The New York Indian Film Festival Announces Full Lineup for 19th Annual Film Festival
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Presenting The Best Of Indian Cinema at The 19th Annual New York Indian Film Festival (May 7-12)
The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) announced the full lineup at the Launch event for their 19th year of celebrating Independent, art house, alternate, and diaspora films from the Indian subcontinent at the Village East Cinemas in the Lower East Side of Manhattan (181-189 2nd Avenue, New York, NY 10003). Dedicated to bringing these films to a New York audience, the festival will feature 32 screenings (29 narrative, 3 documentary and 32 short films), feature 7 World Premieres along with an International Premiere and 5 US premieres and the rest of the films being NY premieres. NYIFF has always been the go-to festival to see South Asian diaspora films that have not been seen in New York City and is continuing with this mission for the nineteenth year.
This year, NYIFF has the largest number of regional (non-Hindi) language films – 20 in total. The languages focused on are Assamese, Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada, Ladakhi, Punjabi, and Harayanavi and will all have English subtitles. Aseem Chhabra, NYIFF Festival Director, says “We are thrilled to share our lineup for this year. The NYIFF programming team has spent a number of months watching, tracking films and we now present to the audience the best of Indian cinema.”
Returning to NYIFF is award-winning filmmaker, Gurinder Chadha. The festival will be hosting a special spotlight of Chadha’s Blinded by the Light, which will be making its New York debut after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The film is inspired by the true story of journalist Sarfraz Manzoor and his lifelong love for Bruce Springsteen.
Bengali Master Buddhadev Dasgupta’s Urojahaj (The Flight) will be also be a part of the special focus on Bengali cinema that NYIFF will be presenting this year. Seven features will be a part of this presentation, many by first time filmmakers, putting a spotlight on a resurgence of films from West Bengal.
Arijit Singh, a widely popular Bollywood singer will be highlighted at the festival with his second directorial venture Sa – a tribute to Satyajit Ray and Ravi Shankar. Anoushka Shankar plays sitar for the film. Other highlights of the festival include Assamese filmmaker, Rima Das whose last film Village Rockstars was India’s official entry for the 2019 Oscars. His new film, Bulbul Can Sing, will have its NY premiere at NYIFF along with Assamese master and National Film Award Winner Jahnu Barua’s Bhoga Khirikee (Broken Window). Short Filmmakers Ashuman Sharma (Jalebi) and Vick Krishna (Mokshi) were also in attendance at the NYIFF Launch event on Thursday, April 18 at the Consulate General of India, New York. They are a part of NYIFF’s four short programs that includes a total of 32 short films.
Also announced at the NYIFF Launch, Celebrity Chef and filmmaker Vikas Khanna was named the Brand Ambassador of the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC). Khanna is a Michelin-star chef as well as a cookbook author, humanitarian, filmmaker and was once voted New York City’s hottest chef. Khanna’s The Last Color starring Neena Guptawill be the prestigious Closing Night film for the festival and will be honoring mothers around the world on Mother’s Day.
Tickets to attend NYIFF are $20 CAD, and students who bring identification can purchase tickets for $10. Opening Night, Closing Night and Day Pass rates are available on: https://www.iaac.us/nyiff2019/schedule.htm
A complete list of the 19thAnnual NYIFF’s features selections include (all with English subtitles):
| Bhonsle | Hindi | Dir: Devashish Makhija | NY premiere |
| Yours Truly | Hindi | Dir: Sanjoy Nag | NY premiere |
| Sir (Opening Night film) | Hindi | Dir: Rohena Gera | NY premiere |
| Photograph (Centerpiece film) | Hindi | Dir: Ritesh Batra | NY premiere |
| The Last Color (Closing Night film) | Hindi | Dir: Vikas Khanna | NY premiere |
| Sidhustan (doc) | English | Dir: Sapna Bhawnani | World premiere |
| The Sound Man: Mangesh Desai | English/ Hindi | Dir: Subash Sahoo | NY premiere |
| Midnight Delhi | Hndi | Dir: Rakesh Rawat | US premiere |
| Hamid | Hindi | Dir: Aijaz Khan | NY premiere |
| Bulbul Can Sing | Assamese | Dir: Rima Das | NY premiere |
| Aamis | Assamese | Dir: Bhaskar Hazarika | |
| Bhoga Khirikee | Assamese | Dir: Jahnu Barua | World premiere |
| Chegu | Bengali | Dir: Nabamita Ghosh | US premiere |
| The Flight | Bengali | Dir: Buddhadev Dasgupta | US premiere |
| The Bose Family | Bengali | Dir: Suman Ghosh | International premiere |
| Chippa | Bengali | Dir: Syed Safdar Rahman | NY premiere |
| Kia and Cosmos | Bengali | Dir: Sudipto Roy | NY premiere |
| Sa | Bengali | Dir: Arijit Singh | International premiere |
| Cat Sticks | Bengali/ Hindi | Dir: Ronny Sen | NY premiere |
| Baggage | Kannada | Dir: Roopa Rao | World premiere |
| Good Guy, Bad Guy (doc) | Kannada, English | Dir: Indu Krishnan | NY premiere |
| Chuskit | Ladakhi | Dir: Priya Ramasubban | NY premiere |
| Abode | Malayalam | Dir: Jaya Jose Raj | World premiere |
| Paani | Marathi | Dir: Adinath Kothare | World premiere |
| Roots | Tamil | Dir: Anand Ravichandaran | World premiere |
| Kattumaram | Tamil | Dir: Swarnavel Eswaran | World premiere |
| Shivaranjani and Two Other Women | Tamil | Dir: Vasanth Sai | NY premiere |
| K.D. (a) Karuppa Durai | Tamil | Dir: Madhumita Sundararaman | US premiere |
| Draupadi Unleashed | English | Dir: Tony Stopperan | NY premiere |
| Salute | Punjabi | Dir: Harish Arora | NY premiere |
| Blinded By The Light | English | Dir: Gurinder Chadha | NY premiere |
| Jhalki | Hindi | Dir: Barahmanand Singh | NY premiere |
About NYIFF
The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) is the oldest, most prestigious film festival screening premieres of feature, documentary and short films made from, of, and about the Indian subcontinent in the Independent, arthouse, alternate and diaspora genres. Seven days of screenings, post-screening discussions, industry panels, award ceremony, special events, nightly networking parties, red carpet galas, media attention and packed audiences build an awareness of Indian cinema, entertain & educate North Americans about the real India, and add to the amazing cultural diversity of New York City. For more information, please visit the website HERE.
About IAAC
The IAAC supports all the artistic disciplines in classical, fusion, folk and innovative forms influenced by the arts of India. We work cooperatively with colleagues around the United States to broaden our collective audiences and to create a network for shared information, resources and funding. Our focus is to help artists and art organizations in North America as well as to facilitate artists from India to exhibit, perform and produce their work here. The IAAC is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. All donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowable by law.
For further information, visit www.IAAC.us
