ITV

Tag: Cannes

  • Television heartthrob makes his debut at Cannes

    Television heartthrob makes his debut at Cannes

    NEW DELHI: Marking his excellence on the small screen, actor Gautam Gulati of Diya Aur Baati Hum fame gears up to make his debut at Cannes Film Festival with screening of his release Coward (Darpok) by Rakesh Mehta.

    Gulati said “Yes, I am starring in (Darpok) and going to France to attend the screening of the movie. I feel honoured to be a part of this film, this is a perfect inception for me to invade in movies”

    He started off his journey as an actor with the experience of mastering in theater from Mandi House for a year. Leaving no stone unturned he also trained himself in dance from celebrated choreographer Shiamak Davar.

     

    Speckled by Balaji Production House, he was spotted by soup opera queen, Ekta Kapoor. Exploring his credentials, Gulati worked under the banner for three years where he became contempt and experienced every aspect of acting. Sighting the dedication and zeal he seizes he was chosen as for the role of Vikram in Diya aur Baati Hum as he aptly suited the character. Going by his vast fan following he absolutely justified the character. He went on to become a household name and gathered fame and recognition from the India soup opera.

     

    Talking about his journey, he said “I belong to a simple family back ground where we don’t have any association with Bollywood, but it was my passion for this art which made me pursue acting. As I never had a mentor or a God father to guide me through.”

     

    After working and attaining recognition for six years, perhaps he made up his mind to work within the industry and learn this way through. To be given an opportunity like Darpok, Gulati feels elated. Becoming the epitome of talent, the skilled actor perceives this international break as his golden chance to prove his masters in the field of acting.

     

  • ‘True Love Story’ from India is only Asian film in the Critics Week in Cannes

    ‘True Love Story’ from India is only Asian film in the Critics Week in Cannes

    NEW DELHI: While ‘Titli’ by Kanu Bahl is the Indian entry for Cannes official selection in Un Certain Regard, the Asian presence at the Critics’ Week of the Cannes Film Festival is confined to one short, Gitanjali Rao’s 19-minute animated romance True Love Story.

     

    Behl will also be a contender for the Camera d’Or, the award for feature directing debut.

     

    Rao describes her film, which won the Golden Conch for Best Animation at February’s Mumbai International Film Festival, as a boy-meets-girl romance between two migrant teenagers in Mumbai who re-enact Bollywood fantasies.

     

    According to Rao, “The animation industry in India is still very nascent and undefined. This is in sharp contrast with our regional film industries and Bollywood, which have strong identities and a rich history that film-makers can draw upon while they create their own works.”

     

    “That sort of identity is just not there with animation,” she said. “We just end up imitating Disney. The thing is, Bollywood copies from Hollywood, but it doesn’t imitate it. True Love Story is an attempt to create a unique visual effect that is Indian in its aesthetic.”

     

    Rao previously participated in the Critics’ Week section in 2006 with Printed Rainbow (2006) about “the loneliness of an old woman and her cat, who escape into the fantastical world of match box covers”. She was a member of its short film jury in 2011.

     

    Last year, Critics’ Week screened one Asian film, India’s The Lunchbox.

     

    “Titli” is co-produced by Yash Raj Films and DBP, the production house of cult Indian producer-director Dibakar Banerjee. The movie stars Ranveer Shorey, Amit Sial, Lalit Behl and Shivani Raghuvanshi, and introduces Shashank Arora.

     

    Set in Delhi’s underbelly, the film centers on Titli, the youngest member of a violent carjacking brotherhood, who plots to escape the “family” business.

  • McDonald’s, the marketer of the year

    McDonald’s, the marketer of the year

    MUMBAI: Winning a Cannes Lions is every brands and agency’s ultimate vision. And, for McDonald’s it has been a common phenomenon.

     

    Since 1979, it has won 77 Lions and this year, it has been made the Marketer of the Year by Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

     

    The award is presented to ‘brands that have distinguished themselves by inspiring innovative marketing of their products worldwide across multiple platforms and who embrace and encourage creativity in their brand communications produced by their agencies’.

