Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles Awards
The 5th Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles concluded tonight at the ArcLight Hollywood with the LA Premiere of Rajnesh Domalpalli’s VANAJA, Best Debut Feature winner at the Berlin International Film Festival. At the post-screening Gala Reception at Level 3 in Hollywood, the Jury and Audience Awards were announced. The Pan Nalin’s epic love story VALLEY OF FLOWERS wone the Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature, while the Audience Choice Award went to John Jeffcoat’s romantic comedy OUTSOURCED.
JURY AWARDS
GRAND JURY PRIZE FOR BEST FEATURE
VALLEY OF FLOWERS directed by Pan Nalin
Special mention for Debut Feature film: VANAJA directed by Rajnesh Domalpalli
Jurors: Naman Ramachandran, Mary Sweeney, Josh Welsh
GRAND JURY PRIZE FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY
Q2P directed by Paromita Vohra
Jurors: Lisa Leeman, Phillip Rodriquez, Meher Tatna
GRAND JURY PRIZE FOR BEST SHORT
TEA BREAK directed by Srinivas Sunderrajan
Special mention to PRINTED RAINBOW directed by Gitanjali Rao
Jurors: Radha Bharadwaj, Asher Goldstein, Ravi Kapoor
AUDIENCE AWARDS
BEST FEATURE FILM
OUTSOURCED Directed by John Jeffcoat
BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
DIVIDED WE FALL directed by Sharat Raju
BEST SHORT FILM
MONSOON directed by Shyam Balsé
This year, the festival paid tribute to acclaimed actress, poet, painter and writer DEEPTI NAVAL who has received widespread recognition for a career that has spanned nearly 30-years. As part of the tribute, IFFLA showcased three films of her most renowned performances that included KAMLA, PANCHVATI and I AM ALIVE (MAIN ZINDA HOON).
As part of the 5th year celebrations, the festival added two new programs to their expanding festival: “Bollywood By Night,” which highlighted some of the most popular Bollywood Films of all times, including the 20th anniversary screening of Shekhar Kapur’s MR. INDIA. Presented by LA Weekly, the new program was a remarkable hit with both American and South Asian patrons creating lively energetic audiences that packed the theatres every night. The second addition was the IFFLA EcoVision, a new program that aims to spread ecological awareness to coincide with Earth Day.
Although official attendance figures are still being tabulated, festival organizers have seen a 20% increase in Box Office receipts over the previous year from many sold out shows.
"Over the past six days, we have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from filmmakers, audiences, sponsors and press,” commented Festival Director Christina Marouda. “In fact, we have received many requests to take the festival to other parts of the country which we are going to look into. IFFLA 2007 has been tremendously successful on every level.”
The six-day festival kicked off on Tuesday, April 17 with the LA Premiere of Jag Mundhra’s PROVOKED with an all star Indian and British cast including Aishwarya Rai, Academy Award nominee Miranda Richardson, Naveen Andrews, Nandita Das, Rebecca Pidgeon, Robbie Coltrane and Nicholas Irons from Eros Entertainment.
The festival showcased 36 films including 11 US Premieres and 3 World Premieres with the majority of the filmmakers in attendance.
