Mukesh Asopa and company are jumping for joy as their film Aisha and Rahul is one of the winners of the prestigious Golden Palm Award of the Mexico International Film Festival 2009. The award ceremony held in Mexico (of course) begins on 29 May and concludes on 31 May.

According to their Website, the Mexico International Film Festival “was founded on the premise that the language of film is universal and a dynamic force in bridging cultural understanding.” It prides itself on screening independent cinema productions that are compelling and diverse.

Each spring, MIFF takes place on the Baja coast, in the beautiful town of Rosarito. It features premiere screenings, award ceremonies, seminars (on the craft and creative process of cinema, as well as the business of making, financing, and distributing a film), interactive question and answer sessions, round-table discussions, and a screenplay competition.

Presented are the awards for several categories – Feature, Documentary, Short, Foreign, Animation, Music Video, Student, Direction, Acting, Screenwriting, Television Pilot and Best of Mexico. A panel of industry professionals chooses and awards the Grand Jury Prize to the best film in the competition. With thousands of films hailing from 30 countries, only 18 films under the feature film category can win the Golden Palm Award. Aisha and Rahul contended in this category and walked away with one of the coveted awards.

Aisha and Rahul is a story about a typical desi girl brought up in the western world a boy from India new to the West, who by chance meet in a coffee shop. It is a story about their very close friendship, which eventually develops into more.

The cast members are: Mukesh Asopa (Rahul), Jas Dhanda (Aisha), Kamal Nandi, Zahir Gilani, Yasmen Khan, Tree Ryde, F. Llyod Foster/Righteous Allah, Haris Nadeem, Kenia Del Toro-Dancer, Robbie Beniuk and Khushi Pandya.

ICB congratulates all of them for a job well done in winning this prestigious award.