Category: Movies

MUMBAI: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) has named Dan Kolsrud as executive vice president for worldwide theatrical physical production.

Kolsrud will join EVP development Cale Boyter and vice president production Becky Sloviter to rebuild MGM‘s theatrical development, production, distribution and marketing operation.

“Dan has over 20 years of experience in line producing all types of films ranging from low budget and first-time filmmakers‘ projects to high end special effects driven movies. His familiarity with such a wide variance of films, both creatively as well as budgetary, and with directors of all levels affords him invaluable knowledge and insights that will greatly benefit our productions and filmmakers,” said MGM Worldwide Motion Picture Group Mary Parent.

“Working alongside Mary, Cale and Becky in heading up MGM‘s physical production is an exciting proposition. Everyone in this industry respects the history and contributions of MGM to the film industry, and I‘m honored to be involved in restoring the studio to its former level of production activity and influence,” Dan Kolsrud said.

Most recently, Kolsrud served as executive producer on the adaptation of Cirque du Freak, starring John C. Reilly, for Universal Pictures.

Kolsrud‘s feature film credits include co-producing Joel Schumacher‘s Falling Down and producing John Carpenter‘s Memoirs of an Invisible Man for Warner Bros.

As first assistant director, Kolsrud has worked on films like Men Don‘t Leave, Like Father, Like Son, Spaceballs, Howard the Duck, Top Gun, The Goonies, Gorky Park, Going Berserk, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ghost Story, Xanadu, Coal Miner‘s Daughter, Lace and Fatal Vision.

MUMBAI: The original ‘yahoo’ star of India, Shammi Kapoor, was felicitated in grand style with a Lifetime Achievement Award in the finale to the two-day Tenth Osian’s-Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema at the National Centre of Performing Arts.
In a surprise appearance, actor Aamir Khan paid a laudable tribute to the dancing star, who has not been keeping in good health and was seated on a wheel chair. He received the honour from his former producers Shakti Samanta and Lekh Tandon even as a full house at the Godrej Theatre with a large number of Bollywood celebrities gave him a standing ovation.

Volunteers of Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art stood around with large-size posters of several of Kapoor’s popular films as he was felicitated. Accepting the honour, Kapoor said he had also been overwhelmed when he earlier went around an exhibition of photographs and posters from his life and films, many of which he confessed he did not possess. But he said he owed this honour to the film fraternity which had given him so much love, adding: “It also belongs to Mohammed Rafi, without whom I am incomplete.”

In his tribute, Khan said among cheers “I feel Elvis Presley was America’s answer to Shammi Kapoor.” He added that the mark of a good actor was the belief with which he gave a shot, and “Shammi Uncle has done this always.” He quoted the script writer Salim to say acting was like the relationship between the ‘aashiq’ (lover) and the ‘mashooq’ (the loved one) and Kapoor had always paid full attention as a lover does to his loved one.’ He is truly a person who lives in the moment. He was always a star, but least bothered about his stardom when enacting a scene, he added. “Unfortunately, even I am often too aware of being a celebrity while performing.”

Mr Neville Tuli, founder and Chairman of Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art, said though he had been brought up overseas, he had fallen in love with India thanks to Indian cinema – which he described as the greatest cultural heritage of this country – and stars like Shammi Kapoor. He said that the decision to have a two-day event in Mumbai before the main one in Delhi was because Cinefan totally has a place in Bollywood.

Referring to Osian’s, he said it was attempting to inculcate its aesthetic responsibility in developing a different kind of sensibility as far as cinema went, since art was the greatest form of knowledge and wealth came out of that knowledge. He said the proposed OSIANAMA – the multi-arts complex being built at the venue where the Minerva theatre once stood – was part of that. He said getting the property would have been difficult since there were nine owners, but it had become easier since Shammi Kapoor was one of them. The intent was to unite the intelligentsia as ‘we share a common value system and develop it’.

A large-size model of the proposed seven-section OSIANAMA was unveiled for the first time on stage. It will house two screens apart from a large Debating House for meaningful discussion on cinema. In addition, it will have Osian’s Film House, Archives, and offices for its other activities.

