Adil Hussain’s ‘Meal’ wins the best short at Indie Meme Festival at Austin

National award-winning actor Adil Hussain was a virtual special guest at the 5th Annual Indie Meme Film Festival that was held in the first week of May at Austin in the USA. Hussain's short film Meal that was made in two days and stars at the subject of India that is not shining anymore won the best short film award. The film was shot in Kolkata and completed in two days.

This virtual experience of the Indie Meme Film Festival was as good as a live event with all screening presented in the same seamless format with a pre-screening presentation followed by virtual screening and Q&A session. Journalist-turned documentary filmmaker Priya Thuvassery's documentary Coral Woman which follows Uma Mani who learned to dive at age of 49 to save the coral reef is a very inspiring story. Uma made efforts to address the threat to coral reefs from pollution and global warming.

Last but not least it was Tanuja Chandra's documentary on her aunts titled Aunty Sudha Aunty Radha won the audience choice awards at the festival. There were over 1,600 views for 15 films shown over 6 evenings (6 feature films, and 9 shorts). Since only one login is enough for a family to attend, the total virtual viewers could be over 3000.

A total of 11 filmmakers and another 11 casts and crew joined the virtual festival. The Closing Night of IMFF2020 doubled up as the Awards Night as well and was hosted by the notable stand-up comedian Rajiv Satyal. Adil Hussain and Filmmaker and Activist Surabhi Sharma were special guests to celebrate the occasion.

The founder of the festival Alka Bhanot said, `` the 5th Indie Meme festival was a fantastic leap into a world of new virtual possibilities. It is a great achievement to be able to say IMFF was the first interactive virtual film festival.'' The President of the festival Animon Jose was all praises for the content team.

IMFF2020 presented diverse and thought-provoking content. The jury award-winning movies were also on the top of the audience list showing the exquisite taste of the audience. Indie Meme Org is an Austin based non-profit organization, whose mission is to promote socially relevant independent cinema from South Asia, in an effort to influence social and cultural awareness and consciousness, and encourage and facilitate dialogue.

Indie Meme engages, educates, entertains, and brings together different communities to promote cross-cultural understanding and build a globally conscious community. Indie Meme offers screenings of carefully curated independent cinema – feature, documentaries, short films, etc. from South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and even Iran)