Friday, October 22, 2010

MAMI kicks off to a good start

MAMI's 12th Mumbai Film Festival began yesterday amidst much fanfare with some well known names in the film fraternity turning up for the inaugural event. 

Even though the Bollywood quotient was missing, Filmmaker Shyam Benegal, who is also part of the jury, was one of the early birds followed by the likes of Director Ramesh Sippy and wife Kiran Juneja, newbie filmmaker Ayan Mukherjee, Manoj Kumar, actor Ranvir Shorey, director-turned-producer Kunal Kohli and actress Minissha Lamba, choreographer Vaibhavi Merchant and TV actors Bhawna and Shobha Khote.

Showcasing cinema from 59 countries, David Fincher's "The Social Network" was the opening film at this eight-day fest. The Festival will feature the world premiere of five movies - three from India and one each from Denmark and France - and confer the International Lifetime Achievement Award on three-time Academy award winner Oliver Stone. 

The Indian films to premiere at the festival are Biju Kumar's "The Way Home", Sudhish Kamath's "Good Night Good Morning" and debutant K.M. Kamal's "Alif". The Danish film, "Above the Street Below the Water" that is directed by Charlotte Sieling and Director duo Jonas Pariente and Mathias Mangin's French documentary "Next Year in Mumbai" will also be screened.

Screened at nine screens across Mumbai, MAMI this year includes 215 feature films, 15 documentaries and 24 short films; it also has a 49-film Japanese retrospective, including five in the competition section. Supported by the government of Maharashtra, Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) is a Reliance Big Entertainment initiative and has over Rs.1 crore in prize money.

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