He then called upon stage the various celebrities present in the auditorium to sign on a sign board which would be placed at OSIANAMA. They include Samanta, Tandon, Kapoor, Saeed Mirza, Sai Paranjpye, Kamini Kaushal, Basu Chatterjee, Kiran Shantaram, Shyam Benegal, Aruna Vasudev, Vijaya Mehta, Siddharth Kak, Krishna Shah and Nayantara Sehgal. The stars also lit a lamp to mark the start of the event.

Earlier, the programme commenced with a short film about the nine festivals held until now and also a clip on Shammi Kapoor.

Aruna Vasudev who founded the Cinefan’s Festival in Delhi in 1999 said she had initiated the Festival since few in India knew much about Asian cinema. She drew immense satisfaction from the fact that it had developed so well and had now passed on to people who could take it further.

Joint Director Latika Padgaonkar said it was notable that both the film quarterly Cinemaya founded by Vasudev and the Festival initiated by her were run by all-women teams. Joint Director Indu Shrikent noted that Mumbai was the place where the heart of cinema ‘beats and bounces’.

The evening concluded with the world premiere of the Hindi film ‘Mukhbir’ (The Informer) directed by Mani Shankar, who was presented along with his cast and crew including the main actor Sameer Dattani, Raj Zutshi, and Kelly Dorji. The film also stars Jackie Shroff, Suniel Shetty, Aloke Nath, and Raima Sen.

MUMBAI: US telecom service provider Verizon Wireless and mobile handset maker Nokia have announced the availability of the Nokia 6205 The Dark Knight edition mobile phone.

The film The Dark Knight will be released on 18 July 2008. Christian Bale reprises his role as Batman while the late Heath Ledger plays the villainous Joker.

Clad in a mysterious black color and embellished with a subtle The Dark Knight emblem, this themed-edition flip phone comes pre-loaded with wallpapers, voice tones, animated screensavers inspired by the film, and a full movie trailer.

MUMBAI: Riding on the wave of success of its first two Marathi movies Saade Maade Teen and De Dhakka, Zee Talkies has announced its plan of releasing third movie Galgale Nighale.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL) director regional channels Nitin Vaidya announced the third production at the success party thrown by ZEEL for the first two films. Galgale Nighale is under post-productions and is expected to be released in July this year.

Vaidya said, “We want to lift the Marathi movie market. We are aiming to release 10 movies by end of this year.”

Sai Productions‘ Galgale Nighale is a charecter of a famous Marathi play Galgale, which will be played by Bharat Jadhav in the movie. Directed by Kedar Shinde and written by Mangesh Kulkarni, Galgale Nighale is family comedy flick.

NEW DELHI: Filmmakers from Romania would like to shoot films in India if India ‘opens its doors to us’, Romanian ambassador to India Vasile Sofineti said here.
Addressing a meeting in connection with sixty years of Indo-Romanian ties, he said “Two Bollywood movies have been shot in Romania. One is Dost my friend, starring Sanjay Dutt which unfortunately could not get released and the other is Kyun ki starring Salman Khan. Salman Khan was very happy shooting his film in Romania. We are waiting for Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan to shoot in Romania.”

He said “Romanians know Bollywood stars very well. A lot of Bollywood movies are shown in Romania. We depend on heart and feelings and that’s why they attract Romanians. We are amazed by the fact that Indian movies are so much alive and humane, and if there is violence, there is music to compensate. People need peace of mind and this is given by Bollywood.

MUMBAI: Even as filmmakers, writers, and artists feel they should have freedom of creativity, the average citizen cannot be denied the right of protest as long as it is peaceful and within the law.

This was the general consensus of a discussion on the second and concluding day of the sessions of the IBM? (Infrastructure-Building for Minds & Markets) held as part of the two-day Tenth Osian’s Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema in the western metropolis.

