Indian Film Festival of Los Ageles winners

The 6th Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles announces its 2008 Award winners with Richie Mehta’s AMAL as the winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature and Shivajee Chandrabhushan’s FROZEN receiving a Special Mention in the category. Yunus Vally’s THE GLOW OF WHITE WOMEN was named as the winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary with Liz Mermin’s SHOT IN BOMBAY receiving a Special Mention.

Atul Sabwarhal’s’s MIDNIGHT LOST AND FOUND won the award for Best Short with Audience Awards going to Manish Acharya’s LOINS OF PUNJAB PRESENTS for Narrative, Christopher Mitchell’s SUPER 30 for Documentary and Preeya Nair’s QUAMAR – WORKING TO LIVE for the Short Film category.

Christina Marouda, IFFLA Director, said, “This year’s slate of films represented the most diverse and wide spectrum of style and art being produced by the Indian filmmaking industry today. This year’s festival took a significant step toward not just presenting the filmmakers works to the public but also becoming an important business portal to India. ”

JURY AWARDS:

BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE: AMAL
DIR: Richie Mehta
Cast: Rupinder Nagra, Vic Sahay, Koel Purie, Roshan Seth, Vic Sahay, Naseeruddin Shah, Seema Biswas

SPECIAL MENTION: FROZEN
DIR: Shivajee Chandrabhushan
Cast: Danny Denzongpa, Gauri, Angchuk, Raj Zutshi, Yashpal Sharma, Shakeel Khan, Shilpa Shukla


BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: THE GLOW OF WHITE WOMEN
DIR: Yunus Vally

SPECIAL MENTION: SHOT IN BOMBAY
DIR: Liz Mermin


SHORT: MIDNIGHT LOST AND FOUND
DIR: Atul Sabharwal


AUDIENCE AWARDS:

NARRATIVE: LOINS OF PUNJAB PRESENTS
DIR: Manish Acharya
Cast: Shabana Azmi, Ajay Naidu, Ayesha Dharker, Darshan Jariwala, Samrat Chakrabarti, Michael Raimondi

DOCUMENTARY: SUPER 30
DIR: Christopher Mitchell

SHORT: QUAMAR – WORKING TO LIVE
DIR: Preeya Nair


2008 IFFLA JURY MEMBERS:

NARRATIVE FEATURE JURY includes:

Nishikant Kamat
Nishikant Kamut has directed and edited over 300 television episodes before directing DOMBIVLI FAST, which won a total of 37 awards, including the National Award for Best Regional Film and the Grand Jury Award for Best Film at the 2006 Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. His most recent feature film, MUMBAI MERI JAAN is set for release.

Nancy Kwan
Nancy Kwan was nominated for Best Actress and International Star of Tomorrow for her role in THE WORLD OF SUSIE WONG. Her subsequent role in FLOWER DRUM SONG cemented her place as one of the most visible Asian actors of her time. Most recently appearing on television on NBC’s “E.R.”, she was also appointed Hong Kong’s Film Ambassador in 2002.

Sendhil Ramamurthy
Sendhil Ramamurthy stars on NBC’s hit series, “Heroes”. He is currently at work on the feature film comedy, BROKEN LIZARD’S SLAMMIN’ SALMON with Michael Clarke Duncan and Bill Paxton. A veteran of the stage, he has appeared on both Broadway and London’s West End.


DOCUMENTARY FEATURE JURY includes:

Shonali Bose
Shonali Bose has received a number of awards for her three short narrative films and her feature length documentary LIFTING THE VEIL. He feature narrative debut, AMU has won ten awards, including two National Awards in India for Best Film and Best Director.

John Nein
John Nein is a programmer for the Sundance Film Festival.

Susan West
Susan West produced the highly acclaimed documentary, THE REALMS OF THE UNREAL. Her most recent film, the documentary, PROTAGONIST, premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. She recently produced an episode of HBO’s “Addiction.”


SHORT COMPETITION JURY includes:

Nisha Ganatra
Nisha Ganatra made her feature film directorial debut with the award winning CHUTNEY POPCORN, following with PBS’ “Cosmopolitan.” Most recently, she directed the romantic comedy, CAKE, starring Heater Graham.

Sarah Hoch
Sarah Hoch is the project founder or the State of Guanajuanto’s Film Commission and the founder and director of the Expresion de Corto International Film Festival.

Meredith Scott Lynn
Meredith Scott Lynn founded Big Hair Entertainment and produced as well as co-starred in I LOVE YOU, DON’T TOUCH ME! And BILLY’S HOLLYWOOD SCREEN KISS. Recent projects include directing stints on DEMO REEL…A TRAGEDY IN 10 MINUTES and PARENTAL GUIDANCE.

The Indian Film festival of Los Angeles kicked off with the Opening Night Gala presentation of Richie Mehta’s AMAL on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at the ArcLight Hollywood Cinemas in Hollywood. The evening’s festivities also included an after party at the Cabana Club featuring culinary delights by Chakra Cuisine and performances by world music chart toppers, Bombay Dub Orchestra (www.bombayduborchestra.com) from London spinning original dj mash-ups inspired by the medleys of India and Bollywood. The blue13 dance company (www.blue13dance.org) will perform an invigorating dance performance using their famed Bollywood-tech and neo-kathak style.

Other highlights included the presentation of the 2008 IFFLA Industry Leadership Award to Andy Bird, Chairman of Walt Disney International, and Timmy Kandhari, Executive Director in the financial advisory service practice and leader of the Entertainment and Media Practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers India at a ceremony that took place on Friday at Hollywood’s House of Blues, as well as nightly musical performances in the IFFLA Rhythm Village (located in the ArcLight Hollywood Courtyard) presented by Rukus Avenue featuring entertainment by Gurpreet Chana, Sammy Chand, Gingger, Raagapella, Mark Killian and Sandeep.

The festival closed with the IFFLA Closing Night Gala presentation of MUMBAI CUTTING…A CITY UNFOLDS on Sunday, April 27 at ArcLight Hollywood. A joint project by eleven of the best directors in India, including Sudhir Mishra, Anurag, Kashyap, Rituparno Ghosh, Revathy, Kundan Shah, Jahnu Baruwa, Rahul Dholakia, Shashank Ghosh, Manish Jha, Ruchi Narain and Ayush Raina, the film gives each an opportunity to interpret Mumbai, one of the most dynamic, prosperous and vivacious cities in the world. At times stark, sometimes comical, and equally cynical, and hopeful, the diverse visions here capture the complexities of the 60 million people that have been drawn to India’s dream factory, where struggling for survival is the main pastime. The evening concluded with an after party at ML Hollywood, which featured a tribute to composer RD Burman by the Bollywood Step Dance group (www.bollywoodstepdance.com).

Notable attendees at this year’s Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles included eight of the eleven directors of MUMBAI CUTTING…A CITY UNFOLDS, including Sudhir Mishra, Anurag Kashyap, Revahy, Kundan Shah, Jahnu Baruwa, Rahul Dholakia, Shashank Ghosh and Ayush Raina, as well as Rahul Bose, Parminder Nagra, Eric La Salle, Carl Weathers, Jaleel White, Nia Vardalos, Samrat Chakrabarti, Rebecca Hazelwood, Vic Sahay, and Liz Mermin.

The six day festival was populated by more than 6500 film goers, with over 60 filmmakers attending the screenings of their films. Both numbers demonstrated significant growth from the previous year’s edition with the filmmaker total in particular doubling last year’s number.

After reviewing 350 submissions for the festival, the 2008 IFFLA lineup showcased 21 features (16 narrative and 5 documentary) and 12 shorts for a total of 33 films representing 8 countries.