New York Indian Film Festival

History

The festival began in November 2001 as the Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival (IAAC). It was founded in response to the attacks of September 11, as a way to educate the community on Indian culture. The first festival took place at the Imagin Asian Theatre. Subsequent festivals have been hosted by Tribeca Cinemas, The Walter Read Theater at The Lincoln Center, Asia Society, Aicon Gallery, Cantor Film Center at New York University, and SVA Theaters. The opening night ceremony of the 2011 festival took place at the Paris Theater.

In 2007, the festival partnered with The Mahindra Group to help the festival grow and reach wider audiences. The festival also changed its name to The Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival (MIAAC).

The festival began a series of one-minute cell phone films in 2008, in collaboration with New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, New York Film Academy, and Whistling Woods International Institute for Films, Media, Animation and Media Arts.

In 2011, the festival was moved to May, instead of its traditional November date. India Abroad journalist Aseem Chhabra took over as festival director, and the festival name was changed to The New York Indian Film Festival. In 2022, many Indian films will be a part of the festival.This includes Shoe Box, Boomba Ride (Assamese), My Mother’s Girlfriend and more.

The Festival

Each year, the festival screens about 40 films from Indian filmmakers, or films relating to India or the Indian Diaspora. Throughout the festival, industry panels and discussions with filmmakers are held, with Q&A’s after the screenings. Frequent festival attendees include Mira Nair, Salman Rushdie, Padma Lakshmi, Shabana Azmi, and Deepa Mehta.

The festival will usually hold a retrospective to honor a prominent filmmaker, artist, or actor, and will screen a number of their most notable films. Past retrospectives have featured Mira Nair, Smita Patil, and Rabindranath Tagore. The 12th NYIFF will feature a retrospective on the Indian film director Shyam Benegal.

Many films had their New York or world premiere at NYIFF, including:

• Monsoon Wedding (2001)
• Water (2005)
• Bride and Prejudice (2004)
• Born into Brothels (2005)
• The Namesake (2006)
• Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
• Gulaal (2009)
• The Japanese Wife (2010)
• Shor in the City (2010)
• Life! Camera Action...
• Iti Mrinalini (2011)
• Do Dooni Chaar (2011)
• Liar's Dice (2014)
• Bey yaar (2014)
• Family Party (2015)
• C/o Kancharapalem (2018)
• Sethum Aayiram Pon (2019)
• Koli Taal (2021)
• Madam Driver (2025)

2021 edition of the festival

The 2021 edition of the festival was held from June 4 to June 13, 2021. Due to COVID-19 pandemic protocol it was held in virtual format for the second year in succession.

;Number of films: 58 films were screened which included featured, documentaries and shorts. Indian films in 15 languages including Assamese, Bengali, English, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu were screened.

;Opening film: Where Is Pinki? (Pinki Eili?) by Prithvi Konanur ;Closing film: Fire in the Mountains by Ajitpal Singh

2022 edition of the festival

The 2022 edition of the festival was held from May 7 to May 14, 2022. Due to COVID-19 pandemic it was held in virtual format for the third year in succession.

;Opening film: Godavari by Nikhil Mahajan ; Closing film: The Beatles and India: An Enduring Love Affair by Ajoy Bose and Peter Compton

Winners

:Best Film - Nasir by Arun Karthick :Best Director - '*Ajitpal Singh for *Fire in the Mountains''''' :Best Actor - '*Siddharth Menon for *June''''' :Best Actress - '*Akshata Pandavapura for *Where Is Pinki?''''' :Best Child Actor - '*Karan Dave for *Habbadi''''' :Best Screenplay- Where Is Pinki? (Pinki Eili?) :Best Short (Narrative) - '*Sudipto Roy for *Tasher Ghawr''''' :Best Documentary (Feature) - Ahimsa- Gandhi: The Power of the Powerless by Ramesh Sharma :Best Documentary (Short) - Seva

Jury

The festival’s jury consists of 13 members who have worked in both the Indian and American film industry. The jury's votes are monitored and collected by KPMG.

• Poorna Jagannathan (Actress)
• Ashish Avikunthak (Professor)
• Myrna Moncayo-Iyengar (Corporate Strategist)
• Udayan Gupta (Journalist)
• Muriel (Mike) Peters (Producer)
• Sabrina Dhawan (Screenwriter)
• Kavery Kaul (Filmmaker)
• Madhur Jaffrey (Actress)
• Jerry Carlson (Professor)
• Claus Mueller (Professor)
• Parag Amladi (Film Scholar)
• Zenobia Shroff (Actress)
• Nilita Vachani (Documentary Filmmaker)

References

References

1. Bhushan, Nyay. (January 24, 2011). "New York Indian Film Festival Gets New Dates, New Name". The Hollywood Reporter.
2. "11th Annual 2011 NYIFF". New York Indian Film Festival.
3. "The Indo-American Arts Council and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. announce their partnership to form THE MAHINDRA IAAC FILM FESTIVAL". Indo-American Arts Council.
4. "NY Indian Film Fest partners with three film schools". India Post.
5. Dore, Shalini. (January 24, 2011). "Indo-American Arts Council ups its game". Variety.
6. Staff Writer. (April 21, 2022). "New York Indian Film Festival unveils 2022 lineup {{!}} News India Times".
7. "NYIFF 2012 SIDEBAR : SHYAM BENEGAL RETROSPECTIVE". New York Indian Film Festival.
8. (14 June 2021). "New York Indian Film Festival 2021: Documentary on Gandhi wins top honour".
9. (3 June 2021). "New York Indian Film Festival 2021 to be held in virtual format from June 4".
10. Narasimhan, Anush. (25 June 2021). "The New York Indian Film Festival unveils full 2021 lineup & award nominations, will virtually feature 58 films".
11. (21 April 2022). "New York Indian Film Festival unveils 2022 lineup".
12. Tanushree Ghosh. (6 May 2022). "NYIFF 2022: Five debut Indian films to watch at the New York festival".
13. (May 9, 2022). "NYIFF 2022: Sixty Films Celebrating India's Cinematic Heritage To Be Screened At The New York Festival". Outlook.
14. (14 June 2021). "Kannada film 'Pinki Elli' wins two awards at New York Indian Film Festival 2021".
15. (20 June 2021). "Gandhi documentary wins top award at New York Indian Film Festival".
16. "Awards". New York Indian Film Festival.