The oldest and largest Indian film festival in America, the 22-year-old annual New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), organised by the Indo-American Arts Council, Inc. (IAAC), finally opened up and went hybrid this year, after being forced to be totally virtual in the previous two editions due to the pandemic. Festival director Aseem Chhabra said he hoped that from the next edition onwards the Festival would be entirely offline.
Film Critics Circle of India (FCCI) set up a 3-member critics jury comprising Vijay Sharma, Anil Zankar, and Deepa Gahlot and instituted an award for the best debut feature, this year. NYIFF 2022 was an 8-day affair. Over 60 films in 13 languages were screened. The Festival concluded on May 14 with a red carpet event followed by an in-person conversation between Chhabra and the producer of the closing film ‘The Beatles and India: an enduring love affair’, a music concert by Ragatonic, and the awards ceremony, at the Village East by Angelika cinema hall in New York.
| AWARD WINNERS | NYIFF 2022 | ||
| Feature | Best Film | Shoe Box |
| Best Director | Aditya Vikram Sengupta for Once Upon a Time in Calcutta | |
| Best Actor | Jitendra Joshi for Godavari | |
| Best Actress | Sreelekha Mitra for Once Upon a Time in Calcutta | |
| Best Child Actor | Reyaan Shah & Hiranya Zinzuwadia for Gandhi & Co. | |
| Best Screenplay | Powai | |
| FCCI Award for Best Debut Film | Jhini Bini Chadariya /The Brittle Thread, directed by Ritesh Sharma | |
| Short Fiction | Best Short (Narrative) | Succulent |
| Documentary | Best Documentary (Feature) | Longing |
| Best Short (Documentary) | Kicking Balls | |
Photo courtesy: NYIFF
Notable personalities at the NYIFF 2022 closing ceremony included actors Arindam Ghosh and Jitendra Joshi; actresses Ami Sheth, Melanie Chandra, and Shreya Navile; film directors Ajoy Bose, Vijayeta Kumar, Meg Damani, Vikas Khanna, and Ravi Guru Singh; film producer, Reynold D’Silva; Aparna Shewakramani; Tanmayee Mohapatra; editor-publisher of You & I, Huma Latif; IAAC members Preeti Urs, Dharti Desai, Jaishri Kapoor, Anil Bansal, Raj Shahani, Nili Lakhani, Hali Sunil, Venkat Sampath, Carol, Tagore Sundaram, and Nirmal Matoo; the State Bank of India CEO in New York, Tripathy; and the Consul General of India in New York, Randhir Jaiswal.
| ALL FILMS | NYIFF 2022 | |
| Feature (Narrative) | Bhagavadajjukam (Sanskrit), dir. Yadu Vijayakrishnan, 101 mins., 2021 |
| Boomba Ride (Assamese), dir. Biswajeet Bora, 76 mins., 2021 | |
| Burqa (Tamil), dir. Sarjun KM, 81 mins., 2021 | |
| Deid (Marathi), dir. Omkar Barve, 98 mins., 2022 | |
| Demons (Hindi), dir. Rohit Mittal, 96 mins., 2021 | |
| Gandhi & Co. (Gujarati), dir. Manish Saini, 101 mins., 2022 | |
| Godavari (Marathi), dir. Nikhil Mahajan, 113 mins., 2021 | |
| Jhini Bini Chadariya/ The Brittle Thread (Hindi), dir. Ritesh Sharma, 97 mins., 2021 | |
| Koli Esru (Kannada), dir. Champa P Shetty, 81 mins., 2022 | |
| Mahishasur Marddini (Bengali), dir. Ranjan Ghosh, 118 mins., 2022 | |
| Nishiddho/ Forbidden (Malayalam, Bengali), dir. Tara Ramanujan,124 mins. 2021 | |
| Once Upon a Time in Calcutta (Bengali), dir. Aditya Vikram Sengupta, 131 mins., 2021 | |
| Pedro (Kannada), dir. Natesh Hedge, 108 mins., 2021 | |
| Powai (Hindi), dir. Kuldip Patel, 126 mins., 2021 | |
