London Asian Film Festival

The London Asian Film Festival is a British film festival that takes place in the spring annually in London. The festival has catered mainly to South Asian films to date, with main events usually held at either BAFTA or the BFI. The 16th edition of LAFF would held from June 1 to June 14, 2014.[1]

History

Founding directors Dr Pushpinder Chowdhry and Mrs Harvinder Nath started the festival in 1999. 2012 was the 14th London Asian Film Festival. The films featured are usually independent or arthouse cinema, as opposed to more popular or mainstream films. The festival's philosophy is to recognize that entertainment is intertwined with important political and social messages and to promote films that that tackle challenging issues of society. Special guests from the industry have included Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake), Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham), Aparna Sen (15, park Avenue) and Meera Syal (Anita and Me), actors Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das, Madhur Jaffrey, Kiron Kher and Bollywood legend Helen.

Festival Administration

The festival's Patrons are; Abhishek Bachchan,[2] Prof. Rachel Dwyer, Lord Diljit Rana, Sunita Sangar, Meera Syal and Saira Kazmi. The Board is made up of; Roddy Mullin, Anna Macdonald, Balvinder Mudan, Mark Jones, Sarah McKenzie, Navin Shah and Ajay Chowdhury.

At the 14th LAFF in 2012 Pakistani film's won 3 awards for the first time in the festivals history. Bol won three awards: Humaima Malik won Best Film Actress, Shoaib Mansoor won the award for Best Film and Amr Kashmiri won the award for Best New Talent, and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan won Best Music Talent Award for the song Koi Dil Mein from the film Tamanna.

The 16th Edition of LAFF would be held on June 1–14, 2014. The Festival would be opened by Nagesh Kukunoor's film on Child Trafficking Lakshmi.[1] The UK Pakistani collaboration Tamanna had its UK premier at the festival on the June 8, 2014.

External links

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Lakshmi to be opening film of 16th London Asian Film Festival 2014". IANS. news.biharprabha.com. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
  2. ↑ Malik, Sunny. "Abhishek Bahchan opens the London Asian Film Festival". Bollyspice. Retrieved 2012-07-28. Bollywood actor and festival Patron Abhishek Bachchan attended the Opening Night of the 14th London Asian Film Festival hosted by Tongues on Fire last Friday at the prestigious British Film Institute.