IFFLA 2024 Closing Night: Vijay Sethupathi, Nithilan Swaminathan speak to Chhaya Nene

Shuchi Talati’s “Girls Will Be Girls” wins Grand Jury Prize at 22nd Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES: The 2024 Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles concluded on June 30 with Nithilan Swaminathan’s ‘Maharaja’ as the closing night film, which was preceded by a first-ever flash mob. Chhaya Nene caught up with Swaminathan and other filmmakers at the Writer’s Guild Theater to see how the festival went, how audiences responded to their films, and what they wished people knew about their work.

Winners included:

• IFFLA’s Grand Jury Prize for best feature went to Shuchi Talati.
• IFFLA’s Jury Honorable Mention went to Tarsem Singh’s Dear Jassi.
• FFLA’s Audience Choice awards went to Lucy Walker’s feature documentary ‘Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa’ and Ritvik Dhavale’s short ‘Hema’.
• The Grand Jury Prize for best short went to Stenzin Tankongj’s ‘Last Days Of Summer’.
• Yuki Ellias’s ‘Lovely And Tip Top’ received an honorable mention from the short film jury.
• Shuchi Dwivedi won the inaugural IFFLA Industry Day Pitch Competition for her project Friends and Fascism and Sejal Pachisia and her project Empathico received an honorable mention.

The exciting news comes in the form of Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s film ‘Kill’ being remade for an English audience by the producers of John Wick and Shuchi Talati’s film has been acquired by Juno Films.