The 6th day at the 11th edition of the Mumbai Film Festival (MFF) brought along financial good news for the organizing body and augured well for the business potential of such a platform for the film industry! MFF is a Reliance Big Entertainment initiative and has the distinction of being the only international film festival in India to be organized by an independent body of practicing film professionals.
Business kicked off at MAMI’s Film Business Centre with the ‘Antichrist’ home video rights being bought over by Enlighten Film Society, an NGO dedicated to the cause of spreading good cinema by screening great National and International films.
This year MFF has introduced the Film Business Centre as a modest first step towards setting up a full-fledged “Film Market”. The aim is to provide a networking platform for the Indian distributors, producers, television channels and the foreign sales agents, festival directors and producers to enhance the international sales of Indian films under the aegis of the Mumbai Film Festival.
The Film Business Centre is open for the members of film industry on an invitation basis and the registered delegates of MFF and was held for a period of four days ending today, November 3, 2009 at Fun Cinemas, Andheri, the central hub for MFF.
Commenting on the opening sale, Mr. S. Narayan, Director of the Film Festival, said, “Ever long journey must start at a first step. The Film Business Centre is our first modest step in establishing a flourishing film market in India. We are happy that in the first year itself business deals have begun by the acquisition of AnitChrit’s video rights by an Indian company. The UK Film Council is also using this platform provided by Mumbai Film Festival to launch distribution of British independent films in India. We are also aware that business discussions have been taken place with Japanese companies and other European sales agents. This indicates that the seed which we have sown has started to grow.”
Antichrist, directed by Lars von Trier, is a about a couple who lose their young son when he falls out the window while they have sex in the other room. The mother’s grief consigns her to hospital, but her therapist husband brings her home intent on treating her depression himself. To confront her fears they go to stay at their remote cabin in the woods, “Eden”, where something untold happened the previous summer.
Speaking on acquiring the home video sale for Antichrist, Mr. Pranav Ashar, Chairman, Enlighten Society said, “The culture of watching foreign language movies is missing in India. Hence we want to spread the culture among the people of watching these kinds of films, which will help them to understand various cultures all across the globe. We want to be associated with cinema that will touch a common chord in everyone’s soul without the boundaries of time and space hence, we acquired the rights of AntiChrist. We are currently talking to the sensor board for a clearance for the film; based on their response we will release the movie on DVD in India.”
Enlighten Film Society begun with the objective to screen the greatest films of all genres the world has ever seen. Right from All Time Masterpieces never seen before in India on the big screen, to contemporary cults, action, comedy, romantic, drama, foreign language films, animation, documentaries, great commercial successes, children’s films, compilation of short films from all over the world, award winning films and much more.
Representatives from film production and distribution companies, film sales agents from various countries and directors of film festival attended the Film Business Centre during the 11th Mumbai Film Festival. Sales agents from companies such as UniFrance, UK Film Council, Pioniwa Film Co. – Japan, Channel Asia – Japan, Hanway Films -UK, b, Celluloid Dreams – France amongst many others were also present. Marit Capla, director Goteborg International Film Festival, Irene Dignardi former programming director Locarno Film Festival and many others were present too.
Films in competition at MFF are being viewed on 8 screens at Fun Cinemas (Andheri), Metro BIG Cinemas (Marine Lines) & BIG Cinemas R City (Ghatkopar) and judged by MFF 2009 Jury Members including: renowned Hollywood screenwriter and director Mr. Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, American Gigolo), Iranian filmmaker Mr. Jafar Panahi, Philippine filmmaker Mr. Brillante Mendoza, Indian filmmaker Mr. Shaji N. Karun and former Director of Locarno Film Festival Ms. Irene Bignardi.
This year MFF carries one of the richest cash awards for its International Competition for Directors who are Debuting Feature Films with a cash prize of US$ 100,000 (approx. Rs. 50, 00,000). Additional awards include the Golden Gateway of India trophy for the Best Film, the Silver Gateway of India trophy and cash prize of USD $50,000 (approx. Rs. 25, 00,000) for the Jury Grand Prize. The best talent from these films will be awarded the Silver Gateway of India trophy and all films in this category are Indian premiers. Lastly, this year MAMI is introducing the Audience Choice Award [Silver Gateway of India trophy and cash prize of USD $20,000 (approx. Rs. 10, 00,000)]. Films from all sections except the retrospective and tributes are eligible.
Brand alliances for the festival include BIG FM 92.7, bollywoodhungama.com, Bigoye.com, Bigflix.com, BIG Cinemas, Fun Cinemas, BIG Events, BIGAdda.com, Reliance MediaWorks, Kingfisher Premium, Block Dog, Reliance Tech Services, Reliance Broadband, Jet airways, Sun-N Sand Hotel, Carzonrent, Bright Outdoor.
About MAMI:
Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) is a body comprised of Indian film industry stalwarts which was founded in 1997 by late filmmaker Shri Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Noted filmmaker Shri Shyam Benegal heads the body that consists of film directors including: Yash Chopra, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Karan Johar, renowned actresses Shabana Azmi and Jaya Bachchan, actor-director Amol Palekar and Farhan Akhtar and the chairman of Reliance Big Entertainment Amit Khanna as Trustees.
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