The 22nd edition of the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), will be held in April next year, possibly in a physical format.
The festival drector of NYIFF, Aseem Chhabra, shared the news in a tweet, saying, "The 2022 New York Indian Film Festival will be held in late April. We are hoping to be back with a physical festival after a gap of two years when we went virtual (sic)."
The 2022 @nyindianff will be held in late April. We are hoping to be back with a physical festival after a gap of two years when we went virtual. Film submissions are open here https://t.co/yxCvWtonOg. Questions? Send me a DM.
— Aseem Chhabra (@chhabs) October 5, 2021
Speaking exclusively to Cinestaan about the plans for the upcoming edition of the festival, Chhabra said, "This is the 22nd edition of the New York Indian Film Festival - the oldest Indian/South Asian film event in North America."
"Last two years, because of the pandemic, theatres were closed in New York City and so we held virtual festivals, where we did online conversations with the filmmakers. But now that theatres have opened up in New York and a large percentage of the population is vaccinated, we are planning to once again host an in-person festival. We really want to bring the filmmakers to New York City and to have them interact with the audience. One thing we learned in the last two years was that holding virtual film screenings connects us with audiences in other parts of the US, as well as in other countries. And so we are planning to hold a virtual film festival as well," he said.
The 21st edition of NYIFF was held virtually from 4 to 13 June and opened with Prithvi Konnanura's Pinki Elli? (2020) and closed with Ajitpal Singh's Fire In The Mountains (2021).