18th Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles Announces 2020 Lineup

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The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) announced its full lineup of narrative and documentary features, and shorts for the festival’s 18th edition, that which boasts five World, one North American, four U.S. and ten Los Angeles premieres.

The festival which runs April 1 – 5 opens with An Evening With Imtiaz Ali, and closes with The MisEducation of Bindu, starring Priyanka Bose, David Arquette, and produced by the Duplass Brothers.

The renowned premiere global showcase for groundbreaking Indian cinema, IFFLA will take place this year April 1-5 at Regal L.A. LIVE: A Barco Innovation Center in Los Angeles.


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The Opening Night Gala presentation will take place at ArcLight Hollywood, with an after-party to follow hosted by Spice Affair in Beverly Hills. Passes and Gala tickets go on sale today, February 19. Individual tickets will go on sale on February 25 at www.indianfilmfestival.org.

The festival will open with An Evening with Imtiaz Ali, one of Hindi cinema’s most respected and charismatic writer-directors. Ali will be joined onstage by celebrated Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap (Gangs of Wasseypur, Netflix’s Sacred Games) to discuss the scope and influence of Ali’s career. Ali has captivated global audiences with his distinctive love stories that are relatable and original.  In 2005 he made his directorial debut with the charming Socha Na Tha, quickly followed by Jab We Met, which brought him instant acclaim. His 2009 film Love Aaj Kal was a massive critical success and box office smash, which he followed up with the stylistically rich Rockstar in 2011. 

Ali’s conversation with Kashyap will be followed by the screening of one of his most lauded films, 2014’s Highway, an enthralling road movie that thrust into the limelight Alia Bhatt (Dear Zindagi) one of the most formidable actors working in Hindi cinema today.

“We are thrilled to open this year’s festival with an insightful and unfiltered conversation with Imtiaz Ali, moderated by longtime friend of IFFLA Anurag Kashyap,” said Christina Marouda, IFFLA’s Executive Director. “Imtiaz’s intuitive work with actors and independent spirit are a natural fit for IFFLA.”


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IFFLA’s Closing Night on April 5th will see the Los Angeles premiere of The MisEducation of Bindu, a delightful coming-of-age tale set in the American suburbs about a bright young Indian girl who resolves to test out of her high school, but must turn to the students who constantly torment her to raise the money for the test fee.

Directed by Prarthana Mohan (Turn Around) and starring Megan Suri (How To Get Away With Murder), Priyanka Bose (Lion), and David Arquette (Scream 3), the film was produced by Mark Duplass (Safety Not Guaranteed) and Jay Duplass (Transparent) after it won their campaign in partnership with crowdfunding platform Seed&Spark to find America’s Next Generation of Indie Filmmakers. The cast and Mark Duplass are expected to attend.  

IFFLA’s feature lineup includes a vast array of highlights from the past year’s international festival circuit, including IFFLA alum Bhaskar Hazarika’s Tribeca 2019 selection, the romance-thriller Aamis (Ravening); SXSW 2020 sci-fi fantasy title Cargo, starring IFFLA favorites Vikrant Massey (A Death in the Gunj) and Shweta Tripathi (Masaan) as otherworldly astronauts charged with processing the recently deceased into reincarnation; Dolly Kitty and Those Twinkling Stars starring Konkana Sen Sharma (Omkara) and directed by Alankrita Shrivastavawhose controversial previous film Lipstick Under My Burkha opened IFFLA 2017; Gitanjali Rao’s animated opus Bombay Rose, whose handpainted images took six years to complete before its debut in the 2019 Venice Film Festival; and Geetu Mohandas, who helmed India's 2014 Oscar entry, Liar's Dice, brings the Malayalam-language Moothon (The Elder One), a Toronto 2019 premiere which blends high-paced action with beautifully rendered queer themes.


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This year’s selection highlights both filmmakers working in India and in the diaspora community, the latter notable especially in the festival’s diverse and exciting short film selection, whose highlights include the comedy Coffee Shop Names starring Danny Pudi (Community), Karan Soni (Deadpool 1 & 2), Kausar Mohammed (Silicon Valley); the world premiere of Uncle, starring Ajay Naidu (Office Space), Omar Maskati (Netflix’s Unbelievable), and Rizwan Manji (Schitt’s Creek); and the U.S. premiere of The Loyal Man, a riveting thriller set in France among the Tamil-speaking community. 

“This year’s lineup exemplifies the boundless creativity on display in the Indian independent film community and its diaspora” said Mike Dougherty, IFFLA’s Director of Programming. “Visitors to IFFLA this year have their choice of animation, sci-fi/fantasy, romance, documentary, comedy, thriller and more, in films that in typical IFFLA fashion deal with hard-hitting political themes, and that challenge as well as entertain. I couldn’t be more proud of the films we’re presenting.”  

