New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF)
The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF)l was born in 2001, two months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, when the city's then "mayo.r Rudy Giuliani. had called upon arts organisations to hold events so people would come out instead of sitting locked up inside their homes."Festivals around the world went digital when the world was confined to their homes by a virus. For the third year in a row, the New York International Film Festival will be held online, from May 7-14. But there will be a screening of the closing-night film, The Beatles and India (directed by Ajoy Bose and Peter Compton), before the awards ceremony.
Aseem Chhabra, the director of the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) since 2011, claims that "a substantial percentage of our audience consists of New Yorkers of diverse hues and races. Immigrants abound in New York City. Every year, the city holds a wide variety of film festivals, including Jewish, African and German. A Sikh cinema festival exists."
Iti Mrinalini, Slumdog Millionaire, Goynar Baksho and Aligarh were among the films that premiered at the festival in the past. The festival premieres this year include Monsoon Wedding, Aamis and Cat Sticks and Fire in the Mountains. Also, Mira Nair and Hansal Mehta, two filmmakers who met at NYIFF, added Chhabra, have used actresses they met there to cast in their own films.
Thirteen Indian languages will be represented at this year's New York International Film Festival (NYIFF), with the first screening of a film in Sanskrit. The New York International Film Festival (NYIFF) received over 210 submissions this year, with six members of the film-programming team selecting 60 films. Bengali directors Aditya Vikram Sengupta (Asha Jaoar Majhe/Labour of Love) and Ranjan Ghosh (Ahaa Re) both have films on the list. One of those film Is Ranjan Ghosh's Mahishasur Marddini, based on Bengali actor Rituparna Sengupta's memoir.. Both films will be shown at the Kolkata International Film Festival.
There are three main films in our lineup: the opening one, Godavari (in Marathi), a pair of highlights, Taangh/Longing and Shoebox (both in Hindi), and a closing film called The Beatles and India (a documentary in English). Additionally, there are two children-focused family films Gandhi & Co. and Boomba Ride, two documentaries on film personalities Kaifinama (Kafi Azmi) and If Memory Serves Me Right (film critic Rashid Irani), and 37 shorts, including a package of seven LGBTQIA+-themed films (Rahul Roye's Man & Wife, Arun Fulara's My Mother's Girlfriend, Nemil Shah's Dal Bhat).
In order to keep our audience engaged, we try to bring in films that represent new ideas, actors, and viewpoints. A total of 10 of this year's 18 feature-length narrative films have been made by rookie directors. There is also an award for a first-time filmmaker this year. Film Critics Circle of India members are chosen to serve on the jury, according to Chhabra.