NYIFF Storms New York City!
By Rachna Kapur
Press Conference for NYIFF
The 11th Annual New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) starts on May 4th, 2011 with the premiere of "Do Dhooni Chaar", starring Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Kapoor.
NYIFF is North America's oldest and most prestigious destination for feature films, documentaries, and shorts from and about the Indian subcontinent. The festival will run until May 8th and includes films/shorts/docs in Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and English.
Some of the highlights of this year's festival include:
- NYIFF includes 25 feature films
- NYIFF includes 15 World and U.S. Premieres
- Midnight Screenings
- Animated Version of the Ramayana
- A film that was recently featured at the Tribeca Film Festival
-A film that won three best documentary jury awards
- An Aparna Sen film as the Centerpiece
- Celebrities such as Rishi Kapoor and Aparna Sen walking the Red Carpet
NYIFF is an annual Film Festival that showcases rich and diverse films from the Indian subcontinent through a mixture of film screenings, discussions, industry panels, nightly parties, and Red Carpet events.
For more information on the festival and to purchase tickets visit: http://www.iaac.us/NYIFF2011/
NYIFF is North America's oldest and most prestigious destination for feature films, documentaries, and shorts from and about the Indian subcontinent. The festival will run until May 8th and includes films/shorts/docs in Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and English.
Some of the highlights of this year's festival include:
- NYIFF includes 25 feature films
- NYIFF includes 15 World and U.S. Premieres
- Midnight Screenings
- Animated Version of the Ramayana
- A film that was recently featured at the Tribeca Film Festival
-A film that won three best documentary jury awards
- An Aparna Sen film as the Centerpiece
- Celebrities such as Rishi Kapoor and Aparna Sen walking the Red Carpet
NYIFF is an annual Film Festival that showcases rich and diverse films from the Indian subcontinent through a mixture of film screenings, discussions, industry panels, nightly parties, and Red Carpet events.
For more information on the festival and to purchase tickets visit: http://www.iaac.us/NYIFF2011/
NYIFF: The Closing
By Rachna Kapur
May 9, 2011
After five days of captivating cinema, the Eleventh Annual New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) came to an end on May 8th, 2011. This year's festival included 25 feature films, 15 World and 15 U.S. Premieres. The film festival included documentaries, features and shorts from and about the Indian subcontinent.
Some of the notable films in the festival included "Do Dhooni Chaar" which told the story of a middle class family struggling to keep afloat while maintaining their values, "Geeta in Paradise" which amuses the audience with the story of a middle-aged woman who desperately wants to become an actress and goes as far as kidnapping a director to help make her dreams come true, "Chintu Ji" which tells the story of a Man who goes back to his birthplace in order to gain support for his political motives but in the end learns the value of relationships and lastly "The Bengali Detective" that shows the chaos that surrounds a detective that tries to solve problems for others while having his own personal problems to deal with.
The annual festival came to an end with the closing night Red Carpet premiere of Rituparno Ghosh's film "Noukadubi". Celebrities that attended the grand event included Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh Kapoor, Salman Rushdie, Mira Nair, Aparna Sen, Madhur Jaffrey, Ambassador Prakash Shah, and many others. Following the premiere of the film, attendees made their way to the Asia Society for NYIFF's annual awards ceremony.
The winners of this year's film festival are as follows:
Best Feature Film - Sthaniya Sambaad (Spring in the Colony), directed by Arjun Gourisaria & Moinak Biswas
Best Director - Aparna Sen, Iti Mrinalini
Best Actor - Rishi Kapoor, Do Dooni Chaar
Best Actress - Konkona Sen Sharma, Iti Mrinalini
Best Screenplay - Mohan Raghavan, T.D. Dasan Std. VI B
Best Documentary - Bhopali (Max Carlson)
Best Short Film - Just That Sort Of A Day (Abhay Kumar)
For more information on the festival and for future events visit: www.iaac.us
Photos by Michael Toolan (www.michaeltoolan.com)
Some of the notable films in the festival included "Do Dhooni Chaar" which told the story of a middle class family struggling to keep afloat while maintaining their values, "Geeta in Paradise" which amuses the audience with the story of a middle-aged woman who desperately wants to become an actress and goes as far as kidnapping a director to help make her dreams come true, "Chintu Ji" which tells the story of a Man who goes back to his birthplace in order to gain support for his political motives but in the end learns the value of relationships and lastly "The Bengali Detective" that shows the chaos that surrounds a detective that tries to solve problems for others while having his own personal problems to deal with.
The annual festival came to an end with the closing night Red Carpet premiere of Rituparno Ghosh's film "Noukadubi". Celebrities that attended the grand event included Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh Kapoor, Salman Rushdie, Mira Nair, Aparna Sen, Madhur Jaffrey, Ambassador Prakash Shah, and many others. Following the premiere of the film, attendees made their way to the Asia Society for NYIFF's annual awards ceremony.
The winners of this year's film festival are as follows:
Best Feature Film - Sthaniya Sambaad (Spring in the Colony), directed by Arjun Gourisaria & Moinak Biswas
Best Director - Aparna Sen, Iti Mrinalini
Best Actor - Rishi Kapoor, Do Dooni Chaar
Best Actress - Konkona Sen Sharma, Iti Mrinalini
Best Screenplay - Mohan Raghavan, T.D. Dasan Std. VI B
Best Documentary - Bhopali (Max Carlson)
Best Short Film - Just That Sort Of A Day (Abhay Kumar)
For more information on the festival and for future events visit: www.iaac.us
Photos by Michael Toolan (www.michaeltoolan.com)