Anurag Kashyap's 'Ugly' to open New York Indian film festival

New York, April 1, 2014: The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) will open with Anurag Kashyap's "Ugly", a sensational tale of corruption, indifference, and systemic violence that begins with the disappearance of an aspiring actor's 10-year-old daughter.

Celebrating its 14th year, NYIFF, widely recognised as the oldest, most prestigious Indian film festival in the US showcasing some of the greatest talents working in the diaspora, will run May 5 to 10 at a variety of prestigious New York City venues.

These include the Skirball Centre for Performing Arts, where the opening and closing films are set be screened, NYIFF announced Tuesday.

Director Anurag Kashyap returns to NYIFF after closing the 2012 festival with his highly received film, "Gangs Of Wasseypur", a two-part five-hour-long drama centred around the coal mafia of Dhanbad, Jharkhand.

"We are thrilled to be opening this year's New York Indian Film Festival with Anurag Kashyap's new film 'Ugly'," said festival director Aseem Chhabra.

"Anurag has been in the forefront of India's growing indie films movement, always pushing the boundaries and inspiring the new generation of filmmakers. Personally I am a big fan of his films."

Kashyap will participate in a post-screening conversation, to be followed by the opening night gala event, with celebrated IAAC supporters and other filmmakers in attendance.

NYIFF also announced this year's centrepiece and closing films. Renowned actress and filmmaker Aparna Sen will close the festival with her latest work, "Goynar Baksho".

Renowned actress and first time director Geethu Mohandas will showcase her film "Liar's Dice" as this year's centrepiece.

"Liar's Dice" was in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section at Sundance this January, and has been hailed by Variety as "an assured feature debut" and "quietly effective".

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The 14th Annual New York Indian Film Festival is North America

MAY 5-10, 2014 

The 14th Annual New York Indian Film Festival is North America's oldest and most prestigious destination for feature films, documentaries, and shorts from and about the Indian subcontinent. NYIFF is a once-a-year opportunity to experience the rich and diverse film cultures of the Indian subcontinent through a mix of film screenings, discussions, industry panels, nightly parties, an awards ceremony, and gala red carpet events.

  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 (NYIFF) is the oldest, most prestigious film festival screening premieres of feature, documentary and short films made from, of, and about the Indian subcontinent in the Independent, arthouse, alternate and diaspora genres. Five 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 & educate North Americans about the real India, and add to the amazing cultural diversity of New York City.