While they would not like to have any kind of censorship, most speakers who took part in the discussion on ‘Ban the Book – Flaunt the Film’ agreed that some kind of control was essential in a democracy. But they agreed that bans on books like ‘Nine Hours to Rama’, ‘the Da Vinci Code’, ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ by D H Lawrence or the books by Salman Rushdie and protests to films like ‘Jodha Akbar’ or ‘Fire’ and ‘Water’ had proved counter-productive.

There was also general agreement that state governments should have the right to control law and order in the case of dissent about any film or work of art, and not ban a film that has been cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification.

Initiating the discussion, eminent critic Aruna Vasudev who is the founder of the Cinefan Film Festival said there had been increasing intolerance towards works of art and cinema often leading to bans and violence. She said if the CBFC had cleared a film for exhibition, there should be no reason for people to protest or want a ban of a film.

Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art Chairman Neville Tuli said the In Tolerance section in the festival had been introduced in view of the increasing angst among people, with the aim of highlighting the role and ability of the intelligentsia to come together for debate, which should be at the heart of everything. Bans, he said, were undesirable in a civilized society.

Filmmaker Rahul Dholakia, whose film Parzania had faced protests and resistance from theatre owners in Gujarat last year, said it was unfortunate that most people who protested did not understand the message of a film when they began to protest. Most protesters did not known what they were protesting for. He gave the example of his own film which was merely the saga of a suffering family after their son goes missing, but had been unnecessarily politicized. As an artist, he should have the freedom to make what he wanted, and the people could choose not to see it if they wanted. There was need to create a dialogue and build sensibilities to build an environment of tolerance.

He also noted that bans had been counter-productive as they gave popularity to a film and in the case of his own film, many in Gujarat saw it on pirated DVDs or on the internet. He hinted that some of these bans are deliberated orchestrated to help a film.

Eminent writer Nayantara Sehgal said as a writer, she wanted her freedom to hurt sentiments, as this was the only way to bring about change for the advancement of society. She said what artists made or wrote could affect one’s national pride, regional sentiments, or moral values. As an example, she said the large number of books and films condemning the ‘sati’ tradition had resulted in the practice being declared illegal. But she was opposed to violence, and regretted that the kind of protests that had been seen in the western metropolis had been tantamount to terrorism. Mob frenzy often prevented a debate on what true art meant.

Referring to censorship, she said one mistake that the CBFC made was that it assumed that society will never change. Closed minds were the greatest danger to society.

Women’s rights lawyer Flavia Agnes said she felt protest was the basic right of a society, but it should not mean violence. However, it was often very difficult to draw a line between the two. Opposing a work of art was not always regressive, she said. She said value systems keep changing and so do the perceptions of the people.

However, she was categorical that the media – particularly the electronic media – created a lot of issues and she particularly referred to the travails of the bar dancers, noting that the media never talked about prostitution or other crimes, but had played up the bar dancer issue.

Senior journalist and Shiv Sena member of Parliament Bharatkumar Raut said he was opposed to bans of creative art, but freedom of the artist should not mean anarchy and unlimited freedom. He therefore supported protests as long as they remained peaceful, adding that the man on the street also had freedom to do what he liked if the artist had the freedom to make what he wanted.

He did not agree that the media was wholeheartedly to blame, as he said it had only become a reflection of public feeling and was only a follower. He gave examples to show how he had often been forced to only write what people wanted to read, and he said this probably also applied to television channels as well. However, he said in response to several members of the audience who did not agree with him that the media could play a pro-active role to bring about positive change.

Three Exhibitions from the Osian‘s Arts & Film Archive Collection were held during the Festival which closed today. The special focus for this year‘s festival was the relationship between Writing and Cinema and this was explored through the Antiquarian ‘The Shakespeare Gallery‘ Engravings from the Boydell Gallery and the Original Artworks for Vintage Hindi Novel Covers (1950-70s).

The third exhibition is a tribute to Mr. Shammi Kapoor, the original ‘yahoo‘ star of Indian cinema, who was honoured at the Festival in which twentyone feature and non-feature films have been screened.

The grand finale included the first unveiling of the scale model of the Osianama by some of the leading lights of the cultural world. The Osianama, Osian‘s flagship cultural complex, will open in Mumbai in mid 2009.

