NEW DELHI: Anurag Kashyap‘s ‘Gang of Wasseypur‘ was the opening film at the 11th Annual Indian Film festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) at the Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood.

"Gangs of Wasseypur" had also been screened in Cannes last year in the ‘Directors Fortnight‘ section.

The festival has included a sneak preview of Mira Nair‘s new political thriller ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist‘ (with an international cast running from Kiefer Sutherland to Shabana Azmi) and the festival will close with Deepa Mehta‘s cinematic translation of Salman‘s Rushdie‘s novel ‘Midnight‘s Children‘ starring Seema Biswas, Shabana Azmi, and Anupam Kher.

The festivalwill also pay a tribute to ‘King of Romance‘ director Yash Chopra that includes his last venture ‘Jab Tak hai Jaan‘ along with other hits like ‘Chandni‘, ‘Silsila‘, and ‘Kabhi Kabhie‘.

Other films at the festival include ‘Filmistaan‘ - debut feature by Nitin Kakkar - and ‘Eega‘ a Telugu language resurrection drama which is loosely based on the film ‘Makhii‘.

A full length documentary, ‘Celluloid Man‘ on the living legend P K Nair who brought film archiving to India as the founder of the National Film Archive of India will also be screened at the IFFLA this year.

Other short films include ‘Tatpaschat‘, ‘Dosa Hunt‘, ‘Here and away‘, ‘Homecoming‘, ‘The queen of my dreams‘, ‘Rags to Pads‘, ‘Recurrence‘, Vasan Bala‘s ‘Peddlers‘, Hansal Mehta‘s ‘Shahid‘, and Anand Gandhi‘s ‘Ship of Theseus‘.

There are two discussion sessions. The first is ‘Laughing At Ourselves- A Conversation with Actors and Creatives‘ with Kunal Nayyar (actor, Big Bang Theory), Hannah Simone (actor, New Girl), Sarayu Rao (actor, Monday Mornings), Luvh Rakhe (writer, New Girl), and Sunil Nayar (executive producer, Revenge), and moderated by Parvesh Cheena (actor, Outsourced).

The second panel is on "Today‘s Pioneer Voices Changing the Landscape of Indian Cinema" moderated by Lisa Tsering (The Hollywood Reporter), and featuring Vasan Bala, Anand Gandhi, Hansal Mehta and Nitin Kakkar.