Ashim Ahluwalia studied film at Bard College, New York. His directorial debut, JOHN & JANE, premiered at the Toronto and Berlin Film Festivals in 2006. It was the first Indian film to be released theatrically by HBO Films. His second feature, MISS LOVELY, had its world premiere in the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival. His third film, the true-life gangster epic DADDY opened on 2000 screens worldwide on Sept 8th, 2017.

His short film EVENTS IN A CLOUD CHAMBER (2016) made on Super 8 with famed Indian modernist painter Akbar Padamsee opened at the 73rd Venice Film Festival in the Classics section and has gone on to show at the BFI London Film Festival and at the Museum of Modern Art in New Directors/ New Films, amongst numerous others.

His newest project, the anthology folk horror film, THE FIELD GUIDE TO EVIL, had a world premiere at South by Southwest (SXSW) on March 16th, 2018, after which it opened theatrically in the US (distributed by Neon) and on Netflix.

In May 2013, he received the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters from Bard College, his alma mater. The award is "given in recognition of a significant contribution to artistic or literary heritage.” In November 2013, he was selected to be on the Jury of the 8th edition of the Rome Film Festival for the CinemaXXI section.

Ahluwalia is the only Indian director to have had his work premiere in the official selections of the Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto and SXSW festivals. Sight and Sound’s Jonathan Romney has described Ahluwalia as “a very impressive talent”. He was named "one of the ten best emerging film directors working today" by Phaidon Press in "Take 100: The Future of Film."