CLOSING NIGHT & AWARDS

Rajiv Satyal is a Los Angeles-based comedian/host. His TV-clean act has made him one of the most versatile comedians working today. He began his career in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.Rajiv had an unusual entry into standup, doing his act for then-World №1 tennis player Pete Sampras in a locker room.

Satyal has some interesting claims to fame: he opened for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in front of 17,000 people. He made the massively viral I AM INDIAN video, which has been seen over 50 million times, shared by Bollywood stars, and used to introduce the Indian Prime Minister in Shanghai and Dubai. He has opened for Russell Peters more than any other Indian comedian. Rajiv has opened for Dave Chappelle five times, and even opened Chappelle’s very first show after his much-publicized African hiatus.A self-described “Indian comedian from Cincinnati” who covers everything from racial issues to soap bottles to his favorite topic – himself, Rajiv has performed for companies like General Electric, General Mills, Quaker and Cisco. He co-founded ‘Make Chai Not War’ – a stand-up show sponsored by the US State Department that traveled to seven Indian cities in 2012 and named his alma mater’s online radio station ‘Bearcast.’ He has also launched and managed a Miss India America’s career and assisted NFL players in defining their lives after football.
He has stated that his career goal is to host the Oscars.

Adil Hussain is known for his critically acclaimed performances in award winning films such as Ang Lee's Oscar winning Life of Pi, Subhashish Bhutiani's Hotel Salvation/Mukti Bhavan, Iram Haq's What Will People Say, Danis Tanovic's Tigers, Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Pan Nalin's Angry Indian Goddesses, Partho Sen-Gupta's Sunrise, Italo Spinelli's Gangor, Prashant Nair's Umrika, Leena Yadav's Parched and Bauddhayan Mukherji's The Violin Player .

 

For his lead role in Hotel Salvation and Maj Rati Ketaki, he received a National Award in India in 2017. He also received  the Norwegian National award, known as Amanda Awards for Best Actor and Kanon Prisen award in Norway for Best Supporting actor for his work in What Will People Say in 2018.

For Mukti Bhavan which has received over 25 International awards, he has been nominated for numerous Best actor awards and won at the DCSAFF and Rajasthan International Film Festival . He received Best actor award for his work in Lessons in Forgetting at the NJSCF.

 

He is widely known for his roles in English Vinglish, Lootera, Main aur Charles, Dobaara, Aiyaary etc. and has acted in numerous independent as well as commercial films in the Hindi, Bengali , Assamese, Malayali, Tamil film industries as well as in many Indo-European art house films.

Independent documentary filmmaker, activist, film festival curator (based in India), Surabhi is the one who made Indie Meme happen. It was through Surabhi’s personal work that the idea to promote Indie Films (not seen by most people in the US) came about.

 

Her feature length documentaries have been screened and awarded at international and national festivals. The films have also been used by grass root campaigns and at universities in India and abroad. Surabhi has a fan following on every continent.

 

Surabhi is now based in Abu Dhabi and Mumbai. She has worked on several feature length documentaries apart from some short fiction films and video installations. Her key concern has been documenting cities in transition through the lens of labour, music and migration, and most recently reproductive labour. Cinema verite and ethnography are the genres that inform her filmmaking. She is currently teaching in the Film and new Media Programme at New York University Abu Dhabi.