Mumbai, October 21, 2012: – The weekend saw a gathering of epic proportions as cinephiles from across the city gathered to indulge in their cinematic taste buds at the 4th day of the 14th Mumbai Film Festival, presented by Reliance Entertainment and American Express and organized by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image!
The afternoon session witnessed the country’s first open forum Panel Discussion on Films Restoration & Preservation. The symposium involved eminent guests representing organizations such as World Cinema Foundation, Film Foundation, Twentieth Century Fox Archives and Academy Film Archive of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Cineteca di Bologna and noted Indian filmmaker Shivendra Singh Dungarpur whose documentary Celluloid Man a tribute film to revolutionary film archivist P. K. Nair will also be featured at the festival.
Moderated by Ian Birnie, US Representative at the Mumbai Film Festival and Director of the Film Department at the Los Angeles County Museum, the session offered most illuminating insights into the current state of film preservation and the challenges facing archives in future world of diminishing financial resources and rapidly evolving technologies.
Later during the day was the Masterclass in “Concept to Script to Film Production” conducted on by ace Filipino film director Brillante Mendoza who shared his experiences as a low budget filmmaker and suggested to the attentive audience how budding filmmakers can fructify their cinematic aspiration despite technical constraints. The session was moderated by respected German film critic Daniel Kothenschulte.
A session later in the afternoon hosted Dimensions Mumbai, a short film competition that featured short films of less than five minutes duration, made in any format and depicting any aspect of life in Mumbai by young Mumbaikars below the age of 25 years and. Offering a platform to showcase young and talented Mumbai based filmmakers, the competition segment was judged by an eminent panel comprising of Pune based ace filmmaker Unmesh Kulkarni (Jury President), versatile actor Sanjay Suri, multi talented animator, filmmaker and theatre actress Gitanjali Rao and renowned filmmaker Reema Kagti.
Despite some unprecedented technical difficulties faced, some of stellar works of cinematic genius screened were Benoît Jacquot’s Farewell My Queen, The Wall by critically acclaimed director Julian Pölsler, a biographic film titled Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out by Marina Zenovich, Twice Upon A Time by French filmmaker Jean-Paul Rouve, critically acclaimed film Kid by Fien Troch and the red carpet Gala showing of Save Your Legs by Australian director Boyd Hicklin.
A special segment was organized to pay homage to Indian cinema’s first “Superstar”, Hindi film legend Rajesh Khanna by screening one of the late star’s most memorable films Aradhana that was directed by celebrated Indian film director Shakti Samanta.
Spotted at the event were thespian Naseeruddin Shah, director Abhinav Kashyap, Restaurateur and chef Gary Mehigan & chef George Calombaris from MasterChef Austrailia, theatre actor Rajat Kapur, Jugal Hansraj, ex-Indian Idol contestant Meiyang Chang, ace dancer and choreographer Astad Deboo, Raj Zutshi and Hansal Mehta among others.
The evening ended on a sombre note as attendees at the festival received news of the passing of Indian cinema legend and founding trustee of the Mumbai Film Festival, Mr. Yash Chopra. As a gesture of condolence, the Mumbai Film Festival family will observe a minute of silence at every festival screen across the city and pay respect to his memory by working dedicatedly towards developing the festival to reach out to wider audiences and greater heights by showcasing more quality cinema.
The 14th edition of the Mumbai Film Festival is scheduled from the 18th – 25th October, 2012 at National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) & Inox, Nariman Point, Liberty Cinemas, Marine Lines as the main festival venues and Cinemax, Andheri and Cinemax Sion as the satellite venues.
For further details about the festival, please log onto: to http://www.mumbaifilmfest.com/Mami/index_v2.php?page=home
About Mumbai Film Festival: The 14th Mumbai Film Festival, presented by Reliance Entertainment and American Express, is organized by Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) – 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, Sudhir Mishra, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap, renowned actresses Shabana Azmi and Jaya Bachchan, actor-director Amol Palekar and Farhan Akhtar and Amit Khanna, Chairman of Reliance Big Entertainment as Trustees.
