It’s that time of the year again when we do our annual religious pilgrimage. That’s Mumbai Film Festival, one of our favourite city event and the biggest film festival in the country. Since a film festival is always about the films, let’s get that sorted first. So this is what we know so far about this year’s edition.
FILMS
First, our exclusive dope.
Our sources have confirmed that Mumbai Film Festival will screen Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth and Gurvinder Singh’s Chauthi Koot.
Sorrentino’s last film The Great Beauty was a big hit at the festival in 2012. Youth premiered at Cannes this year. This one is a big catch.
Gurvinder Singh is probably one of the finest filmmakers we have that the country doesn’t know about. So its great that we will get to see his new film here. His latest film Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Dimension) premiered at Cannes this year. Click here to know more about the film.
– Hansal Mehta’s Aligarh will open the festival. The film just had its premiere at the Busan Film Festival and will be at London Film Festival. This is great news. A city fest needs to open it with a film from the city/country especially when we are produce the maximum number of films in the world. So congrats to everyone for pulling this one.
Here’s the official synopsis of the film –
Set in a small town in Uttar Pradesh from which the film takes its name, ‘Aligarh’ is the story of a professor (Manoj Bajpayee) fired for his sexuality and a young journalist (Rajkummar Rao) who tells his story to the world. Based on true events, the film follows Dr. S R Siras, a professor at the Aligarh Muslim University who, when discovered to be homosexual, was fired from his position. The film depicts the unlikely friendship between Dr. Siras and a reporter investigating his first big story, a relationship that will change them both forever.
– Q’s Ludo will be in the newly introduced “After Dark” section
– The restored Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy will also be showing at the festival. Woah! Click here to watch the trailer of its restoration.
– Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan will be coming to the fest. It bagged the top award Palme d’Or at Cannes this year. And our very own Kartik Krishnan is also in it.
– Andrew Haigh’s critically acclaimed film 45 Years
– Raam Reddy’s Thithi which bagged two top awards at Locarno Film Festival this year. More details about the film is here.
– Jafar Panahi’s Taxi which picked up the Golden Bear and FIPRESCI Award at the Berlin Film Festival will be screened in World Cinema section.
– Pani Nalin’s Angry Indian Goddesses will be in “Special Screening”
WHAT ELSE
– Ava Duvernay of ‘Selma’ fame will head the International Jury at the fest.
– A R Rahman has composed the signature tune of the fest. Yay!
– Guardian’s well known film critic Peter Bradshaw will mentor the young reviewers in “Young Critics Lab”
– Fest has announced a new award category – the Book Award for Excellence in Writing on Cinema. This is for film writing and publishing in South Asia, written by authors from the sub-continent and published by an Indian publishing house. The Award covers works of fiction, graphic novel, creative non-fiction, reportage, analysis and screenplay, written in English or translated into English. The Award carries a cash prize of Rs 5 lakhs.
So what are you waiting for? Click here and register for the fest.
See you at the movies.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 