The Dallas/Fort Worth South Asian Film Festival (DFW SAFF), created by New York and Dallas-based arts and entertainment company JINGO Media, was honored at the Texas Governor's Small Business Forum with the "Most Innovative Small Business of 2017" Award on Wednesday. Organized and hosted by the US-India Chamber of Commerce (DFW), the Governor's Small Business Forum also recognized three other North Texas small businesses in different categories: TechStar Group, B12 Consulting and NectarOM.
DFW SAFF was created three years ago to promote the perspectives and voices of the South Asian community through cinema. Founder and festival director Jitin Hingorani said: "We are truly honored and humbled to receive this award from Governor Greg Abbott. This is a testament to our strong DFW community, who has embraced our film festival with open arms and fills out theaters to capacity year-after-year. India is known for its Bollywood films, but we want to create an appreciation for the smaller, independent gems that may never see the light of day, if it were not for festivals like ours."
The 4th annual DFW SAFF will take place from February 8 to 11, 2018, at the AMC Village on the Parkway in Addison, Texas, and it will showcase more than 20 shorts, documentaries and feature films from South Asia. In addition to international and Texas premieres, the festival will also host workshops, networking events and a VIP red carpet reception for its invited filmmakers and actors from all over the world. For more information and the festival line-up, please visit www.dfwsaff.com.
"We had a lot of nominees this year for the 'Most Innovative Business' Award," says Neel Gonuguntla, President of the US-India Chamber of Commerce (DFW). "But DFW SAFF has built a truly innovative business model that leads to community integration through the universally-loved art form of cinema."
