16th Mumbai Film Festival set to rise like a Phoenix: Reliance contributes ZERO in terms of money

The 16th edition of the Mumbai film festival organized by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) will be held from 14-21 October 2014 at PVR Cinemas as the main venue and Liberty Cinemas at Marine lines as the satellite venue.

This year’s annual film fiesta is supported by Cinestaan Film Company, promoted by Anand Mahindra and Rohit Khattar, producer Manish Mundra, industry stalwarts Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Bhushan Kumar, Actors Aamir Khan, Shahid Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Rajkumar Rao, Rahul Bose, directors Karan Johar, Rajkumar Hirani, Anurag Kashyap, Hansal Mehta, designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, producer Vivek Kajaria, industrialists Niraj Bajaj, Sandeep Raheja, Yogesh Lakhani of Bright Outdoor, Filmmaker Shakun Batra , Ford Foundation and noted author and critic Anupama Chopra and several more film patrons and movie lovers. Leading jewelry designer Varuna D Jani will specially design the trophies for this year’s edition of the Mumbai Film Festival. Additionally, Hindustan Times and Radio One will support this year’s edition of the festival.

The 16^th Mumbai film festival’s impressive line-up of over 185 movies and other highlights were revealed today at the curtain raiser press conference held at the Novotel Hotel in the presence of Mr. Amit Khanna, Trustee, MAMI,Ms. Anupama Chopra, Film Critic and Creative Advisor, 16th Mumbai Film Festival, Mr. Srinivasan Narayanan, Festival Director, Mumbai Film Festival along with various dignitaries from the Indian Entertainment industry including ace film makers and trustees of MAMI Kiran Rao, Farhan Akhtar, Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap.

Globally acclaimed French actor Catherine Deneuve known for her iconic roles in films such as ‘Repulsion’ (1965), ‘Belle de Jour’ (1967) and ‘Tristana’ (1970) and more recently in ‘Dancer in the Dark’ (2000) and ‘8 Women’ (2002), will be conferred with Lifetime Achievement award to an international personality for her remarkable contribution to the world cinema. Mumbai Film Festival will screen a selection of her movies as a tribute to this great artist.

The India Gold Jury president will be noted Serbian director Goran Paskaljevic.

‘Dimensions Mumbai’ competition jury will comprise of leading film directors Gauri Shinde, known for her directional debut ‘English Vinglish’, multi talented actor, director and film maker Satish Kaushik, acclaimed director Homi Adajania who has helmed films such as ‘Cocktail’, ‘Being Cyrus’ and more recently ‘Finding Fanny’, actor Huma Qureshi and noted critic Rajeev Masand.

This year too the festival has announced its signature Mumbai Film Mart to be held from 15-17 October 2014. The film mart will lay special focus on remake rights of foreign films in India. The Mart will see participation by leading Buyers, Sales Agents and Distributors focused on Indian Cinema from France, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, UK and USA amongst others, some of whom are arriving in India to carry out business for the first time.  The firstRemake Market, initiated by Unifrance and LaFabrique films will be held on 15th and 16th of October.

Some of the Key films include Xavier Dolans’ ‘Mommy’ , Mike Leigh’s ‘Mr.Turner’, Ken Loach’s ‘Jimmy’s Hall’, ‘Boyhood’ by Richard Linklater, Dardenne brothers’ ‘Two days, One Night’, Kim Ki Duk’s ‘One on One’, Yoji Yamadas ‘The Little House’, Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Goodbye to Language’ and ‘Party Girl’ by Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq among various others.

In addition to this, 25 Arab films will be presented to mark a special spotlight on Arab Cinema tracing the landmark films and filmmakers starting from the 50s. Besides, the best of contemporary French cinema will be celebrated as part of ‘Rendez-vous with French Cinema’ section in association with the Embassy of France in India andUnifrance.

Noted author and critic Anupama Chopra will host panel discussions with esteemed guests from the industry. Furthermore, the Music Composers Lab will take place for the second consecutive year at Mumbai Film festival. The lab is being presented by Abbey Road Studios in association with PRS for Music.

A series of restored films will also be presented at the 16^th Mumbai Film Festival, paying tribute to some of the classics, presented as part of the restored classics section of the festival.

Side bar events of the festival include master classes by internationally acclaimed cinematographer Christopher Doyle, of the fame of ‘Paranoid Park’, ‘Lady in the water’, ‘Psycho’, ‘In the Mood for love’ and ‘Chunking Express’ among others; and noted director and writer Mahamat Saleh Haroun known for his work film creations ‘Girgis’, ‘Bye Bye Africa’, ‘A Screaming Man’ and many more.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Srinivasan Narayanan, Festival Director, Mumbai Film Festival, said, “This year’s festival stands testimony to the deep-rooted belief of the film fraternity and film lovers in this event. The much anticipated festival would not have been possible without the incredible support from industry stalwarts, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, RajKumar Hirani, Manish Mundra, Mr. Anand Mahindra and Mr. Rohit Khattar and most of all Ms. Anupama Chopra’s passion and hard work at every step of organizing this mega event. We are elated to see this kind of support and are thankful to everyone who have contributed in their own way to make this festival rise like a phoenix.”

The event was drawn to a close with thanks to the main supporters and special thanks to the Government of Maharashtra, Venue Partner: The Novotel Hotel, Liberty Cinemas, PVR Cinemas.