Mee Raqsam opening film, Eeb Allay Ooo! to close Coalition of South Asian Film Festivals

The Coalition of South Asian Film Festivals (COSAFF) has announced its line-up of films. The festival, which is scheduled to be held from 3-17 October will open with Baba Azmi’s directorial debut, Mee Raqsam (2020). The centrepiece is the film from Nepal, Shirish Gurung’s Lato Kosero and Prateek Vats’s acclaimed feature Eeb Allay Ooo! will conclude the festival on 17 October.

Prakash Jha’s Pareeksha (2020), Achal Mishra’s Gamak Ghar, Bobby Sarma Baruha’s Mishing (The Apparition), Leena Manimekalai’s Maadathy, An Unfairy Tale, and Swapnil Kapure’s Poet In Two Worlds, are amongst the Indian films at the festival. 

Aside from feature films, the festival will screen short films and host virtual programs including question and answer sessions with industry professionals. The films will be streamed on Vimeo’s OTT platform. 

Earlier this year, in light of the pandemic, COSAFF was formed by the South Asian film festival community in North America to unitedly host a first-of-its-kind virtual festival aimed towards supporting and encouraging the vibrant film and art community in South Asia and its diaspora. 

The vision statement of the festival reads, “We envision a unified South Asian community of film festivals, filmmakers, actors, and artists coming together to share our common love for films and storytelling. We aim to engage and entertain the audience, start dialogues, educate our community, and represent, include all South Asian countries and their diasporas worldwide.”  

The festival schedule can be viewed online here.