Richie Mehta's Amal won the Indira Mahindra Award for best film and a $5,000 cash prize as the eighth Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council (MIAAC) Film Festival in New York came to a close.

The premiere of Sooni Taraporevala's Little Zizou played on the night and also earned Taraporevala the best screenplay and best director prizes.

Ashish Avikunthak was also named best director for Shadows Formless, while Sachin Khedekar was named best actor for Bose: The Forgotten Hero and Mandira Banerjee won best actress for Shadows Formless. All the above awards carried prizes of $5,000.

Lakshmi and Me by Nishtha Jain won best documentary and Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK's Noise was named best short. Both awards carried $2,500 cash prizes.

Overall this year's festival screened 32 Indian and diaspora films, all of which were New York or US Premieres, and held dozens of special events and panels.