Mohanlal's L2 Empuraan to compete with Meiyazhagan, Kalki 2898AD and Stree 2 for Best Film at Indian Film Festival of Melbourne

L2 Empuraan, starring Mohanlal, is one of the highest-grossing Malayalam films despite running into controversies. The 2025 Malayalam film, helmed by Prithviraj Sukumaran, is now all set to compete for the Best Film award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. The other films in the list include the epic Kalki 2898 AD, the horror-comedy Stree 2 and the heart-touching Meiyazhagan.

L2 Empuraan competes in Indian Film Festival of Melbourne

The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2025 will be held from August 14 to 24. They have already announced the nominations for Best Film, and Mohanlal-Prithviraj Sukumaran’s L2 Empuraan is the only Malayalam film on the list. Prabhas’ epic Telugu film Kalki 2898AD, Karthi and Arvind Swamy Meiyazhagan from Tamil are also on the list. Among the Hindi movies, Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao’s hit horror-comedy Stree 2, Maharaj, Superboys of Malegaon and Homebound have also made it to the list.

Empuraan star Mohanlal nominated for Best Actor

Not just the film, the Empuraan lead star Mohanlal has also been nominated for Best Actor. The Malayalam superstar returned as Stephen Nedumpally aka Ab’raam Khureshi for the sequel of the 2019 film, Lucifer. The action-packed thriller takes a close look at the changing political landscape in Kerala. You can watch both Empuraan and Lucifer on OTTplay Premium.

Also read: L2 Empuraan movie review: Prithviraj Sukumaran elevates the stakes with an ambitious but less nuanced follow-up to Lucifer 

Mammootty nominated for Best Series

The festival is also honouring talents from the web series. Among the formidable Pataal Lok and Kota Factory, the Malayalam series Manorathangal has also been nominated. Mammootty, who featured in Kadugannawa, Oru Yathra Kurippu, has been nominated for Best Actor in a series. The same anthology series has also fetched a nomination for Parvathy Thiruvothu, who was seen in the segment Kazhcha.

Another Malayalam project to secure nomination is Feminichi Fathima in the Best Indie Film category. Shamla Hamza, who also appeared in Feminichi Fathima, has been nominated for Best Actor (Female).