cinematographer Soumendu Roy and Iranian filmmaker Dariush Mehrjui, who all passed away in 2023 will be paid homage.

International Competition: Innovation in Moving Images Competition on Indian language's films Asian Select (NETPAC Award) Bengali Panorama Competition on Indian short films Competition on Indian documentary films Sections Source:[9][10] Source:[11][12][13] Source:[14] Source:[15] As spotlight is on Australia, being Special Feature Country, a selection of Australian outback horror films were presented.