(December 7, 2015 – Toronto, Ontario) – Deepa Mehta is having a very good year. First was the release of her feature Beeba Boys, which debuted as a Gala at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Inspired by the Indo-Sikh gangster scene in Vancouver, the film starred Bollywood’s Randeep Hooda as a charismatic gang leader. In our opinion it was her most accomplished film yet and the big budget production showed every dollar on the screen. It will be available in Canada on VOD December 22 and the DVD release date is January 12. But as we said, that was just the beginning.
On November 20, Mehta was the only Canadian to speak at the Women in the World India Summit in New Delhi, whose stellar lineup included Oscar-winning actress/humanitarian Cate Blanchett, Mehta, along with Indian actresses Nandita Das and Shabana Azmi, engaged in a conversation about Mehta’s 1996 film Fire that tells of the love affair between two unhappily married women (Das and Azmi). The film was one of the first to address homosexuality in the Indian community.
Ten days late, on November 30, it was announced that Mehta had won the 2015 Clyde Gilmour Award, the prize voted annually by members of the Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA) to an individual whose work has enriched Canadian cinema and culture. The prize is sponsored by Technicolor, which will award $50,000 in post-production services to a filmmaker of Mehta’s choosing.
This past Saturday, December 5, Deepa Mehta was presented with keys to the city of Florence by the Deputy Mayor of Florence, Cristina Giachi, while attending the River to River Florence Indian Film Festival. The honour was to recognize her contribution to cinema.The festival, which got underway on December 6th is hosting the Italian premiere of Beeba Boys.
And earlier today we learned that Deepa Mehta will head up the prestigious Muhr Feature Competition Jury at the 12th edition
of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), which runs December 9 to 16. Joining her on the jury will be Australian independent documentary filmmaker Tom Zubrycki, Egyptian actor Khaled El Nabawy, Iraqi filmmaker Maysoon Alpachachi and Emirati poet/filmmaker Nujoom Al-Ghanem.
The Muhr Awards juries recognize the best talent from the Arab and wider world – with four categories making up this year’s Awards: Muhr Features, Muhr Emirati, Muhr Shorts and Muhr Gulf Shorts.
Beeba Boys, will play in DIFF’s Cinema of the World program.
Congratulations, again, from everyone at Northernstars.ca
