New Jersey Indian International Film Festival concludes on a high

The second edition of the New Jersey Indian International Film Festival ( NJIIFF) ended on a high with almost a full house at the closing ceremony of the festival that was held at the Regal Hadley Theatre at South Plainfield in New Jersey. The two-day festival that screened about 49 films from 12 countries including short, feature and documentary had some interesting winners.  In the short film section actor Anil Charnjeett won for his performance in Living Idle and Kirti Kulhari of Pink fame for her stunning performance in the film Maya.

Rahul Yadav was awarded the best director for his short film 9+1=1. The film deals with the subject of silent killer carbon monoxide. Filmmaker Vikram Razdan’s film Life is Short which was also the opening film at the festival won the best short film award at the festival. Razdan dedicated his awards to  Indians living outside the country and bonding so beautifully and especially through potent platforms like NJIIFF.  Chef Vikas Khanna’s directorial venture The Last Color won two awards at the festival. Khanna was awarded the best director for the film and the best actress was given to Asqa Siddiqui. The actress shared the award with Tanishka Vishe for her performance in Vardaniya.

An entry from El Salvador had its share of win with the actor of the film  The Path of Shadows Leandro Sanchez Arauz getting the best actor award for his performance in the drama that revolves around a professor. Seema Biswas starrer film Abode won the best feature film. Directed by Jaya  Jose Raj CL  the film is about a mother whose children leave and go away from her. Michael Genz’s documentary Mni Wiconi: Water is Life on climate change was awarded the best documentary film.

Festival Director Hemant Pandya was very overwhelmed by the kind of support he got from the filmmakers who participated in the festival. He said, “I am going to make sure that NJIIFF will get bigger and even better with each passing year. I am thankful to all the filmmakers and the people of New Jersey for supporting the festival.’’ The biggest boost to the festival was the top media barons of New Jersey Sudhir Parikh of Parikh Worldwide Media & ITV- Gold and HR Shah of TV Asia who promised to continue their support to the festival. Parikh who was impressed with the quality of the short films that were showcased at NJIIFF, announced that his channel ITV-Gold will soon be starting a short film slot in association with NJIIFF to play all short films that keep looking for platforms to show their films.