IFFLA Film Fund Development Grant Jury

The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles is accepting film submissions for IFFLA 2010 now through January 8, 2010. The eighth annual festival will take place April 20-25 at ArcLight Hollywood, a state-of-the art facility in the heart of Los Angeles. IFFLA 2010 seeks narrative, documentary, music videos, experimental, children’s and animated films of any length and format.

IFFLA 2010 will span six days and showcase outstanding cinema by filmmakers of Indian descent or about Indian culture. The festival will also present red carpet gala premieres, the wildly popular “Bollywood by Night” section, feature, short and documentary film competition, seminars, and the IFFLA Industry Leadership Award attended by high-level U.S. and India-based entertainment executives.

The IFFLA Film Fund is a new program that seeks to help emerging filmmakers realize their feature-length narrative and non-narrative film projects that reflect universal themes inherent within Indian culture. The first phase of the film fund is the Development Grant of up to $10,000 aimed at helping screenwriters develop and fine-tune their scripts as well as to strengthen these writers’ profile in the US.

IFFLA Film Fund submissions are being accepted now through November 2. For more information on the festival as well as the submission form and category_idelines for both IFFLA 2010 and the Development Grant, visit www.indianfilmfestival.org.

IFFLA Film Fund Development Grant Jury

Gill Dennis

Gill Dennis is a Master Filmmaker-in-Residence at the American Film Institute Conservatory. In addition to the 2005 film WALK THE LINE, he wrote the mini-series “Home Fires” for Showtime, which was selected by Time magazine as among television’s Top Ten in 1987 and has received the Los Angeles Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Direction in the theater. Recently, Gill wrote THE SMALL BOAT OF GREAT SORROWS for Kennedy/Marshall, THE TATTOOED SOLDIER for Davids/Canton, and FOREVER with Tatia Pilieva for Present Pictures.

Anurag Kashyap

Anurag Kashyap always had a passion for cinema, a bug that was planted early in his life. He made a mark with the gritty gangster flick SATYA directed by Ram Gopal Verma. SATYA went on to be a cult classic, and Anurag Kashyap, a sought-after writer in Mumbai. Following his directorial debut, an edgy, psychological drama LAST TRAIN TO MAHAKALI (2000), Kashyap directed his first feature film PAANCH (2003), a violent, angst ridden rock band film. He then wrote and directed his most acclaimed film to date, BLACK FRIDAY (2004), about the 1993 Mumbai blasts. The film introduced Kashyap’s work to an international audience and prompted Danny Boyle to hire much of the film’s crew for SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, with Anurag scouting for the Mumbai locations. Kashyap’s other diverse projects include the surreal NO SMOKING (2007), the animation film THE RETURN OF HANUMAN (2007), and a remake of the Indian film classic DEVDAS as the modern, psychedelic DEV.D (2009). He has also written for many projects including Deepak Mehta’s WATER (2005). Kashyap’s most recent film GULAAL (2009) is about student and separatist politics in Rajasthan and has received rave reviews. This year he served on the international jury of the Venice Film Festival.

Sooni Taraporevala

Sooni Taraporevala, photographer, screenwriter, filmmaker, was born in Bombay in 1957. While on scholarship at Harvard University studying English Literature, Film and Photography, she met Mira Nair, a fellow student. After completing her graduate work in Cinema Studies from New York University, she returned to India to work as a freelance still photographer, leading to exhibitions in India, the United States, France, and Britain. With the success of her first screenplay, SALAAM BOMBAY! (1988), she embarked on a renowned screenwriting career. Her scripts for SALAAM BOMBAY!, MISSISSIPPI MASALA, and SUCH A LONG JOURNEY have garnered acclaim, nominations, and awards from around the world. Her most frequent collaborator has been Mira Nair as seen in their most recent work THE NAMESAKE (2008). In 2008, she wrote and directed LITTLE ZIZOU which has won numerous awards, including the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature at IFFLA 2009. Although films have become her primary vocation, she continues to photograph for pleasure. In 2000, she published a book of her photographs, PARSIS: THE ZOROASTRIANS OF INDIA – A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY, to critical and commercial success.

About IFFLA

The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) is a non-profit organization devoted to a greater appreciation of Indian cinema and culture by showcasing films, honoring entertainment industry business executives and promoting the diverse perspectives of the Indian diaspora.