WASHINGTON–Star power turned up the heat at the screening of Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar's latest hit, “Rock On!!”at the opening of the 2nd 'Indian Visions' film festival here on Nov. 13.

The film's director Abhishek Kapoor received the official “Opening Night Selection Award.” He said after the event, “To see people in the auditorium reacting to the film so positively was quite overwhelming. It was nice to meet the mixed crowd of Indian and Americans and discuss the finer details of the film with them.”

His participation “brought a lot of cheer to the audience," said festival director Sukumar Srinivasan. "His presence added a zestful feel to the festival,” added festival program coordinator Amanda Sodhi.

Director Brahmanand Singh received Indian Visions Audience Award for his documentary film “Pancham Unmixed.”

Several independent and international films were showcased at the festival, which continued through Nov. 16 at the Phoenix Adlabs Theaters at Union Station. Celebrity guests included Brahmanand Singh (of 'Pancham Unmixed' fame), Spandan Banerjee ('The Fiction' and 'Beware Dogs'), Ashish Avikunthak ('Nirakar Chhaya – Shadows Formless' and 'Antaral – End Note'), Mona Kumar ('Between Two Worlds'), Leena Jayaswal and Indira Somani ('Crossing Lines') and Harjant Gill ('Milind Soman Made Me Gay'), whose independent films were screened and applauded.

Other movies which garnered appreciation included Adoor Gopalakrishnan's 'Naalu Pennungal', Aamir Khan's 'Taare Zameen Par', Franz Osten's 'Prapancha Pash', Umesh Kulkarni's 'Valu – The Wild Bull', Mira Nair, Vishal Bharadwaj, Farhan Akhtar and Santosh Sivan's 'AIDS JaaGo' Neeraj Pandey's 'A Wednesday', Nishikant Kamat's 'Mumbai Meri Jaan', Liz Mermin's 'Shot In Bombay', Preeya Nair's 'Quamar – Working to Live', Christopher Mitchell's 'Super 30', Ramesh Mourthy and Raghu Jeganathan's 'Wings of Evolution', Atul Sabharwal's 'Midnight Lost and Found', Atul Taishete's 'Rewind', Dhiraj Meshram's 'Haravele Indradhanush–The Lost Rainbow' and Sidharth Singh's 'The Private Life of Albert Pinto'