By Utpal Borpujari / New Delhi
The 20th edition of the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), which like many other movie fetes has gone online this year because of the Covid19 Pandemic, has announced an exciting line-up, with both opening and closing films being women-directed Malayalam movies.
Opening film “Run Kalyani” by Geetha J and closing film “Moothon” by Geethu Mohandas are also in the running for the best film award at the festival, along with “Aani Maani” (Hindi/Urdu, director: Fahim Irshad), “Gamak Ghar” (Maithili, dir: Achal Mishra) and “Kastoori” (Marathi/Hindi, dir: Vinod Kamble), NYIFF, the oldest Indian film festival in North America, has announced.
The virtual edition of the festival, to be held from July 24 to August 2, will be powered by online platform MovieSaints on nyiff.moviesaints.com, and a number of films will be available for global audiences too. All total, the festival will feature 12 full-length features, 4 documentaries and 30 shorts (both narratives and documentaries) across languages like Assamese, Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Kannada, Ladakhi, Punjabi, Khasi, Nepali and Haryanvi.
The festivals has nominated Achal Mishra, Akshya Indikar (Marathi film “Triiya”, Geetha J, Geethu Mohandas and Vinod Kamble in the best director category, and “Knock Knock Knock” (Malayalam/English), “Lorni – the Flaneur” (Khasi), “Nimtoh” (Nepali), “The False Eye” (Malayalam) and “The Prologue” (Malayalam) in the best screenplay category.
Nominated for best actor award are Adil Hussain (“Lorni – the Flaneur”),
Farrukh Seyer (“Aani Maani”), Nivin Pauly (“Moothon”), Paran Banerjee (“Ahaa Re”) and Prasenjit Chatterjee (“The Prologue”), and for the best actress award are Garggi Anathan (“Run Kalyani”), Priyanka Verma (“Aani Maani”), Rituparna Sengupta (“Ahaa Re”) and Vee Kumari (“Halwa”)
In the Best Documentary (Feature) category, nominations have been received by “Aunty Sudha, Aunty Radha”, “Son Rise” (both festival centerpieces), “Two Flags” and “Yeh Freedom Life”, while in the Best Documentary (Short) category, the nominated films are “Gladiators on Wheels”, “In Thunder & Lightening”, “Niru’s News”, “Tailing Pond”, “Urmila Devi” and “Utran Conversations”.
The festival will also pay tribute to Irrfan Khan by screening “The Namesake” with the participation of director Mira Nair and actor Kal Penn. In other events, actor Manoj Bajpayee will talk about his career, his directors and his experiences, while a “Special Spotlight” screening would be Anubhav Sinha’s “Article 15”.
“We are excited to bring this year’s selection right into audience’s homes. We will be hosting intimate conversations and chats with the filmmakers and stars involved in the movies being presented” NYIFF Festival Director Aseem Chhabra says.