Mani Shankar’s film Mukhbir had its premiere as part of the festival at the National Centre of Performing Arts. The star cast of the film includes Om Puri, Suniel Shetty, Sameer Dattani, Rahul Dev, Jackie Shroff and Raima Sen.

The Osian‘s Cinefan Festival which will be held in Delhi from 10 to 20 July has gradually emerged as the largest festival of its kind in the world.

MUMBAI: Even as filmmakers, writers, and artists feel they should have freedom of creativity, the average citizen cannot be denied the right of protest as long as it is peaceful and within the law.

This was the general consensus of a discussion on the second and concluding day of the sessions of the IBM? (Infrastructure-Building for Minds & Markets) held as part of the two-day Tenth Osian’s Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema in the western metropolis.

While they would not like to have any kind of censorship, most speakers who took part in the discussion on ‘Ban the Book – Flaunt the Film’ agreed that some kind of control was essential in a democracy. But they agreed that bans on books like ‘Nine Hours to Rama’, ‘the Da Vinci Code’, ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ by D H Lawrence or the books by Salman Rushdie and protests to films like ‘Jodha Akbar’ or ‘Fire’ and ‘Water’ had proved counter-productive.

There was also general agreement that state governments should have the right to control law and order in the case of dissent about any film or work of art, and not ban a film that has been cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification.

Initiating the discussion, eminent critic Aruna Vasudev who is the founder of the Cinefan Film Festival said there had been increasing intolerance towards works of art and cinema often leading to bans and violence. She said if the CBFC had cleared a film for exhibition, there should be no reason for people to protest or want a ban of a film.

Osian’s Connoisseurs of Art Chairman Neville Tuli said the In Tolerance section in the festival had been introduced in view of the increasing angst among people, with the aim of highlighting the role and ability of the intelligentsia to come together for debate, which should be at the heart of everything. Bans, he said, were undesirable in a civilized society.

Filmmaker Rahul Dholakia, whose film ‘Parzania’ had faced protests and resistance from theatre owners in Gujarat last year, said it was unfortunate that most people who protested did not understand the message of a film when they began to protest. Most protesters did not known what they were protesting for. He gave the example of his own film which was merely the saga of a suffering family after their son goes missing, but had been unnecessarily politicized. As an artist, he should have the freedom to make what he wanted, and the people could choose not to see it if they wanted. There was need to create a dialogue and build sensibilities to build an environment of tolerance.

He also noted that bans had been counter-productive as they gave popularity to a film and in the case of his own film, many in Gujarat saw it on pirated DVDs or on the internet. He hinted that some of these bans are deliberated orchestrated to help a film.

Eminent writer Nayantara Sehgal said as a writer, she wanted her freedom to hurt sentiments, as this was the only way to bring about change for the advancement of society. She said what artists made or wrote could affect one’s national pride, regional sentiments, or moral values. As an example, she said the large number of books and films condemning the ‘sati’ tradition had resulted in the practice being declared illegal. But she was opposed to violence, and regretted that the kind of protests that had been seen in the western metropolis had been tantamount to terrorism. Mob frenzy often prevented a debate on what true art meant.

Referring to censorship, she said one mistake that the CBFC made was that it assumed that society will never change. Closed minds were the greatest danger to society.

Women’s rights lawyer Flavia Agnes said she felt protest was the basic right of a society, but it should not mean violence. However, it was often very difficult to draw a line between the two. Opposing a work of art was not always regressive, she said. She said value systems keep changing and so do the perceptions of the people.

However, she was categorical that the media – particularly the electronic media – created a lot of issues and she particularly referred to the travails of the bar dancers, noting that the media never talked about prostitution or other crimes, but had played up the bar dancer issue.

Senior journalist and Shiv Sena member of Parliament Bharatkumar Raut said he was opposed to bans of creative art, but freedom of the artist should not mean anarchy and unlimited freedom. He therefore supported protests as long as they remained peaceful, adding that the man on the street also had freedom to do what he liked if the artist had the freedom to make what he wanted.

