The New York Indian Film Festival, the oldest, most prestigious South Asian Film Festival in North America has been scheduled from May 7-14, 2016, a press release said. NYIFF screens feature films, documentaries and shorts by filmmakers with a heritage in the Indian Sub-Continent for a week in New York City.  Premiere screenings on four screens the entire week, Industry Panels, Post-screening discussions, Special Events, Retrospectives, Award Ceremony, networking with directors and cast, Galas, cocktail parties, red carpets, packed theatres and amazing media attention.  NYIFF 2016 Opening Night on May 7 and the Closing Night on May 14 will be presented at the Skirball Center for Performing Arts, while the rest of the festival May 8-14 will be presented at the Village East Cinemas, NYC.

We are so proud of our award-­-winning filmmakers and ALL the filmmakers who have showcased quality, independent cinema at our festival over the past week,” said Aroon Shivdasani, NYIFF Director. “The response from the community has been phenomenal, and we hope NYIFF continues to make a mark on the New York independent film circuit.”

Of the 50 features, documentaries and short films showcased at the 15th edition of the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), jury members gravitated toward awarding movies like LABOUR OF LOVE, MARGARITA WITH A STRAW, HARAAMKHOR, KAAKA MUTTAI and DAUGTHERS OF MOTHER INDIA. The longest-running, most prestigious South Asian film festival in the Untied States was attended by Indian film industry glitterati such as Kalki Koechlin, Vishal Bhardwaj, Hansal Mehta, Shonali Bose, Anant Mahadevan, Mohan Agashe, L. Subramaniam, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Sharat Katariya and Vibha Bakshi, just to name a few. Young, up-and-coming filmmakers also showcased their films at the festival: the likes of Samrat Chakrabarti, Jaydeep Sarkar, Anshuman Jha, Abhay Kumar, Manu Warrier, Shlok Sharma, Manoj Nitharwal and Ravi Kapoor. In addition to screenings, the festival boasted a week of special events, industry panels and networking parties.

The Indo-American Arts Council is a registered 501(c) 3 not-for-profit, secular service and resource arts organization charged with the mission of promoting and building the awareness, creation, production, exhibition, publication and performance of Indian and cross-cultural art forms in North America. The IAAC supports all artistic disciplines in the 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 work with artists and arts organizations in North America as well as to facilitate artists and arts organizations from India to exhibit, perform and produce their works here.

The New York Indian Film Festival (originally the IAAC Film Festival) opened their doors in 2001 following the devastation of the September 11attacks on New York City. This festival creates an awareness and better understanding of the people and stories from the Indian Diaspora by bringing the most acclaimed feature films, documentaries, and shorts from that region to America’s biggest and most remarkable city. Merchant-Ivory’s Shakespearewalla was the festival’s Opening Night, while Mira Nair’s ‘Monsoon Wedding’ closed IAAC’s first film festival before its worldwide theatrical release.

Since then, the festival has provided first-looks at many acclaimed films, including Deepa Mehta’s Oscar-nominated ‘Water,’ and ‘Midnight’s Children’, Nair’s ‘The Namesake,’ and ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ and the New York Premiere of Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ which won eight Oscars including Best Picture.

Some of the artists who support the festival include Mira Nair, Salman Rushdie, Madhur Jaffrey, Padma Lakshmi, Shabana Azmi, Rishi Kapoor & Neetu Singh Kapoor, Shashi Tharoor, Sarita Chaudhury, Sakina Jaffrey, Anurag Kashyap, Shyam Benegal, Mani Ratnam, Aparna Sen, the late filmmakers Ismail Merchant and Rituparno Ghosh. NYIFF’s 15th anniversary will include premiere film screenings, discussions, industry panels, nightly networking parties, special events, an awards ceremony, and red carpet galas. The festival will run May 4th to 9th at a variety of prestigious New York City venues, including the Skirball Center for Performing Arts, the Paris Theatre and the Village East Cinemas. For the latest news, updates and information about The 15th Annual New York Indian Film Festival, presented by The Indo-American Arts Council, please visit www.iaac.us