| Shoebox (Hindi), dir. Faraz Ali, 98 mins., 2021 | |
| The Road to Kuthriyar (Tamil), dir. Bharat Mirle, 115 mins., 2021 | |
| Three-Legged Horse (Marathi), dir. Noopur Bora,123 mins., 2021 | |
| Waiting for Dawn/ Bhor Er Oppekha (Bengali), dir. Akash Sharma, 77 mins., 2021 | |
| Feature (Documentary) | 15 Seconds a Lifetime (Hindi, Marathi and English), dir. Divya Kharnare, 62 mins., 2021 |
| If Memory Serves Me Right (English), dir. Rafeeq Ellias, 56 mins., 2021 | |
| Kaifinama (Urdu, English), dir. Sumatra Ghosal, 90 mins., 2019 | |
| Lords of Lockdown (English, Hindi), dir. Mihir Fadnavis, 120 mins., 2021 | |
| Taangh/ Longing (English, Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu), dir. Bani Singh, 100 minutes, 2021 | |
| The Beatles and India (English), dir. Ajoy Bose and Peter Compton, 96 mins., 2021 | |
| Short (Narrative) | 7 Star Dinosor (sic.) Entertainment (Hindi), dir. Vaishali Naik, 20 mins., 2021 |
| A Box of Cuban Cigars (English, Bengali, Hindi), dir. Soumadeep Sen, 21 mins., 2021 | |
| Arjun (Marathi), dir. Shivraj Waichal, 15 mins., 2020 | |
| Cheepatakadumpa (Hindi), dir. Devashish Makhija, 24 mins., 2021 | |
| Cycle (Hindi, Telugu, Oriya, Bengali), dir. Devashish Makhija, 20 mins., 2021 | |
| Dal Bhat (Gujarati), dir. Nemil Shah, 29 mins., 2021 | |
| Holiday (Hindi), dir. Rahul Nangia, 12 mins., 2020 | |
| Keep Punching (Hindi), dir. Kirnay Bhatt, 25 mins., 2020 | |
| Kiss (Hindi), dir. Varun Grover, 17 mins., 2021 | |
| Kopfkino (Malayalam, English), dir. Veena Bharati, 16 mins., 2021 | |
| Man & Wife (Bengali, English), dir. Rahul Roye, 9 mins., 2021 | |
| Mintgumri (Hindi), dir. Aakash Chhabra, 23 mins., 2021 | |
| Mr. Lawyer (Hindi), dir. Sumit Purohit, 23 mins., 2021 | |
| My Mother’s Girlfriend (Marathi), dir. Arun Fulara, 15 mins., 2021 | |
| Nafs Said (Hindi), dir. Huma Hussain, 13 mins., 2021 | |
| Overbridge (Kannada), dir. Nihar Kapoor and Amshu Chukki, 9 mins., 2020 | |
| Pariah (Hindi), dir. Nishant Roy Bombarde, 26 mins., 2021 | |
| Raavi (Punjabi), dir. Jasmine Kaur Roy, 14 mins., 2021 | |
| Smrisha (English, Malayalam), dir. Shilpa Krishnan Shukla, 30 mins., 2021 | |
| Succulent (Hindi, English), dir. Amrita Bagchi, 29 mins., 2021 | |
| Swarna (Telugu), dir. Anusha Rao, 29 mins., 2021 | |
| The Daughter (Hindi), dir. Soumyak Kanti Debiswas, 16 mins., 2022 | |
| The Silent Echo (Nepali), dir. Suman Sen, 15 mins., 2021 | |
| The Test (Hindi), dir. Shahnawaz Qadeer, 14 mins., 2020 | |
| The Way We Are/ Phir Kabhi (Hindi), dir. Nihit Bhave, 18 mins., 2021 | |
| There is No Other Way to Do This (English), dir. Mragendra Singh, 6 mins., 2022 | |
| Together (Hindi), dir. Azad Alam, 23 mins., 2021 | |
| Vanilla (Hindi), dir. Kanishka Deo, 11 mins., 2021 | |
| Short (Documentary) | Aakhri Safar/ The Last Journey (Hindi), dir. Suraj Gunjal, 22 mins., 2021 |
| Kicking Balls (Hindi), dir. Priyanka Singh, 36 mins., 2020 | |
| Listen With Your Heart (English), dir. Meghna Damani, 27 mins., 2022 | |
| Murmurs of the Jungle (Marathi, Hindi), dir. Sohil Vaidya, 20 mins., 2022 | |
| Reflections at 29 (English), dir. Tanmaya Shekhar, 6 mins., 2021 | |
| The Bat Man and Woman of India (English), dir. Emily Driscoll, 7 mins., 2021 | |
| The Flowers and the Gemstones (Tamil), dir. Sriram Raja, 23 mins., 2019 | |
| The Spirit of Ganga (English), dir. Natashja Rathore, 17 mins., 2022 | |
