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2025
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June
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26th June 2025
Dev Benegal’s film on James Ivory for The Metropolitan Museum of Art, titled An Arrested Moment was won Best Short Documentary at the New York Indian Film Festival’s 25th Anniversary edition. 🥳
You can read a case study about the film on FCP Cafe.
The official press release says:
On Friday, June 20th, after the Opening Night Screening at the 25th Anniversary Edition of the New York Indian Film Festival, Festival Director, Aseem Chhabra, and filmmaker, Anurag Kashyap, presented the award for Best Short Documentary to director Dev Benegal for his film ‘An Arrested Moment’ in collaboration with Navina Haidar, Nasser Sabah al-Ahmad al- Sabah Curator in Charge of Islamic Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The film was produced by Min(d) Studio’s Maya S. Patel and Neeraj Jain.
‘An Arrested Moment’ is about James Ivory’s relationship to India, his deep admiration for Indian art, and his love for storytelling. The film transports viewers into images of Indian painting, drawing, and photography that have inspired Ivory’s work over the years. On seeing Indian miniatures for the first time as a young man, Ivory said, “Something just clicked — like falling in love.”
Benegal says, “Celebrating James Ivory and collaborating with Navina Haidar, has been a deep dive into the soul of India and Indian art. There were no divisions or boundaries when these masterpieces were being created. To film Jim, and hear his journey through art and film has been an experience of a lifetime. As a filmmaker, I could not be more fortunate.”
The film is a collaboration between The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Islamic Art Department and Min(d) Studio for the exhibition Ink and Ivory, Indian Drawings and Photographs Selected with James Ivory, on display in the Museum’s Hagop Kevorkian Gallery from July 29, 2024–May 4, 2025. It had a special premiere at The Met’s Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium in the fall of 2024 with over 700 guests in attendance.
Haidar says, “Presenting Indian painting and photography through the lens of James Ivory’s life and work and Dev Benegal’s filmic imagination, created a unique addition to the exhibition.”
Min(d) Studio was founded by Dev Benegal, Maya S. Patel, and Neeraj Jain with a shared vision to tell stories about people and cultures that are often unheard and unseen — championing stories that can spark conversation outside the walls of the cinema.
You can watch a trailer for the film on YouTube.