The 11th Mumbai Film Festival beats the city’s Monday morning blues on 2nd November

Anurag Kashyap engages the Mumbai Young Critics in a heart-to-heart talk

Mumbai, November 2, 2009: After a buzzing weekend at the 11th Mumbai Film Festival, the tempo and spirit continued on Monday, as the day witnessed a series of world class film screenings including Steven Soderbergh’s Girlfriend Experience, Toronto International Film Festival’s Award winning The Man Beyond the Bridge, Wrong Rosary, Eastern Plays amongst many others.

Today’s Special actors Naseeruddin Shah, Harish Patel, director David Kaplan and producer Nimitt V. Mankad visited the festival to interact with press. The day’s Special is based on actor Aasif Mandhvi`s award winning off-Broadway play, Sakina’s Restaurant. The film stars Aasif Mandvi, Madhur Jaffrey, Naseeruddin Shah and Harish Patel.

Anurag Kashyap met with the Mumbai Young Critics Jury and shared with them his experience of being a jury member at film festivals and enlightened them with some tips on dos and don’ts as a jury member.  

Directors of La Tigra, Chaco - Federico Godfrid and Juan Sasiaín competing for the USD 100,000 in the International Competition were also present at Fun Cinemas to interact with press. Both the directors possess wealth of theatre experience and Sasiaín also works in advertising. Their film is about Esteban who returns to La Tigra, a place he hasn’t been for quite a while. Looking for his father, instead he reconnects with a girl he has some unexplained history with in this understated yet wonderfully acted piece of new Argentine cinema. La Tigra, Chaco stars Ezequiel Tronconi, Gaulalupe Docampo and Anna Allende.

Also present at the festival were Ukrainian filmmaker and director of The Day Of Defeated (screened in World Cinema section), directors of the documentary Between HipHop and Kalashnikov (Zwischen HipHop und Kalaschnikow) - Stefanie Landgraf and Johannes Gulde presenting their documentary in the ‘The Real Reel’ section of the festival. Shot in Palestine, the documentary shows how guns are giving way to microphones in the troubled region.  Director P Sunil Kumar Reddy presented his film Telugu film Sontha Vooru (Native Village). Reddy is a Mechanical Engineer by Qualification, Journalist by Profession and Film maker by Passion. Sontha Vooru is about an emotional trauma of a burial ground caretaker named Rudraswamy who couldn’t digest the death of his native village.

The UK Film Council were also present at the festival with some of the best British film ready to hit the Indian screens next year - From Blighty (read vilayati) with Love. It is an ambitious initiative by UK-India film distribution that features independent specialised British films as part of the festival.

From Blighty With Love, will showcase films from classy literary adaptations such as Stephen Elliot’s Easy Virtue and Julian Jarrold’s Brideshead Revisited, to international hits such as James Marsh’s Oscar®-winning Man On Wire and Armando Iannucci’s satirical comedy In the Loop.

For the first time British films will be opened to the English speaking audience in India, and will have simultaneous screening of each film on multiple screens in 2K digital cinemas across Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune. The full programme will be announced in January 2010 at a special reception in India.

Whistling Woods’ Open Forum today featured an eclectic mix of luminaries discussing on the “Making Of Films For The World”. The moderator John J Lee Jr., international Dean of Whistling Woods International referred to globalisation, and the heightened interest in cinema, with even ‘smaller countries’ like Iceland, and Singapore, offering innovative packages and guarantees for production and postproduction. Sarah Mckenzie concerned with export development at the UK Film Council noted that films made in the UK, (most of these being with Hollywood support) had a mere 15% share of the market, in comparison with the hold of Hollywood cinema.

Both Sidharth R Kapoor (UTV) and Sanjeev Lamba (Reliance Big Entertainment) are of the opinion that to date, no Indian film has made the ‘crossover’ to the global market. James Mimikos, a filmmaker from Greece , believes that “local stories with universal stories sell; however, enough thought needs to be given even to the potential of the film to bring in the audience. Referring to the increased presence and impact on the market world-wide, of the Asian diaspora, Uma D’Cunha, reputed journalist and programmer for various film festivals stated firmly, “The ‘crossover’ is from the West to us; it’s Hollywood that wants to come here.”

Films in competition are being viewed on 8 screens at Fun Cinemas (Andheri), Metro BIG Cinemas (Marine Lines) & BIG Cinemas R City (Ghatkopar) and judged by MFF 2009 Jury Members including: renowned Hollywood screenwriter and director Mr. Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, American Gigolo), Iranian filmmaker Mr. Jafar Panahi, Philippine filmmaker Mr. Brillante Mendoza, Indian filmmaker Mr. Shaji N. Karun and former Director of Locarno Film Festival Ms. Irene Bignardi.

This year MFF carries one of the richest cash awards for its International Competition for Directors who are Debuting Feature Films with a cash prize of US$ 100,000 (approx. Rs. 50, 00,000).  Additional awards include the Golden Gateway of India trophy for the Best Film, the Silver Gateway of India trophy and cash prize of USD $50,000 (approx. Rs. 25, 00,000) for the Jury Grand Prize. The best talent from these films will be awarded the Silver Gateway of India trophy and all films in this category are Indian premiers. Lastly, this year MAMI is introducing the Audience Choice Award [Silver Gateway of India trophy and cash prize of USD $20,000 (approx. Rs. 10, 00,000)].  Films from all sections except the retrospective and tributes are eligible.

Brand alliances for the festival include Audience Choice Award P7 News, BIG FM 92.7, Meghalaya Tourism, Print partner Bombay Times, bollywoodhungama.com, Bigoye.com, Bigflix.com, BIG Cinemas, Fun Cinemas, BIG Events, BIGAdda.com, Reliance MediaWorks, Kingfisher Premium, Block Dog, Reliance Tech Services, Reliance Broadband, Jet airways, Sun-N Sand Hotel, Carzonrent, Bright Outdoor.

About MAMI:

Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) is a body comprised of Indian film industry stalwarts which was founded in 1997 by late filmmaker Shri Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Noted filmmaker Shri Shyam Benegal heads the body that consists of film directors including: Yash Chopra, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Karan Johar, renowned actresses Shabana Azmi and Jaya Bachchan, actor-director Amol Palekar and Farhan Akhtar and the chairman of Reliance Big Entertainment Amit Khanna as Trustees.

For more information please log on to www.mumbaifilmfest.com