MIAAC, New York City’s Indian Film Festival,
Wraps Up its Ninth Successful Year with the Screening of
Antaheen: The Endless Wait’ followed by the Awards Ceremony

• Celebrities who attended include Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Rahul Bose, Sanjay Suri, Mira Nair, Deepti Naval, Shyam Benegal, Aasif Mandvi, Manisha Koirala and Sarita Choudhury

November 17, 2009 (New York, NY) – MIAAC, the Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council, New York City’s Indian film festival wrapped up five days of screenings and events on Sunday night, November 15th at the Walter Reade Theatre with the US premiere of Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s The Endless Wait (Antaheen). Stars Rahul Bose and Kalyan Roy attended the premiere along with actors and filmmakers including Shabana Azmi, Sarita Choudhury, Shyam Benegal, Javed Ahktar, Mira Nair, Rahul Bose, Manisha Koirala, Rajit Kapur, and Aasif Mandvi. The MIAAC Film Festival which ran from Nov 11-15 screened 47 films which spotlighted the established and emerging Indian independent filmmakers.

The Executive Director of the Indo-American Arts Council, Aroon Shivdasani gave closing night remarks and introduced the closing night film. The post-screening discussion with the filmmaker and talent was moderated by Program Director of The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Richard Peña, who also expressed enthusiasm for further collaboration with the MIAAC Film Festival in the future.

The evening concluded with the awards ceremony, with the winners receiving awards in seven categories. Several celebrated actors and filmmakers presented the awards including Amitav Ghosh, Javed Akhtar, and Mira Nair. Festival winners were chosen by a jury comprised of ten members specializing in film, and the jury process was monitored by KPMG. Awards were also presented to three student NYU filmmakers from Professor Karl Bardosh’s Cell Phone Cinema Class, with each filmmaker making a one- minute film entitled My MIAAC on their cell phone cameras.

Overall, this year’s festival premiered 44 Indian and Diaspora films and held special events, with a sidebar on Kashmir in Film, and discussion panels presented with the NYU Department of Cinema Studies at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts focusing on themes like Queer Bollywood and the changing landscape of Indian film business. The festival also held a daylong series about Indian film in cooperation with KPMG and SAMMA and with collaboration of Saavn and TiE.

Other festival highlights included an evening with Mira Nair, an evening with Sharmila Tagore at NMAI and a celebration of contemporary Bengali cinema.

The 2009 MIAAC Award Winners are:

Best Short Film Award: Good Night directed by Geetika Narang. Award presented by Manisha Koirala and Rajit Kapur. The other two nominees were Medicine Man directed by Himkar Tak and It Rises from the East directed by Sudeep Kanwal.

Best Documentary Film Award: The Salt Stories directed by Lalit Vachani. Award presented by Madhur Jaffrey and Sanjay Suri. The other two nominees were Air India by Sturla Gunnarsson and Lucky Ducks by Tracey Jackson.

Best Actor Award: Aasif Mandvi for Today’s Special. Award presented by Sarita Choudhury and Shyam Benegal. The other two nominees were Naseeruddin Shah (Shortchanged) and Rahul Bose (Endless Wait).

Best Actress Award: Tannishtha Chatterjee for Bombay Summer. Award presented by Shabana Azmi and Rahul Bose. The other two nominees were Sarita Choudhury (For Real) and Manisha Koirala (Two Paise for Sunshine).

Best Screenplay Award: Two Paise for Sunshine, Four Annas for Rain by Deepti Naval. Award presented by Javed Ahktar and Amitav Ghosh. The other two nominees were Endless Wait by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury and Shortchanged by Raja Menon.

Best Director Award: Joseph Mathew-Varghese for Bombay Summer. Award presented by Mira Nair and Anurag Kashyap. The other two nominees were Raja Menon (Shortchanged) and Deepti Naval (Two Paise).

Best Film Award: Bombay Summer directed by Joseph Mathew-Varghese. Award presented by Tracey Jackson and Aasif Mandvi. The other two nominees were Shortchanged and Two Paise.

For more information on the MIAAC Film Festival, please visit www.miaacfilmfest.org.

About the Indo-American Arts Council:
The is a registered 501(c)3 not-for-profit, secular service and resource arts organization charged with the mission of promoting and building the awareness, creation, production, exhibition, publication and performance of Indian and cross-cultural art forms in North America. The IAAC supports all artistic disciplines in the classical, fusion, folk and innovative forms influenced by the arts of India. We work cooperatively with colleagues around the United States to broaden our collective audiences and to create a network for shared information, resources and funding. Our focus is to work with artists and arts organizations in North America as well as to facilitate artists and arts organizations from India to exhibit, perform and produce their works here. For more information, please visit

About the Mahindra Group
The US $6.3 billion Mahindra Group is among the top 10 industrial houses in India. Mahindra is the market leader in multi-utility vehicles in India. It made a milestone entry into the passenger car segment with the Logan. Mahindra & Mahindra is the only Indian company among the top tractor brands in the world.

The Group has a leading presence in key sectors of the Indian economy, including the financial services, trade, retail and logistics, automotive components, after-market, information technology and infrastructure development. Mahindra has made an entry in the two-wheeler segment which will see the company emerge as a full-range player with a presence in almost every segment of the automobile industry.

The Mahindra Group recently expanded its IT portfolio when Tech Mahindra acquired the leading global business and information technology services company, Satyam Computer Services. The company is now known as Mahindra Satyam.

Mahindra's Farm Equipment Sector is the proud recipient of the Japan Quality Medal, the only tractor company worldwide to be bestowed this honour. It also holds the distinction of being the only tractor company worldwide to win the Deming Prize. The US based Reputation Institute recently ranked Mahindra among the top 10 Indian companies in its Global 200: The World's Best Corporate Reputations list.