     

    Lions Festivals CEO Philip Thomas said, “McDonald’s consistently places creativity at the heart of its advertising and communications, and that has resulted in the brand receiving many Lions at the Cannes Festival. McDonald’s and its agencies have taken creative risks to produce meaningful work, and they see award-winning content earning higher returns – a success story that will, we hope, inspire other brands. We look forward to congratulating the team from McDonald’s by presenting this very important Creative Marketer of the Year Award in Cannes.”

     

    The award will be presented to McDonald’s on 21 June in the Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France.

     

    McDonald’s senior executive vice president and global chief brand officer Steve Easterbrook says, “McDonald’s is honoured to be named Creative Marketer of the Year. This award recognises the enduring and inspiring relationships we have with our agencies around the world. It’s a nod to our creative heritage and the power of the brand to connect with customers around the world with a local accent. Our restless energy moves us to uncover new ideas, and pursue excellence in insight, positioning, idea and craft. The honour of winning Creative Marketer of the Year at Cannes Lions recognises the hard work of many people throughout the McDonald’s system.”

     

    Last year, the award was presented to Coca-Cola.

  • Uday Chopra’s Grace of Monaco starring Nicole Kidman to open the 67th Cannes

    Uday Chopra’s Grace of Monaco starring Nicole Kidman to open the 67th Cannes

    MUMBAI: French director Olivier Dahan’s Grace of Monaco is to open the next Festival de Cannes. The world preview will take place on Wednesday 14 May, 2014, in the Grand Théâtre Lumi?re of the Palais des Festivals, in the Official Selection category, Out of Competition. Grace of Monaco follows on from The Great Gatsby by Baz Luhrmann.

     
    The film portrays a period in the life of American Actress Grace Kelly (played by Nicole Kidman) who became Princess Grace of Monaco when she married Prince Rainier III (Tim Roth) in 1956, in what was dubbed “the marriage of the century”. An Oscar winner, she was already a huge film star, having worked with the very greatest (John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, Fred Zinnemann) and acclaimed the world over. Six years later, amid occasional difficulties in fulfilling her role, she was invited back to Hollywood by Alfred Hitchcock, to play in his new film Marnie. At the time, France was threatening to tax and even annex Monaco, the tiny Principality whose monarch Kelly had become. Was she still an actress? Was she really Princess of Monaco?
     

    Produced by Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, Uday Chopra and Arash Amel, who also wrote the screenplay, Grace de Monaco sees Nicole Kidman play the role of Grace, with Tim Roth as Prince Rainier. Their co-stars include Frank Langella, Parker Posey, Jeanne Balibar, Sir Derek Jacobi and Paz Vega, who plays Maria Callas. The film was shot in Scope 2.35 using Kodak 35mm film. The Director of Photography was France’s Eric Gautier and the 16-weeks shoot took place in Monaco, South of France, Paris, Vintimille, Gand and Bruxelles.

     
    Born in 1967 in La Ciotat, Olivier Dahan previously directed La Vie en Rose (2007) which garnered Marion Cotillard the Oscar for Best Actress in 2008. Grace of Monaco will be released on the opening day of the Festival, Wednesday 14 May, in France and in several cities around the world. The opening ceremony will be broadcast to participating cinemas, with the kind cooperation of Canal+.

     
    Grace of Monaco is A Stone Angels and YRF Entertainment production. The film is co-produced by TF1 Films Productions, Gaumont, Lucky Red, OD Shots, Ufilm, and in association with Silver Reel – Ufund. Distributor in France is Gaumont and International Sales is with Lotus Entertainment.

     

  • Now MipTV roadshow to hit Bengaluru today

    Now MipTV roadshow to hit Bengaluru today

    BENGALURU: Today is the turn of India’s garden city Bengaluru (Bangalore)  to get insights on  how its animation, gaming, TV channel and production and film executives can take audiovisual content from Karnataka global through markets such as MipTV and MipCom which have been organised in Cannes for decades now.

