NUDE Sweeps Awards At The 18th Annual New York Indian Film Festival
The longest-running, most prestigious South Asian Film Festival in North America, New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), ended with a bang on Saturday with its closing night film, OMERTA, the New York premiere of the biopic on Islamic fundamentalist Omar Saeed Sheikh. The film was followed by a Q&A between festival director Aseem Chhabra, director Hansal Mehta and actors Rupinder Nagra, and Timothy Ryan Hickernell.
The film festival showcased 78 shorts, docs and feature films in 11 languages over a six-day-period, May 7th to May 12th, at the Village East Cinemas on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The programming boasted 4 world premieres, 2 international premieres, 6 North American premieres, 1 US premiere and 11 New York premieres from 4 South Asian countries (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka), as well as North America and the United Kingdom.
And the WINNERS of NYIFF 2018 are…drum roll, please!
Best Film: NUDE
Best Director: Nishil Sheth (BHASMASUR)
Best Screenplay: CHUMBAK (writers Sandeep Modi & Saurabh Bhave)
Best Actor: Manoj Bajpayee (IN THE SHADOWS)
Best Actress: Kalyanee Mulay (NUDE)
Best Child Actor: Ali Haji (NOBLEMEN)
Best Short: MAACHER JHOL (The Fish Curry) directed by Abhishek Verma
Best Documentary: ABU directed by Arshad Khan
The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) is the oldest, most prestigious film festival screening premieres of features, documentary and short films made from, of, and about the Indian subcontinent in the independent, arthouse, alternate and diaspora genres. Seven days of screenings, post-screening discussions, industry panels, award ceremony, special events, nightly networking parties, red carpet galas, media attention and packed audiences build an awareness of Indian cinema, entertain and educate North Americans about the real India, and add to the amazing cultural diversity of New York City. 
The Indo-American Arts Council is a registered 501(c)3 not-for-profit, secular service and resource arts organization, passionately dedicated to showcasing, promoting and building an awareness of Indian sub-continental performing, visual and literary arts.