He did not agree that the media was wholeheartedly to blame, as he said it had only become a reflection of public feeling and was only a follower. He gave examples to show how he had often been forced to only write what people wanted to read, and he said this probably also applied to television channels as well. However, he said in response to several members of the audience who did not agree with him that the media could play a pro-active role to bring about positive change.

NEW DELHI: Filmmakers generally agreed that institutional support was necessary for creative cinema to flourish, and state intervention of some kind was also needed.
The filmmakers were taking part in a discussion of the first day of the two-day Tenth Osian‘s Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab cinema got underway at the National Centre for Performing Arts today.

Twenty-one films that are being screened over the two days at the meet being held as a preview to the Festival in Delhi from 10 to 20 July.

A large number of filmmakers and film lovers exchanged views on whether the creative individual can be institutionalized during the sessions of the IBM? (Infrastructure-Building for Minds & Markets), with Osian‘s Connoisseurs of Art founder and Chairman Mr Neville Tuli setting the tone of the discussion with the observation that the conflict was essentially one between creativity and materialism.

He said that the nature of any art is one of aesthetic and historical significance, and financial considerations come later when the artist wants to show his work. He said in view of this, he said the role of the institution became important. In that context, he referred to the role of Osian‘s and said many had cynically remarked that an auction house was the very anti-thesis of an archive or promoting art. But he said Osian‘s had become the basis of taking art and culture further. There was need to direct creative energies towards transforming art into a creative value system.

‘If you have knowledge, integrity and passion, wealth will follow‘, he said, adding that the key was to know oneself and clearly have a direction to create wealth in a way nothing is compromised and one involves all those around oneself. He said there was no corruption in putting art into an economic framework. Cinema was the greatest art medium to look at others, he added. He said the intelligentsia has to play fundamental role to take forward the growth of art in India.

In the discussion in the afternoon over the tone set by him in the morning, Mr Tuli said there was no difference of opinion on the need of the state to help creative intelligentsia.

Initiating the discussion, wellknown filmmaker Ketan Mehta said the studio system had been the first institution to help filmmakers, but had collapsed with the second world war. Later, the Film and Television Institute of India had come up to train filmmakers while the Film Finance Corporation (later becoming the National Film Development Corporation) which had helped the growth of art cinema. When the NFDC lost its relevance, groups of filmmakers set up cooperatives to revive art cinema. ‘An artist perceives himself as free, but cannot work without organizational support,‘ he said.

Senior film critic and founder of the Cinefan Festival Aruna Vasudev said she was happy to not that many institutions had come up to support filmmakers who took cinema seriously as an art form. She also briefly gave a history of the launch of the Cinefan film festivals.

Mr Francois da Silva, who is a teacher and consultant on cinema, said the state had a role in the promotion of cinema and in almost every country including France. Many filmmakers had begun as individuals but turned into institutions since that was the only way to survive.

Short filmmaker Madhushree Dutta said institutions should find creative ways to deal with artistes so that their freedom is not compromised.

Renowned filmmaker Mani Kaul said Indian cinema had at one time been on the verge of collapse when state subsidy stopped, and therefore some institutional or state support is necessary for filmmakers to work creatively. ‘The problem is that subscribing to an institution may mean an end to creativity‘, he added.

Meanwhile, three Exhibitions from the Osian‘s Arts & Film Archive Collection opened at NCPA. Such a theme and collection have so far never been exhibited in India. The special focus for this year‘s festival is the relationship between Writing and Cinema and this will be further explored through the Antiquarian ‘The Shakespeare Gallery‘ Engravings from the Boydell Gallery and the Original Artworks for Vintage Hindi Novel Covers (1950-70s). The third exhibition is a tribute to Mr. Shammi Kapoor. Entry is Free for all Exhibitions.

The original ‘yahoo‘ star of Indian cinema, Shammi Kapoor, will be honoured and twentyone feature and non-feature films will be screened in a two-day Tenth Osian‘s Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema

The grand finale will end with the first unveiling of the scale model of the Osianama by some of the leading lights of the cultural world. The Osianama, Osian‘s flagship cultural complex, will open in Mumbai in mid 2009.