Mahindra is also one of the few Indian companies to receive an A+ GRI checked rating for its first Sustainability Report for the year 2007-08. For more information, please visit www.mahindra.com

Press Contacts: Peepul PR
Gayatri Hingorani-Dewan: gayatri@mypeepul.com / 917.346.0551
High resolution photos are available upon request

MIAAC AND NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
ANNOUNCE NEW PANEL SERIES ON INDIAN CINEMA

MIAAC @ NYU Panelists include Javed Ahktar, Shyam Benegal,
Anurag Kashyap and Deepti Naval

November 11-15 in New York City

October 22, 2009, New York, NY: The MIAAC (Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council) Film Festival announces MIAAC @ NYU, a new series of critical discourse on Indian cinema organized in partnership with New York University's Department of Cinema Studies. The series is part of MIAAC09, New York City’s Indian Film Festival, which runs from November 11-15, 2009. Now in its ninth year, the festival will have 47 screenings including 44 premieres of features, documentaries and shorts. Regular public screenings will be at the Quad Cinema, with special screenings at the Paris Theatre, Walter Reade Theater, the National Museum of the American Indian, and NYU's Cantor Center. A complete program and ticket information is online at www.miaacfilmfest.org.

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MIAAC, NEW YORK’S INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL
ANNOUNCES 2009 PROGRAM OF 44 PREMIERES PLUS SPECIAL EVENTS
NOVEMBER 11-15 IN NEW YORK CITY

Special Programming Includes a Spotlight on Kashmir, Evening with Mira Nair, CNN’s Sanjay Gupta’s Kahani Movement and the Best of Contemporary Bengali Cinema

Celebrities Attending Include Aasif Mandvi, Mira Nair, Sharmila Tagore, Aparna Sen, Shabana Azmi, Farhan Akhtar, Shyam Benegal, Deepti Naval, Manisha Koirala and Anurag Kashyap

Complete program and ticket info at www.miaacfilmfest.org

October 8th, 2009, New York, NY -- The Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council (MIAAC) Film Festival, New York City’s Indian film festival, is proud to announce the complete program for the 2009 festival to be held from November 11-15. Now in its ninth year, the festival will have 47 screenings including 44 premieres of features, documentaries and shorts. Since its founding in 2001, MIAAC has established itself as the premiere Indian film festival in the United States, introducing audiences to films such as Oscar winner “Slumdog Millionaire,” Mira Nair’s “The Namesake” and “Monsoon Wedding”; Deepa Mehta’s “Water” and Gurinder Chadha’s “Bride & Prejudice.” This year’s selection continues to celebrate the Festival’s tradition for excellence and diversity with powerful performances and new cinematic expression by cutting-edge Indian directors. Regular public screenings will be at the Quad Cinema, with special screenings at the Paris Theatre, Walter Reade Theater, the National Museum of the American Indian, and NYU's Cantor Center. A complete program listing is online at www.miaacfilmfest.org.

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MAHINDRA INDO-AMERICAN ARTS COUNCIL FILM FESTIVAL
ANNOUNCES OPENING, CLOSING AND CENTERPIECE FILMS

* NOV 11th: AASIF MANDVI, NASEERUDDIN SHAH AND MADHUR JAFFREY HEADLINE "TODAY’S SPECIAL" THE OPENING FILM AT THE PARIS THEATRE

*NOV 13th: VIJAY AMRITRAJ TO PRESENT SATOSH SIVAN'S FILM "TAHAAN' SET IN KASHMIR AS FESTIVAL CENTERPIECE AT THE SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN

* NOV 15th: SHARMILA TAGORE AND APARNA SEN STAR FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE CLOSING NIGHT FILM, "THE ENDLESS WAIT (ANTAHEEN)" AT WALTER READE THEATRE, LINCOLN CENTER

New York, NY September 17th, 2009: The Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council (MIAAC) Film Festival announces the Opening, Closing & Centerpiece Films for its 9th Annual Festival in New York City. Following hot on the success of the 2008 festival, which saw a stellar line up of films and talent including the NY premiere of Oscar-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire,” this year’s opening film is “Today’s Special.” Directed by David Kaplan, the film is written by and stars Comedy Central star Aasif Mandvi; accompanied by renowned Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah as well as author and actor Madhur Jaffrey. Tennis celebrity and media executive Vijay Amritraj will present Santosh Sivan's “Tahaan” set in Kashmir, as the prestigious Festival Centerpiece. The festival this year packs a bang with the closing film “Antaheen - The Endless Wait” starring two film luminaries discovered by Satyajit Ray - Sharmila Tagore and Aparna Sen – both of whom will attend this U.S. premiere at the Walter Reade Theatre, Lincoln Center. MIACC 09 will run from November 11-15, 2009 and all public screenings will be at the Quad Cinemas, New York City.

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NINTH ANNUAL MIAAC FILM FESTIVAL, NYC: DATES, VENUES AND SPONSORS ANNOUNCED

New York City’s premiere festival for films from, by and about the Indian subcontinent comes to NYC November 11-15, 2009.

NEW YORK, NY: The Ninth Annual Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council (MIAAC) Film Festival, New York City’s premier Indian film festival, is scheduled for November 11-15, 2009. The MIAAC Film Festival is the destination for films and documentaries from and about the Indian subcontinent. Last year’s enormously successful festival included the New York premiere of Danny Boyle’s Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, which went on to garner critical and box office success all around the world, Indian filmmaker Deepa Mehta’s Heaven on Earth and many, many others.