'Little Zizou', Khedekar shine at Indo-American film festival

New York, Nov 12 (IANS) The eighth edition of the popular Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council (MIAAC) film festival yielded rich dividends for Indians with Sooni Taraporevala's 'Little Zizou' and actor Sachin Khedekar bagging top awards.

While Sachin bagged the best actor award for his impressive performance in the film 'Bose: The Forgotten Hero', Taraporevala won the best screenplay trophy and the best director's award along with Ashish Avikunthak for his film 'Shadows Formless'.

During the five-day festival as many as 32 Indian and diaspora films were screened at various locations in New York. The festival concluded Tuesday.

While the award for best short film went to director duo Raj Nidimoru and D.K. Krishna's 'Noise', the best actress award was bagged by Mandira Banerjee for her role in the film 'Shadows Formless'.

Madhur Jaffrey presented the award along with Dina Kothari, vice president of Prestige Jewellery.

Noted India-born British author Salman Rushdie and Divya Mahindra of the Mahindra group presented the Indira Mahindra award for best film to director Richie Mehta for his film 'Amal'.

Nishtha Jain's 'Lakshmi and Me' won the Analog Digital Award for best documentary film.

The five-day film festival kicked off Nov 5 with the screening of Deepa Mehta's 'Heaven on Earth'.

The festival also hosted a number of panels on different aspects of the film industry including 'Shooting in Bombay' and going 'Beyond Bollywood'.