A stellar line-up at Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA 2016)

Mumbai: An eclectic line up of 27 films (16 features and 11 shorts) is announced to be screened at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) held at ArcLight, Hollywood in Los Angeles. The festival is famous for showcasing groundbreaking Indian cinema in the global limelight.

This year will be IFFLA's 14^th edition slated to be held from 6 to 10 April 2016.

IFFLA is a nonprofit organization devoted to a greater appreciation of Indian cinema and culture. It showcases and promotes films which pertain to the diverse perspectives of the Indian diaspora.

Filmmaker and four-time IFFLA alum Pan Nalin's powerful Angry Indian Goddesses is set to be the show opener with Anu Menon's poignant 'Waiting' closing IFFLA as a North American premiere on April 10.

'Waiting' stars Bollywood veteran actors Naseeruddin Shah and Kalki Koechlin.

Apart from that, three films- CRD by Kranti Kanade, Babu's Dilemma by Collin D'Cunha, and Anurag Kashyap produced Mochi (The Cobbler) by Saqib Pandor will have their world premiere along with be two North American premieres, and ten US premieres.

The five-day festival will see prominent presence of female filmmakers which includes: Deepa Mehta's gangster drama Beeba Boys; Leena Yadav's Parched, a piercing examination of India's patriarchal culture through the stories of four women; Ruchika Oberoi's genre-bending triptych, Island City; and Rinku Kalsy's documentary For the Love of a Man, about the fierce devotion shared by South-Indian superstar Rajinikanth's fans; and in the shorts program, Payal Sethi's Leeches, Megha Ramaswamy's Bunny, Pritha Chakraborthy's Ashrut (Silent Voices) and Sonejuhi Sinha'sLove Comes Later, among other lineups.

Two bold statement films with LGBT titles- Hansal Mehta's politically-charged Aligarh and the short Daaravtha (The Threshold) by Nishant Roy Bombarde will also be featured.

The 'shorts program' category includes an impressive directorial debut, Mochi (The Cobbler) by Saqib Pandor, premiering globally. Anuj Gulati's The Manliest Man with its North American premiere is a bold tale revealing the vision of this emerging director.

Attendees to be present among celebrated filmmakers include Bhaskar Hazarika (Kothanodi), KrantiKanade (CRD), Hansal Mehta (Aligarh), Prashant Nair & Swati Shetty (Umrika), Pan Nalin(Angry Indian Goddesses),Ruchika Oberoi (Island City), Q (Brahman Naman) and Leena Yadav (Parched).

Christina Marouda, Founder of IFFLA said: "India's independent filmmakers are taking bold risks, defying convention, and responding to injustice in each of these visionary films, and the results are breathtaking."

The Director of Programming, Mike Dougherty, adds, "I'm extremely excited for our Los Angeles audience to experience these films, which have garnered raves from around the world, or are making their world premieres with us."

The five-day festival is for premiering cutting-edge global Indian cinema along with bridging the gap between the two major powerhouses of entertainment industries in the world – Hollywood and India. (Inputs from Agencies)