NEW DELHI: The Hindi film 'Mukti Bhawan' (Hotel Salvation) by Shubhashish Bhutiani on treatment of senior citizens has won the best film award at the 17th annual New York Indian Film Festival.

The actress Konkona Sen Sharma, who hails from a film family, won two awards: one as director for 'A death in the Gunj' and the second as actress for 'Lipstick under my burkha'.

The week-long festival premiered 85 shorts, documentaries and feature films from the Indian subcontinent in Hindi and English, and in seven regional languages (Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali).

The best actor award went to K Kaladharan for 'The Narrow Path'. The best screenplay award went to P Balachandran for 'Kammattipadam'. The best short was 'Aaba' by Amar Kaushik and the best documentary award went to 'An insignificant man' by Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla about the meteoric rise of Arvind Kejriwal on the Indian political scene which has already won acclaim overseas.

'Aaba' has also been selected for the Berlin International Film Festival.

'Mukti Bhawan' had also received the special mention in the National Awards for producer Red Carper Moving Pictures and director Shubhashish Bhutiani and actor Adil Hussain and had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on 2 September last year.

In addition to film premieres, the festival featured sidebar programming such as Sibling Filmmakers (Deepa & Dilip Mehta), Priyanka Produces (VENTILATOR & SARVANN), Tribute to Om Puri, Mobile Bollywood, "Shoot a Short Film" workshop, industry panels (CAA's Short Film Initiative), nightly networking events, red carpets and a gala.

More than 40 filmmakers attended the festival and participated in Q&A sessions after their films.

The annual festival was organized by the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC): Founded in 1998, the IAAC is a secular, not-for-profit, service and resource arts organization charged with the mission of promoting and building the awareness, creation, production, exhibition, publication and performance of Indian, sub-continental and cross-cultural art forms in North America.

It also works with artists and arts organizations in North America as well as to facilitate artists and arts organizations from India as well as other countries from the rest of the Indian sub-continent to exhibit, perform and produce their work here. The IAAC works passionately to become an integral part of the amazing cultural diversity of New York City and the United States. The IAAC supports all artistic disciplines int he classical, fusion, folk and innovative forms influenced by the arts of the Indian subcontinent.