NEW DELHI: Actor-producer Abhay Deol has been included in the jury for the 13th annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles.
The Festival is being held from 8 to 12 April at the ArcLight Hollywood.
The other narrative jury members are filmmaker Sean Baker, HFPA member and frequent Board director Yoram Kahana, Warner Bros executive vice president (physical production) Ravi Mehta, and author and film curator Berenice Reynaud.
The shorts jury include actor Danny Pudi, Outfest Director of Programming Lucy Mukerjee-Brown, Sundance Shorts Programmer Lisa Ogdie, and Heather Morris Washington, Manager of the Emerging Writers Fellowship at Universal.
Aditya Vikram Sengupta's debut feature Labour Of Love following one day in the life of a married couple has been added to the festival's lineup. It screens on 10 April.
Other films include Jai Ho by Delhi-based filmmaker Umesh Aggarwal who had attended the premiere of the film in New York earlier this year.
The world premiere of British comedy One Crazy Thing is the centerpiece this year. The opening night film is Haraamkhor, helmer Shlok Sharma’s debut starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and the closing film is Dhanak by Nagesh Kukunoor.
Other highlights are Danis Tanovic’s Tigers, Cannes entry Titli by Kanu Behl and the Los Angeles premiere of Miss India America.
IFFLA will unspool 25 films, including four world premieres, seven North American bows, two American and 10 Los Angeles preems from not just India, but also the US, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Cuba, in 10 languages including English, Spanish and German.
Directed by Amit Gupta, One Crazy Thing stars Ray Panthaki and Daisy Bevan and centers on a man struggling to overcome the notoriety from his sex tape.
Tanovic’s Tigers stars Bollywood star Emraan Hashmi and is about the true-life tale of the salesman who took on a drug company that marketed a deadly baby formula.
Titli is a coming-of-age story starring Shashank Arora; while Miss India Americastars Tiya Sircar and Hannah Simone in the story of a woman who enters a beauty pageant after losing her boyfriend to a former Miss India America.
IFFLA Artistic Director Jasmine Jaisinghani said, “Many of the films at this year’s IFFLA look at contemporary youth from diverse backgrounds, united in their creative ways of overcoming life’s situations. The palpable energy of youth spirit runs throughout our film lineup, and these stories take you on an adventurous journey.”
