LOS ANGELES (Diya TV) — Renowned actor Rizwan Manji and writer-director Shonali Bose are among the named jury selections for the 2016 feature and short film contests at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA).
Additionally, Shalini Dore of Variety and international film consultant Alesia Weston will join the feature film judging panel. Director Aldo Velasco and documentary filmmaker Laura Nix will work alongside Manji to judge the festival’s short film submissions.
Now in its 14th running, the IFFLA celebrates excellence in Indian cinema by showcasing films that promote diverse representations of the country’s culture — this year’s edition of the festival will honor legendary director Bimal Roy with a screening of his beloved SUJATA. Bringing together the best of Hollywood and Bollywood, the festival will feature over 25 productions from the Indian filmmaking community.
The jury-awards will be announced on the last day of the festival before the closing night film on April 10th.
A new addition to the festival, a roundtable discussion surrounding the current state of indie filmmaking in the India will take place, and will be moderated by Sundance Film Festival’s John Nein.
IFFLA Filmmaker Roundtable participants
The festival is set to take place from April 6th – 10th at the ArcLight Theater in Hollywood — Diya TV is a media sponsor of the event.
To kick off the festivities, Pan Nalin returns to IFFLA with the U.S premiere of ‘ANGRY INDIAN GODDESSES’. In 2014 Nalin was awarded the Audience Choice Award for his film ‘Faith Connections’. Additionally, Anu Menon’s film, ‘WAITING’, starring Naseeruddin Shah and Kalki Koechlin, will make its North American debut to close the festival.
Angry Indian Goddesses
The festival will include three world premieres, including IFFLA alum Kranti Kanade’s CRD, two North American premieres, and ten U.S. premieres.This year’s edition of IFFLA will also be focussed on ‘Celebrating Women’.
From the legendary Deepa Mehta a gangster drama BEEBA BOYS; a film that will examine the relationship of Punjabi mothers & their sons. Leena Yadav’s PARCHED, a story of four women in patriarchal culture; Ruchika Oberoi’s genre-bending ISLAND CITY; and Rinku Kalsy’s documentary FOR THE LOVE OF A MAN on South Indian superstar Rajinikanth’s fans.
The short film lineup features Pritha Chakraborty’s documentary SILENT VOICES; Megha Ramaswamy’s experimental BUNNY; Payal Sethi’s LEECHES; Sonejuhi Sinha’s Cannes selection LOVE COMES LATER; and Pallavi MD and Shamik Sen Gupta’s PLAYGROUNDS.