     

    An intimate audience in Chennai  (having a similar profile) engaged with Reed Midem representatives Ted Baracos, Paul Barbaro and India representative Anil Wanvari on 20 January.

     

    “Bengaluru has built up its reputation as India’s Silicon Valley,” says Baracos. “We, at Reed Midem, would love to see it known for its prowess in the media and entertainment space too. MipTV and MipCom offer the biggest gatherings of buying and selling executives from TV and digital from all over the world, and can work well to catapult Bengaluru in front of these folks. It could well serve as a good starting point to start the Karnataka content export engine to new markets.”

     

    “For that to successfully happen, Karnataka’s industry will have to take a bold step in wanting to be a part of a content export  economy which runs into billions of dollars each year,” adds Barbaro. “In recent times, Korea, Russia, Turkey and even provinces in China have been step by step increasing their initiatives in this direction. There is a huge pie out there in the 100 or so countries that participate in MipCom and MipTV respectively.”

     

    To reach out to the community in Bengaluru, a partnership was struck by Reed Midem  with the Association of Bangalore’s Animation Industry (ABAI) a couple of years ago. And today’s get together will see that relationship bearing fruit as ABAI is sending scores of its representatives to attend the seminar entitled “Content without boundaries.”

     

    “MipTV offers scores of opportunities: right from simple syndication to co-production to licensing to co-creation,” says Wanvari. “The neighouring state of Andhra Pradesh has already taken strides in that direction and its government has been encouraging producers and creators to go global. I believe Karnataka’s content production industry can use these opportunities to gradually get their revenues moving northward.”

     

    The industry get together will take place this evening at the Hotel Aloft in the swanky IT district – the Whitefield area – from 7:00 pm onwards. 

     

    The road show will next move to Mumbai where a seminar is planned for 24 January.

  • MipTV roadshow to hit Chennai on 20 January

    MipTV roadshow to hit Chennai on 20 January

    MUMBAI: Paris-based Reed Midem, which produces the world’s biggest and most successful content markets MipTV and MipCom in the French Riviera seaside town of Cannes, is all set to begin a series of road shows in India which will feature seminars and interactions in three cities  – Chennai, Bengaluru and Mumbai – explaining how India’s content community can build its international sales and presence.

     

    The first of these will be hitting Chennai on 20 Januray 2014. To be held at the Hotel Benzz Park in the T. Nagar business area,  it is slated to be attended by a select group of invited professionals  from the southern India city’s animation, TV, film distribution and value-added services sectors.

     

    The theme of this year’s roadshows is “Content without boundaries.”

     

    Down for the second time in about six months from the Paris headquarters  of Reed Midem are director of new market development Ted Baracos and Asia sales head Paul Barbaro. Accompanying them is Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO Anil Wanvari, who is MipTV, MipCom and Midem India representative.

     

    Says Baracos: “We were quite delighted with the response from  India’s talented content creators when we had road shows in Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai last year.  Our theme then was: Can Indian content leave its stamp on the world? And India responded with a big yes. Attendance from the country was up almost 20 per cent as Indian companies came to MipCom in October 2013 to strike deals and pursue international market opportunties. So we decided to come back once again to connect with the community here.”

     

    Adds Barbaro: “Several Indian companies such as Shemaroo, Green Gold, Viacom18, Zee TV, DQ Entertainment, AVCGI have understood the power of MipCom and MipTV and have  successfully been using the platforms we provide to expand their content syndication, production and co-production businesses. We would like India’s  new content creators to understand, be a part and exploit the new entertainment economy in which content is likely to cease having borders, it will travel everywhere. Hence we  are here continuing our conversation with them through these road shows.”

