River To River. Florence Indian Film Festival

The first edition of River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival took place in October 2001 in Florence, Italy, as the first festival in the world totally devoted to Indian cinema and films about India, including Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh.



Indian cinema has always been known out of its country of origin, but the Golden Lion won by Mira Nair with Monsoon Wedding at Venice Film Festival in 2001 has certainly been an important kick off.



In the last years in Europe and all over the world Indian cinema has mostly been known as Bollywood, with its masala big budget movies, songs and dance, and big stars.



At the same time there is also another important side of Indian cinema, the independent and parallel one: the aim of River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival is to promote it, screening each year the most recent features, short films and documentaries, and having in Florence the directors, actors and producers to present their works to the festival audience and press.