For their 19th year of celebrating Independent, art house, alternate, and diaspora films from the Indian subcontinent, the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) will feature 32 films including 29 narrative, 3 documentary and 32 short films.
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 all the films will have English subtitles.
Returning to NYIFF is award-winning filmmaker, Gurinder Chadha with her new film. 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 of Bruce Springsteen.
Bengali Master Buddhadev Dasgupta’s Urojahaj (The Flight) will be a part of the special focus on Bengali cinema that NYIFF will be presenting this year.
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. Rima’s new film Bulbul Can Sing will have its NY premiere at NYIFF along with Assamese master and National Film Award Winner Jahnu Barua’s World premiere of his new film Bhoga Khirikee (Broken Window).
Khanna’s The Last Color starring Neena Gupta will be the prestigious Closing Night film for the festival and will be honoring mothers around the world on Mother’s Day.
The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) will take place May 7 to May 12 at the Village East Cinemas in the Lower East Side of Manhattan (181-189 2nd Avenue, New York, NY 10003).
The 19th Annual 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