Mani Shankar will premiere his new film Mukhbir at the ongoing 10th Osian‘s-Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema in Mumbai on 14 June at 9 pm at NCPA. The star cast of the film includes Om Puri, Suniel Shetty, Sameer Dattani, Rahul Dev, Jackie Shroff and Raima Sen. Many notable films have had their global premiere at this prestigious film festival.

MUMBAI: The National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) is set to release Arindam Nandy’s Via Darjeeling on 27 June this year. The film will be distributed by PVR pan India.

Via Darjeeling, a co-production between NFDC and Moxie Entertainment, stars Kay Kay Menon, Parvin Dabas, Sonali Kulkarni, Vinay Pathak, Rajat Kapoor, Sandhya Mridul and Simone Singh. The film revolves around the age-old Bengali tradition of adda – where friends gather to exchange stories and gossip over drinks and dinner.

“Via Darjeeling has a very strong and interesting storyline. The concept of the film was very intriguing and stars several talented actors. Keeping in mind the repertoire of our previous films we thought Via Darjeeling had all the ingredients to be part of NFDC. I hope the film does well and encourages more young and talented filmmakers to make good and meaningful cinema,” said NFDC managing director Nina Lath Gupta.

Earlier this year, NFDC had announced that it would be releasing four films this fiscal that include The White Elephant, Lucky Red Seeds and Bioscope. While The White Elephant and Lucky Red Seeds are co-productions with NDTV Imagine and Mirchi Movies respectively, Bioscope is a solo production film from the NFDC stable.

Also, NFDC, which aims to promote the “Cinemas of India”, has been allocated a sum of Rs 300 million for five years by the Information & Broadcasting ministry for film production and promotion of new talent.

MUMBAI: The original ‘yahoo‘ star of Indian cinema, Shammi Kapoor, will be honoured and 21 feature and non-feature films will be screened in a two-day preview in Mumbai from today of the Tenth Osian‘s Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema taking place in Delhi next month.

Apart from the films, festivals provide the platform to argue, agree, learn, challenge and ignite one‘s imagination. This year the IBM? (Infrastructure-Building for Minds & Markets) initiative in Mumbai consists of a two-day long programme at the Godrej Theatre. While a panel of intellectuals and artists will analyze and debate the recent rise in levels of cultural intolerance towards artistic creations all over the world, another session will bring together cultural experts and infrastructure builders to discuss the issues at stake – infrastructural, cultural and financial, in building a world class arts and culture institution in today‘s world.

Three Exhibitions from the Osian‘s Arts & Film Archive Collection will be showcased at NCPA. Such a theme and collection have so far never been exhibited in India. The special focus for this year‘s festival is the relationship between Writing and Cinema and this will be further explored through the Antiquarian ‘The Shakespeare Gallery‘ Engravings from the Boydell Gallery and the Original Artworks for Vintage Hindi Novel Covers (1950-70s). The third exhibition is a tribute to Mr. Shammi Kapoor. Entry is Free for all Exhibitions.

The grand finale will end with the first unveiling of the scale model of the Osianama by some of the leading lights of the cultural world. The Osianama, Osian‘s flagship cultural complex, will open in Mumbai in mid 2009.

The Osian‘s Cinefan Festival. which has gradually emerged as the largest festival of its kind in the world, will mark ten years of its inception this year with several new features in the Festival in Delhi from 10 to 20 July.

In addition to the annual award for writing, the Festival will this year bestow an additional award: the Osian‘s Lifetime Achievement Award for Contribution to Cinema, which is being given this year to renowned filmmaker Mrinal Sen. The writer‘s award, renamed the Aruna Vasudev Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Cinema will be conferred on Jose “Pete” F. Lacaba.

This year Osian‘s-Cinefan has announced over Rs. One Crore (approximately $ 250, 000) in Prize Money for its Competition Sections and Lifetime Achievement Awards. The winners of the Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented Rs. 800,000 (approx. $ 20,000) each.

