Category: Movies

MUMBAI: Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (MAMI) will wind up its 10th International Film Festival by screening Naomi Kawase‘s The Mourning Forest on 13 March.

The Mourning Forest, which won the top honours at the Cannes Film Festival – Palme D‘Or in 2007, is a visual poetry on celluloid that depicts the problems of the Japanese society.

In addition, MAMI will also screen other international films like Katyn (Poland) directed by Andrzej Wajda, Aria (Japan) directed by Takushi Tsubokawa, and Billo, Le Grand Dakhaar (Italy) directed by Laura Muscardin.

NDTV Lumi?re, an initiative to bring contemporary world cinema to India, is the official content partner of the MAMI International Film Festival.

Apart from bringing The Mourning Forest to MAMI, NDTV Lumi?re has showcased contemporary films like Goodbye Bafana – the winner of the Peace Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, Caramel by Nadine Labaki, and Fatih Akin‘s The Edge of Heaven.

BANGALORE: Airtel has announced a unique association with the yet-to-be released Kannada movie Accident.

According to this deal, Airtel will be providing exclusive content from the film to its customers in Karnataka in the form of ringtones, hello tunes, wallpapers, etc.

Since the story of the conventional masala flick revolves around a hero who has lost his wife in an accident, the Bangalore city traffic police (BCTP) has requested its actor-director Ramesh Arvind to be the city traffic police brand ambassador.

The BCTP will soon be launching a traffic awareness campaign for which some ad agencies have already pitched. In an effort to create awareness and help promote safe driving, the BCTP spends around Rs 10 million of its own funds, plus attracts a lot of sponsors.

The promotion partners are Zee Kannada and Radio Mirchi. While Zee Kannada will be promoting the film on television, Radio Mirchi will be doing it on FM radio.

The audio album of the movie Accident will be released soon by Anand Audio, before the April 2008 release of the film.

Airtel has around 6.5 million subscribers in Karnataka as per the last reported figures, and Bharati Airtel Karnataka mobile services CEO V Venkatesh claims that the number is now around 7 million, the largest by a single service provider in any state in India.

MUMBAI: After a gap of about four decades, Pakistan has lifted the ban on Indian films. But there is a condition attached: for every Hindi film screened in Pakistan, the doors have to open in India for an Urdu movie.

Khuda Ke Liye is the first Pakistani film to be released in India.

In 1968, the release of Indian films in Pakistani cinemas was banned and Pakistan lost one of its competitors. The net result was a loss of large business circuit and isolation of Pakistani cinema industry for years to come.

Produced and directed by Shoaib Mansoor, Khuda Ke Liye is a film about Muslims in a post-9/11 world. The film is slated to open in India on 4 April 2008, making it the first ever Pakistani film to be released in Indian theatres by Percept Picture Company and music by Sony BMG.

Pakistan and India might have their long-held differences, but Pakistani moviegoers prefer Bollywood productions to those of their own filmmakers. As a result, Pakistani producers say their industry is in critical condition, and unless the government steps in, it could disappear altogether.

The opening of dialogue and political doors to establish new ties and improve bilateral relations will promote cross border co-production possibilities that can hugely benefit Pakistani film industry by eyeing India as new potential market to launch its films.

Khuda Ke Liye, with India‘s Naseeruddin Shah also in a prominent role, is the latest export from Pakistan to Bollywood adding on to the ever-increasing list of entertainment goods imported from Pakistan such as singers, musicians, actors and now films.

As compared to India‘s film production of over 1,000 movies in a year, Pakistan‘s film industry produced just 40 movies in 2006, a fifth of what it turned out during its heyday in the 1970s. Back then, there were more than 1,000 movie theatres throughout the country. Today, there are only around 200, and not one in the capital Islamabad.

In the 1930s when Pakistan and India were still united under British rule, there were two competing centres of the film industry – Lahore, “Lollywood” in Pakistan, and Bombay (Mumbai), the home of India‘s fabulously successful ‘‘Bollywood‘‘ filmmakers.

