As IFFLA’s Founder-Director, tell us how it happened, the idea of an exclusive Indian film festival in LA and choosing you, a person of Greek origin, to run it?
Arriving in the US eight years ago, I obtained an MBA in marketing to pursue a career in film distribution and joined Lions Gate Entertainment, which led to working for American Film Institute’s annual AFI FEST and the LA Film Festival. I realised that both hardly ever included an Indian film. I knew of India being the world’s largest film producer, and yet was intrigued at there being no outlet in the US for them,especially those that didn’t have an Indian or US distributor. Then, I discovered that there wasn’t even an Indian film festival in the US. I took the ambitious and challenging initiative to start it.
Why choose Indian films?
I was introduced to India early, watching Indian films in Greece as a teenager. It led to a personal interest, making the country very familiar. My sister, an international law professor, would give me articles about India.
How has the six-year old IFFLA reached where it has in an essentially Hollywood setting?
This labour of love - no hidden agendas - was a sincere mission from day one. And is so, six years later. It hasn’t been easy. We wanted to be independent, and make IFFLA known, not just within LA, but the international festival arena, and importantly, the Indian film industry.
IFFLA draws the talented Indian directors it has introduced to return at their own volition and cost (eg Anurag Kashyap and Nishikant Kamat). Why is this so?
We support not just the films we select but the filmmakers themselves, throughout the filmmaking process, from concept to distribution. We go out of our way to help them out, introduce them to industry people, assist with their release goals, provide guidance and advice. We try to offer more than the usual festival agenda. We are also strong believers of identifying talent and cultivating it, and we showcase a pool of talent on what India can offer today, not just the cinema of some decades ago. The filmmakers recognise our efforts and become our ambassadors.
Does this brand loyalty extend to film professionals living outside of India as well?
It definitely does to the local Hollywood executives. Requests for industry accreditations from industry executives is growing every year as the festival’s credibility is elevated. This year we expect a strong presence of film professionals to come to the festival venue, ArcLight Hollywood, and our other event venues.
Finally, can IFFLA, positioned just before Cannes, be threatened by producers tempted to aim more for Cannes and bypassing IFFLA?
This real constraint has increased with Cannes programmers visiting India holding out hopes. The reality is the scarcity of Indian films in Cannes sections. Producers in India now tend to keep us on hold, and so miss out on both. This has hurt our world premiere numbers. I think, though, that it has hurt certain films even more. We are evolving strategies to counter this problem. For example, we short-list films we really want as a last minute ‘surprise’ screening, in case they revert to us, post Cannes selection. We have to lock our Gala prize slots early so we do have to sacrifice some titles. We have introduced a centerpiece Gala slot for which we can extend our acceptance date. Most importantly, we highlight why a premiere at IFFLA is beneficial to the films it programmes. Our exclusive spotlight on Indian cinema offers far more than being a small entity among the overall international or Asian films. We hold One-on-One meetings with Industry executives (distributors, producers, agents, managers, festival programmers). Other incentives are our premiere ArcLight Hollywood venue and our access to mainstream press (Variety, Hollywood Reporter, LA Times, Screen), South Asian outlets and a diverse, dedicated audience.
IFFLA has year-long events related to Indian cinema, does it not, besides the annual film festival?
Yes, we hold monthly events, mostly premieres, and we make sure that LA’s industry professionals are invited. I wish India knew the type of work we do here, without even getting paid, to promote the country and its talent!
