NFDC (National Film Development Corporation Ltd) today announced the six finalists of the Screenwriters’ Lab 2014.
In its eighth edition, the first stage of the Lab this year will be held in Sarajevo Film Festival (15 – 23 August 2014) culminating in the second stage prior to and during Film Bazaar (20- 24 November 2014). The market, like every year, will be held along side IFFI (International Film Festival), in Goa.
The six scripts / screenwriters selected are:
- The Boyfriend – Vidur Nauriyal and Ashim Ahluwalia
- Winter– Aamir Bashir
- Char Log Kya Kahenge – Hitesh Bhatia
- Flow – Vandana Kohli
- All about Her – Ruchi Joshi
- The Sunset Club – Karan Tejpal
Details about the scripts/writers
– Vidur Nauriyal and Ashim Ahluwalia – The Boyfriend will be the second feature from the team behind Miss Lovely, directed by Ashim Ahluwalia, which was screened at Un Certain Regard at Cannes Film Festival 2013. Ashim recently received the Hubert Bals Fund for script and project development (a Rotterdam festival initiative) for The Boyfriend. Miss Lovely was one of the five projects at Film Bazaar’s Co-production Market 2008 and Work-In-Progress Lab 2011.
– Aamir Bashir – Winter, is the second feature to follow Harud (Autumn), Aamir’s debut film, which premiered in Toronto Film Festival 2010. As an actor he has also appeared in some of the highlights of the new independent cinema including A Wednesday, Peepli Live and Frozen (TIFF 2007)
– Hitesh Bhatia – Comes to the Lab with a wealth of experience in commercials and directing commercial TV shows and has moved his focus to feature films as he embarks on this new phase in his career with his project Char Log Kya Kahenge
– Vandana Kohli – Has scripted, directed and edited projects for clients including The National Geographic Channel, The History Channel, and India’s national broadcaster Doordarshan. Also a photographer and musician, Flow is Vandana’s first feature film project.
– Ruchi Joshi – Followed her film studies in Melbourne Australia with work in music videos, commercials and independent feature films in Mumbai. All about Her is her second project as a screenwriter.
– Karan Tejpal – Has worked for several years in the film industry making commercials for global brands and working as assistant director on mainstream feature films including the mega-hit 3 Idiots, Lage Raho Munnabhai and Ferrari Ki Sawari. His first feature will be The Sunset Club, adapted from Khushwant Singh’s novel of the same name.
– The mentors of the Lab include noted experts from the industry, namely, Marten Rabarts, Senior Consultant – Training and Development, NFDC Labs; Olivia Stewart, Script Developer; Urmi Juvekar, Script Developer; Bianca Taal, International Industry Advisor.
– NFDC’s Screenwriters’ Lab was introduced in the year 2007 with the Co-production Market in the inception year of Film Bazaar. The Lab gives an opportunity to six independent screenwriters to develop their skill under the guidance of a variety of industry experts from across the globe. Through one-on-one sessions with their mentors, the Screenwriter fellows are advised on tools and techniques required to improve their scripts and methods to pitch the same in the international domain. The previous editions of the Lab were held in Locarno, Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals.
– The Screenwriters’ Lab is specially re-designed to prepare screenwriters with original Indian stories for working with the international filmmaking market.
– The Screenwriters’ Lab 2013 finalists at Film Bazaar included: Rajesh Jala’s Chingari (The Spark), Nikhil Mahajan’s Dainik (Daily), Bela Negi’s Kaalapani (Dark Waters), Varun Grover’s Maa Bhagwatiya IIT Coaching Class (Mother Goddess Coaching Class), Shanker Raman’s My Brother the Salesman and I, and Ashish Aryan’s T Se Taj Mahal (T for Taj Mahal). While Rajesh Jala won the Incredible India award for Chingari and also got Cedomir Kolar’s France based ASAP Films board as the co-producer of the film, Nikhil Mahajan’s Blue Drop boarded Varun Grover’s Maa Bhagwatiya IIT Coaching Class as the producer of the film.
– Please visit http://filmbazaarindia.com/programs/screen-writers-lab/ for more details about the Lab and its mentors.
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