14th Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles announces film lineup

THE 14th ANNUAL

INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL OF LOS ANGELES

ANNOUNCES FILM LINEUP

Pan Nalin’s ANGRY INDIAN GODDESSES opens the festival making

its U.S. premiere after winning awards at festivals around the globe

Festival to close with Anu Menon’s WAITING,

starring Naseeruddin Shah and Kalki Koechlin

Festival program features award-winning prestige titles from the

festival circuit and more women filmmakers than ever before

The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) announced today its 2016 lineup of narrative and documentary features, short films, and galas for its 14th annual festival. Opening the festival on April 6th is the U.S. premiere of the ensemble powerhouse ANGRY INDIAN GODDESSES, from filmmaker and four-time IFFLA alum Pan Nalin. Anu Menon’s poignant WAITING, starring Naseeruddin Shah and Kalki Koechlin, closes the festival with its North American premiere on April 10th. Gala tickets and passes are now available at www.indianfilmfestival.org. Tickets for individual films will go on sale on March 18, 2016.

The festival is widely recognized as the premiere showcase of groundbreaking Indian cinema globally. IFFLA will run April 6-10 at ArcLight Hollywood in Los Angeles, the festival’s home since its inception.

"India's independent filmmakers are taking bold risks, defying convention, and responding to injustice in each of these visionary films, and the results are breathtaking,” said Mike Dougherty, Director of Programming. “I'm extremely excited for our Los Angeles audience to experience these films, which have garnered raves from around the world, or are making their world premiere with us."

Festival opener ANGRY INDIAN GODDESSES screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, and takes a refreshingly uncensored look at the issues facing women in contemporary Indian society while celebrating the uniqueness, talents, and flaws of each of its female characters. This joyful yet powerful dramedy comes from 2014 IFFLA Audience Award winning director Pan Nalin (FAITH CONNECTIONS).

Anu Menon’s WAITING closes the festival with a poignant and stirring story that is as witty as it is heartrending. Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah and the incomparable Kalki Koechlin reunite for the first time since they starred together in THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS, giving beautiful performances as two strangers who develop a deep connection in the hospital while their spouses lie in comas.

Spice Affair will host the Opening and Closing Night Gala receptions in Beverly Hills.

This year the festival will feature three world premieres, including IFFLA alum Kranti Kanade’s CRD, two North American premieres, and ten U.S. premieres.

More features and shorts from female filmmakers will be presented this year by IFFLA than ever before, including Deepa Mehta’s gangster drama BEEBA BOYS; Leena Yadav’s PARCHED, a piercing examination of India’s patriarchal culture through the stories of four women; Ruchika Oberoi’s genre-bending triptych, ISLAND CITY; and Rinku Kalsy’s documentary FOR THE LOVE OF A MAN, about the fierce devotion shared by South-Indian superstar Rajinikanth’s fans.

IFFLA’s program is also notable this year for the number of award-winning titles it includes. UMRIKA received the Sundance World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award; ISLAND CITY took home the Best Young Director Award of the Venice Days section at the 2015 Venice Film Festival; MASAAN garnered both Cannes’ Un Certain Regard’s prestigious FIPRESCI prize and the Promising Future Award for director Neeraj GhaywanPARCHED won the Stockholm International Film Festival’s first-ever Impact Award; and OTTAAL was just awarded the Crystal Bear in the Generation Kplus section of the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival.

The festival also features two LGBT titles, Hansal Mehta’s politically-charged ALIGARH and the short DAARAVTHA (The Threshold) by Nishant Roy Bombarde, which are bold and compelling statements from filmmakers in a country where homosexuality is a criminal offense under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.

Tamil cinema has recently emerged as a force on the world stage, and this is exemplified in the two engrossing Tamil features in the program: VISAARANAI (Interrogation) and KIRUMI (Virus).

Highlights in the shorts program include: the world premiere of MOCHI (THE COBBLER), an impressive directorial debut from Saqib Pandor, produced by Anurag Kashyap; the North American premiere of Anuj Gulati’s THE MANLIEST MAN, a boldly told, absurdist tale that reveals a visionary emerging director; and Payal Sethi’s gripping LEECHES, which tracks a woman’s dangerous journey to save her young sister from being sold as a One-Day Bride.

Attending the festival this year to present their films will be a host of celebrated filmmakers, including Bhaskar Hazarika (KOTHANODI), Kranti Kanade (CRD), Hansal Mehta (ALIGARH), Prashant Nair & Swati Shetty (UMRIKA), Pan Nalin (ANGRY INDIAN GODDESSES), Ruchika Oberoi (ISLAND CITY), Q (BRAHMAN NAMAN) and Leena Yadav (PARCHED).

IFFLA will also host stars from a number of films, including Kalki Koechlin (WAITING) and many of the actors featured in ANGRY INDIAN GODDESSES. Tickets and Passes The 14th Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) runs April 6-10 at ArcLight Hollywood located at 6360 W. Sunset Blvd between Vine and Ivar. Gala tickets and passes are now available at www.indianfilmfestival.org. Tickets for individual films will go on sale on March 18, 2016.

For more information about The 14th Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, visit www.indianfilmfestival.org.