These days, of course, there is little question as to who won the competition. Bollywood is not only big, but it is the world‘s biggest, producing more films per year than any of its competitors including the US. It is hard for Pakistan to compete.

The thawing relations look set to go both ways and both countries are working hard on a sweeping peace process.

MUMBAI: Indian American filmmaker Parthiban Shanmugam‘s latest film A Pizza Story will be premiering at the International Festival of Short Films on Culture (IFFC) 2008 in Jaipur. It will come as a USA entry into the competitive section.

A Pizza Story takes a bold look at the US invasion on Iraq through the eyes of an eight-year old child.

The film stars Robert Hatch, Madison Laprade, Janis Dunkal. The original score for the film has been done by Jeremy Doss and the director of photography is Allan Facimore.

“The film evolves with the father and daughter love and separation. When eight-year old Eliana‘s father is sent to Iraq, she realises that when a family member is sent into some foreign conflict, the entire family has to face a sea of troubles. Magical realism mixes with the child‘s magical thinking to force a crisis. When her father departed, he promised Eliana that the whole family would be reunited at the favourite restaurant. With a child‘s limited understanding but a warrior‘s heart, she sets out alone to find the restaurant. In the course of adventure, she faces the ultimate test for her courage and her love,” stated writer-director Shanmugam.

The film screenings at IFFC 2008 will happen for three days where short films based on culture will be showcased from all over the world. The festival starts on 27 March this year.

MUMBAI: Jaipur will be hosting the International Festival of Short Films on Culture (IFFC) 2008.

The festival, which concentrates on short films based on culture, plans to travel to various other cities across India after it ends in Jaipur. It will be a four-day event starting on 27 March and continuing till 30 March.

The film screening will happen for three days showcasing films from all over the world. Three seminars will be held during the festival and the subjects will be cultural reforms through short films, social issues through short films, and depiction of history and religion through short films.

The festival will be giving away awards to four categories namely:

IFFC International Award (open to all filmmakers), IFFC National Award (open to all filmmakers only from India), IFFC Best Film On Religion (open to all filmmakers), and IFFC Student Award (open to filmmakers below the age of 21 years).

MUMBAI: PVR Ltd. and SRS Cinemas, who had got into a franchisee agreement for three screens, have parted ways. SRS will now expand its own brand and plans to reach 100 screens by end of next fiscal.

As per a franchise agreement, PVR Ltd was operating the cinemas of SRS group with respect to three screens, located at Faridabad and Haryana, under the name of SRS PVR.

PVR says it decided to discontinue the franchise agreement with SRS, terminating it effective 1 March.

Though PVR Ltd will no more be operating the cinemas of SRS, it is in talks to handle SRS‘ marketing, not only of cinemas but also the mall properties.

Says SRS Group chief executive exhibition Amitabh Bardhan, “To increase our operating efficiency, we decided to discontinue the franchise agreement. However, we plan to get into a bigger consolidation now wherein we would be handling the marketing of SRS Cinemas, its mall, food court and Value Bazaar. But yes, we would be dropping PVR from SRS PVR.”

SRS Cinemas already has nine screens operating under this name in UP, Gaziabad and Faridabad, and plans to open 20 more in the next one month.

“We already have nine operational screens in UP, Gaziabad and Faridbad. We will be stretching to 100 screens by the end of FY09. This will include places like Ludhina, Amritsar, Ahmadabad, Pune, Jaipur, Delhi, Patiala, Merut and Indore,” says an official source in SRS Cinemas.

MUMBAI: Apart from Mumbai, UTV will be distributing Abbas-Mustan‘s Race to Inox in West Bengal and Rajasthan, PVR in Mysore, Bobby Arts in UP and Raksha Entertainment in Bombay. It will also be distributing the film in Delhi NCR.

MUMBAI: Writer-director-producer Sanjeev Chatterjee‘s One Water, a film about global water crisis, will be screened at the 25th Miami International Film Festival on 9 March 2008, which is the last day of the festival.

The festival began on the 28 February.

One Water has been produced by the University of Miami (UM), and its completion and distribution are supported by the John S and James L Knight Foundation.