In 2005, Osian‘s launched IBM2 – a series of seminars, conferences, exhibitions, auctions and panel discussions to draw attention to the entire cycle of a film‘s life. The 5th edition of Talent Campus India organized in collaboration with Berlinale Talent Campus, Berlin International Film Festival and Max Mueller Bhavan, is presently inviting applications from young aspiring filmmakers from India, neighbouring South Asian countries and Iran. 30 young aspiring filmmakers will be invited to New Delhi for a workshop from 13–18 July, 2008 to interact with renowned filmmakers and film professionals from India and abroad.

The Best Films in the Asian-Arab and Indian Competition sections will be awarded Rs two million each ($ 50,000) and the Best Director in each section will win Rs 800,000 ($ 20,000). The Special Jury Award and the Best Actor and Actress will each take away Rs 200,000 ($ 5000). The Best First Feature will receive Rs 200,000 (approx $ 5000) in addition to a guaranteed support of Rs 800,000 (approx $ 20,000) from fFOOD: The Film Fund – Osian‘s Originating Development, created by Osian‘s, for the next feature film.

A new competition section that deals with themes of In-Tolerance has been created this year. It will include feature and documentary films that respond to or deal with the intolerance of our times. The Best Film in this category will take home a cash award of Rs 800,000 (approx. $ 20,000). An Audience Award is also being set up for a film in competition and will win Rs 200,000 (approx $ 5000). In addition to these awards given away by Osian‘s, the International Film Critics Federation (FIPRESCI) & the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) will give away their own awards.

In the past ten years Osian‘s has grown into a major art and cultural institutions dedicated to the infrastructure-building for the arts thereby fostering a new cultural ethos for the Indian and global arts. It has also nurtured a uniquely integrated cinematic infrastructure by building and supporting the film festival, the film archive, the forthcoming arts and film complex – the Osianama – in Mumbai, and by establishing fFOOD: The Film Fund – Osian‘s Originating Development, a step towards supporting young filmmakers in their efforts towards making bold cinema.

One of India‘s most acclaimed filmmakers and a pioneer of the alternative cinema movement, Mrinal Sen in a prolific career spanning almost five decades has directed feature films, short films and documentaries of varying content and cine-aesthetics, his works being permeated by his engagement with social issues and his acute political awareness, always exhibiting a deep analytical mind and humanist ideology. Recipient of the Padma Bhushan, and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest distinction given to an Indian filmmaker by the Indian Government, Sen has also been honoured with awards at numerous international film festivals in India and abroad.

Jose F. Lacaba (a.k.a. Pete), poet, journalist, editor, translator, and screenwriter, is a bilingual writer who writes in both English and Filipino. He is the author of six poetry collections in Filipino and a collection of journalistic reportage in English, Days of Disquiet, Nights of Rage. He is also the editor of a number of books, including The Films of ASEAN and Emmanuel Lacaba‘s Salvaged Poems and Salvaged Prose. He has written the screenplays of award-winning feature films that have been shown at various international film festivals, including Cannes, Venice and Toronto. His screenplay credits include Jaguar, Bayan Ko: Kapit sa Patalim, Orapronobis, Sister Stella L., Eskapo, Segurista and Rizal sa Dapitan. Pete Lacaba is also the recipient of the Centennial Honors for the Arts for his significant contributions to culture and the arts in the twentieth century.

Latika Padgaonkar, Joint Festival Director, Osian‘s Cinefan told indiantelevision.com, “We are delighted to honour two eminent personalities from the world of cinema. Both have contributed in a seminal way to the seventh art and both have placed on their works an individual and creative stamp”.

Osian‘s-Cinefan is organized by Osian‘s Connoisseurs of Art in association with the Government of the Delhi. Committed to bringing the finest films from India, Asia and Arab countries it aims to break down artistic hierarchies of the popular and the highbrow to reinvent a thoughtful and creative film culture. Cinefan began in 1999 as a small festival of Asian Cinema with just 27 films, but grew after it was acquired by and merged into Osian‘s Connoisseurs of Art in 2004 and became Osian‘s-Cinefan.