Run Kalyani and Moothon to be opening and closing films at New York Indian Film Festival

Like every film festival around the world, the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) will also be held online this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The festival will be streamed from 24 July to 2 August.

This year, the NYIFF will open with Geetha J’s Malayalam film Run Kalyani (2019) and will close with Geetu Mohandas’s Malayalam and Hindi film Moothon (2020). Coincidentally, both films have been made by woman directors working in Malayalam cinema.

The news was shared by festival director Aseem Chhabra on Facebook.

There are also two documentaries to look out for. “The first is Vibha Bakshi's National award-winning Son Rise, exploring the deep-rooted patriarchy in Haryana and efforts by men in the most unlikely place in the world to provide women with greater opportunities. The second documentary is Aunty Sudha, Aunty Radha, Tanuja Chandra's adorable story about her paternal aunts, who live together in an ancestral house in a village in Uttar Pradesh,” said Chhabra. 

Reacting to Run Kalyani being chosen for screening, Geetha J told The Hindu newspaper, “It felt wonderful to know that two films from Kerala have been selected for the festival, one of the festivals much awaited by Indian filmmakers.”

Geetu Mohandas believes this would motivate more women to take up filmmaking. “I am proud that two woman filmmakers’ movies will be the opening and concluding films at New York,'" she said. "I know Geetha and it is great to know that our films are going to be screened there. This is a start and I hope it encourages more woman filmmakers to make their mark as directors,” she told the publication.