Jeffrey D Brown’s child trafficking film will open the 12th Indian Film Festival Of Los Angeles (IFFLA), while Jasmine Jaisinghani has been appointed the festival’s first artistic director.

IFFLA founder and chair of the board Christina Marouda made the announcements. Jaisinghani arrives from AFI FEST, where she served as the cultural and industry relations director and headed guest services.

Emma Thompson served as executive producer on SOLD and Gillian Anderson, David Arquette and Seema Biswas star in the adaptation of Patricia McCormick’s fact-based book.

“Because of SOLD’s marvelous script and courageous and brilliant cast it is a story that we can all watch, so that we may understand the processes of slavery in modern India and feel able to act without feeling the kind of rage and hopelessness that gets in the way of doing anything,” said Thompson (pictured in conversation during the awards season.)

Commenting on the Jaisinghani hire, Marouda said: “We’re thrilled to have Jasmine on board as our artistic director. She was our first festival coordinator in 2005 and has been associated with IFFLA since. This feels like a full circle, and we could not think of a more deserving person to take on this position.”

Jaisinghani, an independent producer of Indian-Mexican descent, has also worked extensively in the music industry, including a tenure at George Harrison’s record label Dark Horse.

Rounding out this year’s programming team are director of programming Mike Dougherty, documentary film programmer Sudeep Sharma and short film programmer Thouly Dosios.

The full line-up of IFFLA screenings and events will be announced in mid-March. The festival is scheduled to run from April 8-13 in Hollywood.

Topics