THE INTERNATIONAL Film Festival (IFF) Mumbai, which was launched 10 years ago, completes its tenth edition this year. To mark its anniversary Dimensions Mumbai, a competition for short films on the city is being introduced. This shorts competition is ideated and sponsored by Jaya Bachchan, one of the trustees of MAMI. It is open to students and media professionals below the age of 25, the underlying objective being to nurture new talent.

 

The competition has 200 odd films from 45 different countries. The films are categorised as: Global Vision, Indian Competition, Special Screening, Filmmaker in focus, Country in focus, Film India Worldwide. In addition, there are retrospectives, most notable being retro’s of Andrej Wajda and Ritwik Ghatak.

 

Two notable films that were part of recently concluded IFFI, Goa are up at the festival; Cristian Mungiu’s 4 months, 3 weeks & 2 days and Carlos Saura’s Fados. The films that made a mark on the first day of screenings, apart from Katyn, include A Hero in Rome; Indians particularly Bollywood patrons were seen thoroughly enjoying this action-comedy. James Mimikos, producer of the film spoke to merinews exclusively, he said “As a producer, I look forward to making films that are entertaining and carry a message as well”. He further said, “given the right kind of script, he would love to get in a co-production opportunity with India”.

 

The Masters’ classes saw cine-casts getting the taste of various aspects of filmmaking. Ashutosh Gowariker (Jodhaa Akbar), Sriram Raghvan (Johny Gaddar), James Mimikos are some of the noted personalities conducting these hour-long classes.

  

Though there were a few technical-snags, Cinemax, Versova, played a film with German subtitles! The delegates in general were enjoying the festival.

 

Shreya, a cine-buff said “Film festivals like these have a great future, as Indian cinema is growing globally at a phenomenal rate. With exposure to global cinema, film-makers can imbibe these attributes and give their films a more wholesome look.”

 

Reliance Big Entertainment is the main sponsor of this week-long festival that concludes on March 13 with the screening of a Japanese film “The Mourning Forest”.