The film, which explores the global fresh water crisis, has been filmed in15 countries in both hemispheres.

“A great university embraces great challenges. With the production of One Water, the University of Miami has made human what is our world‘s greatest challenge – the fundamental right to fresh, safe water,” said UM President Donna E Shalala, who narrated the film.

One Water was a six-year-long collaborative project involving the UM School of Communication, College of Engineering and Frost School of Music.

The film shows the state of the world‘s fresh water and its impact on people, which is becoming aggravated by population growth and climate change and compromises the future of all life on the planet.

“The purpose of the film is to open a window for audiences into the real situations that human beings are faced with in regards to water. This film should motivate individual responsibility and perhaps action,” said Chatterjee who is also the Vice Dean of the School of Communication.

The film has been edited by DoP Ali Habashi, and the music has been composed by Thomas M Sleeper. Sam Grogg and Harry Clein are the executive producers.

NEW DELHI: Two film festivals being held in the capital to coincide with the International Women’s Day exhibit how women filmmakers add their own unique sensitivity to the subjects they pick up.

Sixteen films by the renowned filmmaker Lavlin Thadani on issues relating to women and around 25 films from five countries by Asian women on the theme of ‘Insights and Aspirations’ are to be shown in the two festivals. The second festival has been organized by the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT).

While one festival is dealing with subjects like female foeticide, the girl child, treating some women as witches, others burnt on the pyres of their husbands and so on, the other has varied subjects like the politically sensitive communal relations, social issues like the search for a suitable groom, or a historical on the famed singing saint Kabir.

The films by Thadani’s Muskan Productions are all short features which have been or to be screened on Doordarshan and have been made as commissioned programmes for the public service broadcaster. The festival commenced on 5 March and will continue till 8 March at the India Habitat Centre.

Thadani told indiantelevision.com that all the films were ‘films of hope’ and had been inspired by media reports. She admitted in reply to a question that it was often the elder women who were responsible for the atrocities on younger women, but said this was because of years of conditioning.

The IAWRT festival is being held in collaboration with the India International Centre Asia Project and UNESCO on 7 and 8 March and will feature short and full-length and animation films from Australia, Japan, Pakistan, and the United States besides India. IIC Asia-project and IAWRT will use this forum for short films dedicated to genres across animation, fiction and documentary film.

Filmmakers like Paromita Vohra who will also have a presentation on how she makes films, Dhvani Desai who uses a dying folk form to make an animation film, and Rajula Shah who explores the greatness of the 14th Century mystic Kabir, are among the filmmakers who will be present during the two-day meet.

The theme of the Fourth IAWRT Women’s Film Festival this year is ‘Insights and Aspirations’. The aim is to open up a space for debates on creative processes and concerns, Jai Chandiram who is Managing Trustee of the IAWRT told indiantelevision.com.

Chandiram said recognizing the critical need for a forum that can sustain the form of documentary as well as women’s contribution to this unique form, the festival is showcasing documentary films created by women, covering a range of genres and expressive styles. It presents films that explore and reflect on how women filmmakers negotiate, resist or document political, social, cultural, environmental, educational or economic issues.

Panel discussions to be held along with the festival will examine whether women are creating a new language of filmmaking, which reflects, and explores new politics of filmmaking, and how women are widening the frame for issues concerning women.

The IAWRT Women’s Festival has in the past traveled to many cities in India .The last festival had screenings in Kolkata, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Pune and Madurai.

The earlier three IAWRT festivals were on the themes of ‘Expressions in Freedom’, ‘Women, Media and Society: Transformations’, and ‘Reflections: Women Imaging Realities.’

The International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) is a non–profit professional organization of women working in electronic and allied media. The IAWRT is a non-government organization (NGO), in consultative status with United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

IAWRT seeks to ensure women’s views and values become an integral part of programme making. It offers professional skill-training to women. It provides grants and fellowships, and presents awards of excellence. It helps members share inputs by organizing workshops and festivals round the world.

MUMBAI: Hindi film actor Anupam Kher has launched a London chapter of his Actor Prepares, making it Britain‘s first official Bollywood acting school.