Mumbai: The 14th edition of the premier event of Mumbai’s culture calendar, the Mumbai Film Festival (MFF) organised by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image, will be held from the 18th – 25th October, 2012 at National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) and Inox, Nariman Point, Liberty Cinemas, Marine Lines as the main festival venues and Cinemax, Andheri and Cinemax Sion as the satellite venues.
This year the festival will introduce a new competition section for Indian films called ‘India Gold 2012’, which will see 13 Indian language films of debut directors compete for prize money of approx USD 31,000. This is in addition to the other competition sections such as the ‘International Competition’, ‘Celebrate Age’ and ‘Dimensions Mumbai’. The total prize money at this year’s festival is USD 220,000.
To mark the centenary celebration of Indian cinema the festival will screen a package of restored Indian silent films accompanied by live orchestra. These films include classics such as ‘Kaliya Mardan’, ‘Raja Harishchandra’, ‘Marthand Varma’, ‘Throw Of Dice’, ‘Sati Savitri’, ‘Jamai Babu’, ‘Galliant Heart’ and few others.
For the second consecutive year, the best of contemporary French cinema will be presented as part of ‘Rendez-vous with French Cinema’ section in association with the Embassy of France in India and Unifrance. Other highlights include a special package tracing the history of Italian cinema that is being organised in association with the Embassy of Italy in India and the Italian film director and film academician Mr Italo Spinelli, a special section on restored classics from around the world, a package of films from Afghanistan Kabul Fresh- New Voices in Afghan Cinema recognizing the blossoming film movement in the country and homage to Rajesh Khanna, Dara Singh and A.K. Hangal. Actress Waheeda Rehman will be conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Festival will also witness the country’s first ever panel discussion on restoration and preservation of films with the attendance of eminent guests from the World Cinema foundation, Film foundation, Twentieth Century Fox Archives and Academy Film Archive of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Side bar events at this year’s festival include direction master class by Andy Tennant, creative production master classes by Gary Kurtz, acting master classes by Jaya Bachchan, cinematography master classes by Declan Quinn and editing master classes by Pascale Chovance. Furthermore, a pitching and screenplay writing master classes will also be conducted by Equinoxe with the attendance of Claire Dobbin, script consultant and chair of the Melbourne International Film Festival and David Maggee, scriptwriter of films such as ‘Life of Pi’ and ‘Finding Neverland’. Noted German critic Daniel Kothenschulte will groom the collegians selected for ‘Mumbai Young Critics’.
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