COULD the next “Slumdog Millionaire” be among the bunch? Time will tell as the MIAAC film festival rolls out on Wednesday (10 Nov.) at the SVA Theater. This venue also hosted another festival featuring South Asian fare: the recent Southeast Asia International Film Festival.



MIAAC, which stakes claim as “the oldest, most prestigious, fun, fabulous Indian Independent & Diaspora film festival in the USA,” has the distinction of bringing “Slumdog" to the notice of U.S. audiences. Considered a film to watch this year is the closer, “Cooking with Stella,” concerning a woman who can cook the books as well as she can curry chicken. Other highlights are a retrospective of the films of the revered Smita Patil.



A scene, left, from "Noise(Shor”), which opens the MIAAC film festival. Photo from http://miaacfilmfest.org/index.htm.

MIAAC opens with “Noise (Shor”). From the directing duo of Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, “Noise" morphed into feature length from a work that won the best short film award at the 2008 MIAAC festival. It chronicles the exploits of an expat, a bootlegger and a cricket player in Mumbai and was inspired by newspaper stories.

Stay tuned for more from the “10th Annual Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council" film festival.

Visit http://miaacfilmfest.org/index.htm for tickets, venues and general information about the “10th Annual Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council .