An exciting highlight of this year’s IFFLA will be back-to-back Master Classes with two of India’s top filmmakers Imtiaz Ali and Anurag Kashyap. Imtiaz Ali will discuss how he works with actors to create the vast world his characters inhabit within his films. Anurag Kashyap will discuss the arc of his career aided by various clips of his work to demonstrate how directing skills can develop over time, and lessons he’s learned on set over the course of his impressive filmography.. These exciting programs will run on Saturday, April 4 and are open to all audiences and passholders.


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Tickets and Passes 
Passes and Gala tickets are now on sale. Individual tickets will go on sale on February 25. For more information please visit www.indianfilmfestival.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (@iffla).

About IFFLA

Now in its 18th year, the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) is a nonprofit organization devoted to a greater appreciation of Indian cinema and culture by showcasing films and promoting the diverse perspectives of the Indian diaspora.

The five-day festival is the premiere platform for the latest in cutting-edge global Indian cinema and bridges the gap between the two largest entertainment industries in the world – Hollywood and India. 

Galas

Opening Night Gala

An Evening with Imtiaz Ali, followed by a screening of Highway 

Join us for a special evening as we celebrate Imtiaz Ali, one of Hindi cinema’s most respected and charismatic writer-directors. The program will feature an on-stage conversation between Ali and Anurag Kashyap, acclaimed IFFLA alum and a veteran of Indian independent cinema, leading into a screening of Ali’s enthralling 2014 romantic road thriller, Highway. The red carpet event will take place at ArcLight Hollywood, followed by a dinner reception and after party hosted by Spice Affair.

Ever since his disarming debut in 2005’s Socha Na Tha, Imtiaz Ali has been felicitated for his distinctive viewpoint on love and romance, vulnerable male characters, and layered female characters. If in his 2007 commercial hit Jab We Met, Ali delighted audiences with the chemistry between a plucky Kareena Kapoor and a reticent Shahid Kapoor, in his 2011 Rockstar, he sculpted a monument of Ranbir Kapoor’s formidable acting talent while setting to story one of the memorable soundtracks of the decade. 

What makes Ali so popular with both cinephiles and everyday moviegoers is his enviable ability to marry utterly relatable characters with their unusually developed conflicts. Highway is a stellar example of all of Imtiaz’s virtues as a storyteller. 


Highway
India/2014/133mins/Hindi 

Director: Imtiaz Ali

Producers: Sajid Nadiadwala, Imtiaz Ali

Screenwriter: Imtiaz Ali

Cinematographer: Anil Mehta 

Editor: Aarti Bajaj

Cast: Alia Bhatt, Randeep Hooda, Durgesh Kumar, Saharsh Kumar Shukla

Synopsis: 

The film that overnight made Alia Bhatt one of the most formidable actors of her generation, Highway is the tale of the spoilt daughter of a powerful Delhi industrialist who on the eve of her wedding is abducted by a hard-hearted truck driver (an exceptional Randeep Hooda). Their escape from the authorities leads them through some starkly beautiful landscapes of Kashmir, Rajasthan and Punjab, as well as towards the confrontation of a deep common pain in their pasts. As an audience we become wayfarers along their endearing journey that spins the wheels of the rich girl--poor boy trope. Expertly reining in melodrama with an authentic sense of place, Imtiaz Ali guides his characters towards realizations about freedom and bondage, and most impactful of all, how their feelings for each other might not simply be a matter of circumstance. Highway is ultimately an empowering film about the courageous choices women make in a world dictated by men.

Closing Night Gala 

The MisEducation of Bindu

India/2019/92mins/English 

Director: Prarthana Mohan 

Producer: Edward Timpe

Screenwriters: Kay Tuxford, Prarthana Mohan

Cinematographer: Dani Sanchez-Lopez

Editor: Mike Villasuso

Cast: Megan Suri, David Arquette, Priyanka Bose, Philip Labes, Gordan Winarick, Jake Morrissy

Logline: 

Her homeschooling days behind her, Bindu is an Indian teen fed up with high school and determined to test out early. When a small fee is all that stands in the way of her freedom, she’ll have to confront her bullies and pool her resources before the day is up.

Synopsis: 

Teenage Bindu (Megan Suri) is having a rough year. Her stepfather (David Arquette) has convinced her mother (Priyanka Bose) to forgo homeschooling and enroll her in the local school, where she is constantly bullied. Bindu learns that testing out early of school could be an option – if she can only secure the money needed for the test fee before the end of the day. With the clock racing against her, Bindu will stop at nothing to collect the fee – even if this means befriending bullies and forging alliances with the weirdos that inhabit the school halls.

With brazen humor and a fantastic ensemble cast, director Prarthana Mohan dives into the peculiar and chaotic world of teenage misfits for her first feature film, weaving a coming of age tale that’s as uproarious as it is genuine. Suri embodies Bindu with a perfectly self-aware blend of inexperience and determination as she surprises herself and learns not everything is as seems among the eccentric student population. 

For more information and a complete list of the 2020 line up: https://www.indianfilmfestival.org/