The South Asian International Film Festival concluded Saturday night after a two week layoff thanks to Hurricane Sandy.

“This was a historic year for us and the city. Besides introducing some amazing films and doing the Rising Star Film Awards, we also got hit with a storm,” Shilen Amin, SAIFF’s President and Founder, said. “So many of the films that we wanted to show did not make it to  the screen but we were able to make up our closing night at least.”

The festival award winners were also officially announced Saturday night. Check out the winners below and the links to their IIF reviews.

Grand Jury Award: “The Bright Day” by Mohit Takalkar (IIF Review)

image

“The Bright Day” took home SAIFF’s Grand Jury Award

Best Director: Mohit Takalkar for “The Bright Day”

Jury Award: “Blood Relative” by Nimisha Mukerji (IIF Review)

Audience Choice Feature Film: “Blood Relative” by Nimisha Mukerji (Interview with the filmmakers) 

image

Nimisha Mukerji and Mark Ratzlaff’s “Blood Relative” took home the Jury Award and Audience Choice Award for Best Feature

HBO Best Short Film: “Bureaucracy Sonata” by Vinay Shukla (IIF Review)

image

Vinay Shukla’s “Bureaucracy Sonata” won the HBO Short Film Competition

Audience Choice Short Film: “…Or Die” by Gregory Bonsignore (IIF Review)

image

“…Or Die” by Gregory Bonsignore won the Audience Choice Award for best short film.

Congratulations to all the winners and keep a look out for some more post festival coverage and reviews from SAIFF 2012.