     

    “I have been attending Mipcom and MipTV for more than 14 years and have seen Indian broadcasters, animation studios, service providers simply grow thanks to the contacts and deals they strike there,” says Wanvari. “The entrepreneurialism and hunger to conquer new markets can only see India’s content being consumed and even co-produced in markets never thought about before. It is important that more and more Indian firms understand and exploit this opportunity. It can bring home hundreds of millions of dollars in much needed forex into the Indian economy and probably grow the next Endemol or Fremantle out of India.”

     

    From Chennai, the team will then move to Bengaluru on 22 January and to Mumbai on 24 January. The entire road show has been put together and organised by Indiantelevision.com’s ITV 2.0 Productions division.

  • ‘The Lunchbox’, ‘Monsoon Shootout’ travelling to more festivals overseas

    ‘The Lunchbox’, ‘Monsoon Shootout’ travelling to more festivals overseas

    NEW DELHI: The Lunchbox directed by Ritesh Batra appears to be garnering much more attention than it would have got at the Oscars. The film has visited many international festivals and is set to go to two more soon.

    The Lunchbox will compete at the 24th Stockholm Film Festival being held from 6 to 17 November, and at the American Film Institute Festival from 7 to 14 November.

    Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout and Remo D’Souza’s Any Body Can Dance (ABCD) will screen under the Asian Images section in Stockholm.

    The Lunchbox, making its Nordic Premiere at the festival, will compete with films like Paul Wright’s For Those in Peril, Anthony Chen’s Ilo Ilo and Amat Escalante’s Heli. The section showcases directors making their first, second or third feature film.  .

    Monsoon Shootout has earlier been screened at Cannes, Durban, Sydney, Jerusalem and London Indian Film Festivals. Remo D’Souza’s Any Body Can Dance (ABCD) is a 3D dance film directed and choreographed by Remo D’Souza and produced by UTV.

    Meanwhile, a total of 32 titles will be screened in the World Cinema section of the AFI. The complete programme includes 119 films (83 features, 36 shorts) from 43 countries.

    The Lunchbox, featuring Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, had its world premiere at the International Critics’ Week of the Cannes Film Festival and has since travelled to several important festivals including Telluride, Toronto, Karlovy Vary, Zurich and BFI London.

  • Interbrand appoints global CMO & North American CMO

    MUMBAI: Interbrand, a brand consultancy, has named Graham Hales as its global chief marketing officer and Andrea Sullivan will be the new chief marketing officer of Interbrand North America.

    Hales most recently served as chief executive officer of Interbrand London, while Sullivan served as executive director of client services and was responsible for client services and marketing for Interbrand North America. In their new roles, Hales and Sullivan will work closely to integrate marketing and business development initiatives to drive growth across Interbrand’s global network. Hales and Sullivan will work with regional managing directors to engage new clients while deepening relationships with existing clients, ensuring they continue to benefit from the firm’s strategic and creative offerings and services. 

    As CEO of Interbrand London for the past four years, Hales led key brand engagements with some of the firm’s most high-profile clients, including the BBC, British Airways and Samsung. Under his leadership, Marketing Magazine named Interbrand’s London office Agency of Year in 2011. Hales brings extensive global experience to his new role as Interbrand’s global chief marketing officer. He has helped to oversee the firm’s offices in Amsterdam and Mumbai and has also driven regional business development activity in the Middle East, Turkey and Scandinavia. Prior to serving as Interbrand London’s CEO, Hales was Interbrand’s global chief communications officer. While in that role, he was instrumental in helping to create original content around the firm’s annual ‘Best Global Brands’ report.

    While serving as executive director of client services, Sullivan led the client services and marketing team and co-founded Interbrand’s global corporate citizenship practice. Additionally, she played a pivotal role in developing and promoting Interbrand’s thought leadership on a global scale, having delivered interactive experiences with partners such as the ANA, Cannes, Deloitte, Guggenheim, Harvard, Lyons, MoMA, NYSE, United Nations, World Business Forum and Yale. Sullivan was a founding member of G23, a landmark consultancy comprising top female leadership from within the Omnicom network. G23 was designed to lead Omnicom clients in activating the global female economy.

