The Habitat Film Festival has established itself as one of the foremost festivals of Indian Cinema. What makes this festival unique is its focus on Pan Indian cinema, bringing the best of regional and independent Indian cinema. Also, each year the festival acknowledges and honours with a retrospective of their work a director/actor/writer/cinematographer/technician for their contribution to cinema.

Previous years retrospectives have focused on the works of Girish Kasaravalli, Sudhir Mishra, Revathi, Sreekar Prasad, Rituparno Ghosh, Waheeda Rehman,Aparna Sen, Kamal Hasan and K.G.George. The festival also has a documentary section and a short films section, which is very popular with young film makers and students in the city. Screenings at the festival are followed by interactions with directors/producers giving cinema lovers an opportunity for a focused interaction and Q&A.