Celebration! That was the mantra throughout the six days of the 2012 Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA). The festival concluded Sunday evening (April 15) with a red carpet and gala 10th anniversary fete that included the Los Angeles premiere of Prashant Bhargava's PATANG and the presentation of the festival's Grand Jury and Audience Choice Awards, followed by an after party.

This year the festival hosted 45 filmmakers and screened 33 features, documentaries, and short films at ArcLight Hollywood, home of IFFLA since its inception. Founder Christina Marouda said, "This milestone anniversary has truly led to an incredible celebration year and has become our most successful festival yet. IFFLA is proud to be a catalyst for Indian filmmakers and cinema in Hollywood. With themes that strike a universal chord among audiences, the popularity of our festival continues to grow each year. As we enter our next decade, we look forward to offering audiences the unique opportunity to experience the rich textures and subtle complexities that make Indian cinema so special."

Receiving the Grand Jury Prizes were: Karan Gour's CORRODE (KSHAY) for Best Feature; Best Documentary went to Gemma Atwal's MARATHON BOY with an Honorable Mention to Rajan Khosa's GATTU; Best Short honors went to Neeraj Ghaywan's "Noise (Shor)" with Ravi Kapoor's "The 5" and actress Huma Qureshi for her performance in "Sujata" each receiving an honorable mention. Rajan Khosa took home a second honor of the evening when GATTU won the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature; Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary went to Gotham Chopra for his DECODING DEEPAK and Anirban Roy's AUDACITY ("Aashprodha") won the Audience Choice Award for Best Short Film.

GRAND JURY AWARDS:

BEST FEATURE: CORRODE (KSHAY) directed by Karan Gour, HONORABLE MENTION: GATTU directed by Rajan Khosa
BEST DOCUMENTARY: MARATHON BOY directed by Gemma Atwa
BEST SHORT FILM: "Noise" ("Shor") directed by Neeraj Ghaywan; HONORABLE MENTIONS: "The 5" directed by Ravi Kapoor and Huma Qureshi for her performance in "Sujata"

AUDIENCE AWARDS:

BEST FEATURE: GATTU directed by Rajan Khosa
BEST DOCUMENTARY: DECODING DEEPAK directed by Gotham Chopra
BEST SHORT: AUDACITY (AASHPRODHA) directed by Anirban Roy

This year's Jurors included FEATURES: SUNIL PERKASH (Prod./SALT), Academy Award Foreign Film Selection committee member and marketing guru GARY SHAPIRO and JONATHAN REIMAN (YRF Entertainment Production Head); DOCUMENTARIES: KRISTIN FEELEY (Associate Director of the Documentary Film Program at Sundance Institute), DAVID MAGDAEL (founder and president of David Magdael & Associates) and filmmakerKATHERINE FAIRFAX WRIGHT. Shorts jurors include actress HANNAH SIMONE ("New Girl"), actor IQBAL THEBA ("Glee") and independent producer NICHOLAS BRUCKMAN.

In addition to the sold out screenings, IFFLA, known for its exceptional events, treated film fans to music and dance via the return of Rhythm Village/Rhythm Village Unplugged and introduced a Family Day to its roster this year. Continuing its commitment to bridging the industry gap between the Indian and American entertainment industries, IFFLA held two seminars that explored the journey that its filmmakers make from production to distribution. "From Script to Screen: of the Making of PATANG" which included Actress Seema Biswas, screenwriter, director and editor Prashant Bhargava, producer Jaideep Punjabi, writing consultant James Townsend, and composer Mario Grigorov; and "Aiming High: The Personal Journeys of Three Indian-American Industry Leaders" with panelists Universal Television Production Head Bela Bajaria, ProducerSunil Perkash (SALT) and Producer Adi Shankar (THE GREY) moderated by Rupak Ginn ("Royal Pains"). Eros Entertainment head Kishore Lullaalong with Sundance Institute's Michelle Satter and Alesia Weston and IFFLA Board and HFPA member Ahmed Lateef were this year's Industry Leadership Awards (ILA) honorees on Thursday, April 12th, at the House of Blues in Hollywood which was emcee'd by ABC 7's Eyewitness team member Subha Ravindhran.