Coalition of South Asian Film Festivals Closes 15-Day Virtual Event with Jury Awards and 45K+ Views

SEATTLE, Oct. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- An unprecedented finish to an unprecedented festival! The Coalition of South Asian Film Festivals (CoSAFF), the largest South Asian film festival in North America this year, produced by Tasveer, concludes its 15-day-long event by announcing its Jury Awards and clocking in over 45,000 views of its virtual programming.

CoSAFF featured over 60 films, live Q&As with filmmakers, panels with key industry insiders, and more. The marquee films included the Hindi-language film Mee Raqsam, which marked the Opening Night celebrations in partnership with Film Companion, Nepali-language film Lato Kosero as the Centerpiece, and Hindi-language film Eeb Allay Ooo featured on the Closing Night.  

The CoSAFF Jury Awards included: Best Fiction Feature presented jointly to Achal Mishra's Gamak Ghar and Prateek Vats' Eeb Allay Ooo; Best Documentary was awarded to Enver Samuel's Someone to Blame: The Ahmed Timol Inquest; and the Best Short Film award went to Saim Sadiq's Darling.

At the close of the festival, CoSAFF's virtual platform, powered by Vimeo OTT, had received over 45,000 total views.

In a joint statement, the CoSAFF organizers add:

What began seven months ago as just an idea, and a desire to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, grew into this beautiful celebration of the best South Asian films and filmmakers. We didn't imagine that our festival would grow to be this big and that our programming would be watched from all corners of the world with such enthusiasm. We've been really heartened by the warm and encouraging messages we've received from our audiences, and the excitement of our filmmakers. All seven festivals that came together to create CoSAFF feel honored and grateful for the incredible films we were able to screen, the vast experiences of all our panelists and guests, and the tremendous response of our audiences. Through CoSAFF, we wanted to show solidarity within the South Asian community in these difficult times, and we are proud to say we have been able to accomplish that. A big thank you to all our sponsors, partners, and donors for their support and for making our festival possible.     

CoSAFF came together in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, in an effort to support South Asian filmmakers and provide safe entertainment and engagement with audiences around the world. The entirely virtual festival took place from Oct 3-17.

More information on CoSAFF, visit www.cosaff.org.

SOURCE Tasveer