"Funny Boy", a film directed by Deepa Mehta. an Oscar-nominated filmmaker whose work is celebrated on an international scale, has won the best international narrative feature, best script and best director of the 10th edition of NY Independent Cinema Awards.
Shot on location and set in Sri Lanka in the 1970s and 80s, FUNNY BOY explores the awakening of sexual identity by a young boy named Arjie set against the backdrop of the civil war. As political tensions escalate to a boiling point between the minority Tamils and the majority Sinhalese, the boy comes of age in a society and family that refuses to embrace differences outside of societal norms. The film mirrors the oppression of the Tamil people with the marginalization Arjie suffers because of who he is and who he loves. FUNNY BOY chronicles a country torn apart by fear and abuse of power, while Arjie’s struggles to find balance and self-love despite the absence of empathy and understanding.
The award-winning films of Deepa Mehta have played every major film festival, and been sold and distributed around the globe. Her films include the Elemental Trilogy: Earth, Fire, Water, the final film of which received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, Bollywood/Hollywood, Heaven on Earth and the epic adaptation of Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie’s three-time Booker Prize winning novel. Her work challenges traditions and stereotypes and is always daring, fearless and provocative. It’s this spirit that saturated her feature film Anatomy of Violence. Deepa shot the pilot and second episode for the Netflix Original series, Leila, and is the Creative Executive Producer for the show. She also directed The Manager, the pilot episode of Little America for Apple TV. Her latest feature film Funny Boy is based on the award winning novel by Shyam Selvadurai. It has been released on Netflix through ARRAY, and on CBC Gem in Canada. It received awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Director at the 2021 Canadian Screen Awards, and for Best Motion Picture and Best Supporting Performance Female at the 2021 Leo Awards. Deepa is currently working as the Co-Showrunner and Director for Legendary Global TV & Watford & Essex’s upcoming returnable series, Championess. And she is also the Writer and Director of Propagate Content’s feature film Burnt Sugar (Girl in White Cotton), based on Avni Doshi’s award-winning novel shortlisted for the Booker Prize.