NYC South Asian Film Festival 2019 Brought A Weekend Of Slick Desi Cinema To Manhattan
NYC South Asian Film Festival 2019 Brought A Weekend Of Slick Desi Cinema To Manhattan
Dec 06, 2019
From Boomers to Gen Z, NYC South Asian Film Festival 2019 (NYCSAFF) had something for every filmi fan during their first ever thee-day festival which lit up the screens in Manhattan. Check out the highlights here!
Manhattan was seriously lit.
NYC South Asian Film Festival 2019 presented by Toyota, took place from November 15th through November 17th. The inaugural festival, how 2500 people flow through the doors to catch 22 shorts, documentaries and feature films at various venues around New York.
The opening night film was Line of Descent which also starred Hollywood’s very own Brendan Fraser (The Mummy, George of the Jungle) and the festival closed with the North American premiere of Roam Rome Mein which co-starred Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Thakeray, Bajrangi Bhaijaan) and actor/director Tannishtha Chatterjee (Anna Karenina, Parched).
Competition was tight, as only four of those films walked away with top honours at the closing night awards ceremony which was held at Rumi Event Space in Chelsea on Sunday night. (Check out our list of all their best film nominees right here!)
Siddiqui and Chatterjee participated in the post-screening discussion of their film, Roam Rome Mein to a packed house. Singer/songwriter Subhi performed original, folk-pop music with elements of Bossa Nova at the closing night party.
“Our programming team has worked incredibly hard to strike the right balance and showcase the most current, ground-breaking, topical independent cinema from various parts of South Asia at our inaugural festival,” enthused Jitin Hingorani, NYCSAFF’s founder and festival director. “We have focused our efforts on really engaging the millennials, as they are the future filmmakers, cinephiles, producers and investors, who will, ultimately, support film festivals like ours; so, it is our inherent responsibility to educate them about world-class cinema that is beyond Bollywood.”
Jury Award Winners:
Best Short:
What Did You Think? directed by Parinaz Jal (World Premiere)
What Did You Think? directed by Parinaz Jal (World Premiere)
Best Actress:
Usha Jadhav for Mai Ghat, directed by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan (North American Premiere)
Usha Jadhav for Mai Ghat, directed by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan (North American Premiere)
Best Actor:
Ashish Sharma for Khejdi, directed by Rohit Dwivedi (NYC Premiere)
Ashish Sharma for Khejdi, directed by Rohit Dwivedi (NYC Premiere)
Best Director:
Ananth Narayan Mahadevan for Mai Ghat (North American Premiere)
Ananth Narayan Mahadevan for Mai Ghat (North American Premiere)
Best Film:
Kaamyaab directed by Hardik Mehta (NYC Premiere)
Kaamyaab directed by Hardik Mehta (NYC Premiere)
Now that their 2019 is in the bag, we can’t wait to see what NYCSAFF 2020 has in store!
Main Image Photo Credit: NYCSAFF2019/Sachyn Mital
Author
Marriska (@marriska.fernandes) is an entertainment expert who has been creating celebrity, movies and pop culture content for digital outlets for over ten years. From reporting headline-grabbing celebrity news to reviewing movies to interviewing Hollywood and Bollywood’s finest actors and industry...
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