MUMBAI: Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black will be the first film to be showcased at this year's edition of the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA ) which will kick off on 20 April. IFFLA is the US festival dedicated to presenting the cinema of India by showcasing films by Indian and international filmmakers.

The event will close on 24 April with Bharatbala's Hari Om. IFFLA will take place at ArcLight Hollywood (6360 Sunset Blvd), the official home of the festival.

"This year's programme includes a number of exciting discoveries from truly independent to regional to Bollywood films," said IFFLA festival director Christina Marouda. "We are particularly proud to offer Los Angeles premieres of some of the finest recent examples of Indian cinema," added IFFLA programmer in India Uma Da Cunha.

IFFLA 2005 has lined up panel discussions, special movie screenings and live performances in the five-day long event. This will also include 11 US movie premieres and five world premieres. The event will attempt to present a clear idea to the world on Indian cinema and culture with the screening of 30 special films.

A panel discussion on "Co-producing with India: The new frontier for international production" will be attended by personalities such as Mark Burton of WonderFilms, Anand Desai, DSK Legal, India and Dileep Singh of OTR Productions. The session, moderated by Blueprint Artist Management's Alpita Patel, will be held on 23 April at 4:30 PM

IFFLA will also host jury and audience choice competitions for best feature, documentary and short films. The jurors will include: Mira Advani, Radha Mitchell and Cheng-Sim Lim for features; Gotham Chopra, Paul Wolansky and Catherine Park for shorts; Noel DA Souza, Parminder Nagra and Vinay Lal for documentaries.