Mumbai, Jun 17 (IANS): The annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA), billed as a platform of independent cinema from India and the diaspora, has announced a special virtual showcase -- IFFLA Over the Years: 17 days celebrating 17 years of Indian cinema.

Accessible via the IFFLA website beginning on June 19 through July 5 2020, this virtual showcase of over 120 feature films, documentaries, and short films by festival alumni, will be available online either freely or via popular streaming services.

IFFLA Over the Years is the festival's response to the ongoing uncertainty in the film festival circuit owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We are beyond thrilled to be presenting this online showcase of alumni films," said Christina Marouda, IFFLA founder.

"Traveling through 17 years of programming has allowed us to reconnect with so many of our alumni with whom we share fond memories. We are excited with this opportunity to collaborate with them to offer new audiences worldwide the chance to discover some of the most visionary voices of Indian independent cinema in recent years. We also hope recent IFFLA attendees have a chance to catch up with films from our first decade, and early attendees who could not join us in recent years are able to discover some of the newer gems we've presented. There is literally a film for everyone's appetite."

IFFLA Over the Years is curated into 12 categories like "Humor Me Now" contains lighthearted, comedic stories such as the late Manish Acharya's "Loins Of Punjab", while "Grit And Thrills" focuses on darker themes like Anurag Kashyap's "Gangs Of Wasseypur", and Vikramaditya Motwane's "Trapped". "A Female Lens" is a category that includes features films made by and/or centering on women such as Karishma Dev Dube's "Devi".