    “It is a very exciting time in the history of Interbrand,” said Interbrand’s global chief executive officer Jez Frampton. “The promotion of both Graham and Andrea marks the first time that the firm has had two leaders in place to strategically foster and activate a global vision of marketing, communication, and business development. Graham and Andrea have been proven leaders of the business for many years and I congratulate them both on the next chapter of their careers at Interbrand.”

  • IIFA travels to the States in 2014

    IIFA travels to the States in 2014

    MUMBAI: The International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards has announced the event will travel to the US for the first time next year (2014), settling in Tampa, Florida in June. The move is one that‘s likely to up the contour of Indian cinema Stateside where Bollywood isn‘t typically top of mind among moviegoers.

    But Indian cinema and talent is definitely growing with movies like Yeh Jawaani Hai Dawaani, and actors like Ranbir Kapoor and multi-hyphenates like Anurag Kashyap making waves. A question remains, however, on how closely the biggies of Hollywood and Bollywood can ever meet.

    India celebrated the 100th centenary of Hindi cinema in Cannes in May, turning a spotlight on the industry. Last month the romcom Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (YJHD) broke into the US top ten upon release. The film‘s success at home and abroad was partly because of the mushy romance seen in the movie. Ranbir Kapoor is one of Bollywood‘s hottest actors at this point of time, also a key factor inYeh Jawaani‘s success.

    Fanning the flames, Kapoor just won the best actor prize for 2012?s Barfi! At IIFA which was held this weekend in Macau. The romantic comedy was India‘s 2012 Oscar entry. It also won several prizes at January‘s Filmfare Awards including top picture and actor; Kapoor played a deaf-mute man involved with two women.

    Kapoor‘s YJHD co-star Deepika Padukone is next up in Chennai Express. Padukone is an established actress who broke out in 2007?s Om Shanti Om. Chennai Express has the distinction of going out on August 8, the eve of India‘s Eid al Fitr holiday. Beginning in 2008, films toplined by Indian superstar Salman Khan staked a claim on the Eid holiday which celebrates the end of Ramadan. With Khan‘s next big production, Mental, not releasing until the January Republic Day weekend, the Eid spot is ripe for another comer with big box office potential.

    Conventional wisdom says it will be Chennai Express. The love story cum road movie is directed by Rohit Shetty (the Golmaal franchise, Bol Bachchan) and, with Padukone, stars the iconic Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, making it one to watch. If Chennai followsYeh Jawaani‘s path, Khan should be happy. He has said that his dedication is to getting Indian films seen by the world rather than having his own career in Hollywood.

  • The Festival de Cannes is proud to welcome Plantu & Friends: Cartooning for Peace

    The Festival de Cannes is proud to welcome Plantu & Friends: Cartooning for Peace

    The Festival de Cannes is hosting a fund raising auction sale on Monday, 20th of May at the Festival Agora to support Cartooning for Peace

    This event, co-organized by Piasa, will present cartoonists WILLIS FROM TUNIS (Tunisia), DILEM (Algeria), KICHKA (Israel) and PLANTU (Le Monde and L’Express) and will be conducted by the auctioneer James Fattori.

    For this unprecedented meeting between editorial cartoons and films, original collector artwork will be put on sale. The funds raised will benefit Cartooning for Peace to support their action.

    Created in 2008 by Kofi Annan and Plantu, Cartooning for Peace aims to promote a better understanding and mutual respect between people of different cultures and beliefs using editorial cartoons as a universal language, by subtly shaking politically correct mindsets.

    The exhibition linked to the benefit event, will be presented at the Palais des Festivals, during the whole festival.

    A selection of eighty cartoons portrays legendary films, the film industry and famous film directors such as Fellini, Bergman, Spielberg or Haneke, in a light and satirical tone. Some cartoons also remind us that cinema creativity is still threatened in countries such as Iran or Algeria. If a film director has a problem with authorities, cartoonists from all over the world will take his defense and report freedom of expression violations.

    Freedom of expression is under the spotlight to defend artistic freedom!