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Tag: Germany

  • Tushar Unadkat to receive Trailblazer Award in Canada

    Tushar Unadkat to receive Trailblazer Award in Canada

    NEW DELHI: Mukta Advertising Creative Director and CEO Tushar Unadkat who recently produced a film in Canada is to be honoured by ReelWorld as the Trailblazer at the 12th Annual Film Festival to be held from 11 to 15 April in Toronto.

    For ReelWorld, a trailblazer is an up-and-coming voice contributing to Canada’s multi-ethnic framework and entertainment industry, making strides through innovation.

    Created in 2002, the Trailblazer Award recognises the accomplishments of ethnically diverse Canadian entertainment industry professionals whose work has broadened our horizons. Over the past ten years, ReelWorld has recognised some of Canada’s brightest talent for their ability to bring innovative stories and to forge a bright future for the Canadian entertainment industry.

    Unadkat holds a Master in Design degree from University of Dundee, Scotland and Honors in Photography from University of Wolverhampton, England. In the past decade, Tushar has executed art direction in the film, fashion, advertising and events industry in USA, England, Scotland, France, Germany, Netherlands, India and Canada.

    Winning 14 international awards, he has worked with Oscar winning producers and editors in the past as the Production Designer making a significant name in the Western Cross-Over Film-Industry and earning credits on more than 25 feature films in his portfolio.

    Currently enrolled on a Business Edge programme at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Unadkat produced a cross-over Bollywood-Hollywood genre feature film – Surkhaab – scheduled to theatrically release this summer in U S, Canada and India.

  • Persistence Resistance to showcase 46 documentaries

    Persistence Resistance to showcase 46 documentaries

    NEW DELHI: A total of 46 documentaries including 15 film premieres are being showcased at the fifth Persistence Resistance, which has this year moved to multiple venues across the capital.

    The annual festival is showcasing films from the United States, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia and India.

    Organised by the Magic Lantern Foundation, the Festival is being held in the British Council, India International Centre, Delhi University, North Campus and Max Mueller Bhavan.

    Magic Lantern Foundation director Gargi Sen, said films are being screened in auditorium, as installations, in video parlours in circular loops and in a multi-hub film library.

    At the inauguration of the festival, Sen paid homage to Greek filmmaker Lucia Rikaki, Bangladeshi filmmaker Tareque Masud, and Homai Vyarawalla, (the first woman photographer in India). The festival is screening a special package of five films from the archives of the erstwhile German studio, DEFA and never-seen-before animation films by the graphic novelist, Sarnath Banerjee.

    Fried Fish, Chicken Soup and a Premiere Show by Mamta Murthy would be screened as well as the IDPA-Green Screens Winner, Bitter Seeds, by Micha Peled.

    Six in-depth conversations with filmmakers are a highlight of the festival as well as 13 filmmakers will be present for Q&A after the screening of their films.

    Renowned environmentalist Vandana Shiva led the discussion after the screening of Bitter Seeds at the British Council this evening, and the director Micha X. Peled would join in via Skype from San Fransisco.

    Homages are being paid Sabeena Gadihoke for Homai Vyarawalla and by Shohini Ghosh for Tareque Masud.

  • Berlinale opens with Farewell My Queen

    Berlinale opens with Farewell My Queen

    MUMBAI: The 62nd Berlin International Film Festival opens today with the world premiere of Benoît Jacquot’s film Farewell My Queen (Les adieux ? la Reine)

    While Mohan Kumar Valasala’s Panchabhuta will compete in Berlinale Shorts at the festival, Gattu, directed by Rajan Khosa and produced by the Children’s Film Society of India (CFSI) will compete in Generation KPlus section of the festival.

    Kutch, a project to be directed by Bobby Bedi will be the first Indian project to participate in Berlinale co-production market.

    Farhan Akhtar’s Don 2 which is a co-production between India and Germany will have a special screening at the festival.

    Indian film curator and journalist Meenakshi Shedde is on the FIRPRESCI jury of the festival. All members of the International Jury- Anton Corbijn, Asghar Farhadi, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jake Gyllenhaal, Mike Leigh, François Ozon, Boualem Sansal and Barbara Sukowa – will be present. The 62nd Berlin International Film Festival will close on February 19, 2012.

  • Batra’s ‘Lunchbox’ wins jury special mention at Cinemart

    Batra’s ‘Lunchbox’ wins jury special mention at Cinemart

    MUMBAI: Ritesh Batra‘s The Lunchbox has won a Jury Special Mention at the 29th CineMart, the co-production market of the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

    The project is a co-production of Anurag Kashyap Productions Pvt Ltd (India) and Cine Mosaic (USA).

    The ARTE France Cinéma Award (10,000 Euro) for the Best CineMart 2012 Project was given to Duncharon by Athina Rachel Tsangari (Greece), a co-production of Haos Films and Faliro House Productions (Greece), Maharaja Films (France) and The Match Factory GmbH (Germany).

    The Eurimages Co-Production Development Award (30,000 Euro) for the Best CineMart 2012 Project with an European partner went to Humidity by Nikola Ljuca (Serbia), a co-production of Dart Film (Serbia) and zischlermann film produktion GbR (Germany).

    Cinemart concluded on 1 February in Rotterdam.

  • Dhobi Ghat out of BAFTA

    Dhobi Ghat out of BAFTA

    MUMBAI: Aamir Khan’s Dhobi Ghat, which was among the BAFTA Longlist of films in non-English language, has failed to make it to the top five list.

    The top five that will now vie for the best foreign language film include Incendies (Canada), Pina (Germany), Potiche (France), A Separation (Iran) and The Skin I Live In (Spain).

    Kiran Rao‘s directorial debut Dhobi Ghat featured in the BAFTA Longlist in Film Not in the English Language category, but it has failed to make it to the top five list for the prestigious international award.

    The Longlist is the result of round one of voting by members of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts members. It lists 15 contenders in each category, which are reduced to five for the final nominations.

  • Pune Intl. fest goes underway on 12 January

    Pune Intl. fest goes underway on 12 January

    MUMBAI: The curtains of the 10th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) will go up on 12 January at City Pride, Kothrud in Pune.


    The eight-day festival, jointly organised by the Pune Film Foundation and Government of Maharashtra, will screen 200 films from 40 countries.


    Films in various categories will compete for cash awards. While the World Competition section will have 14 films, the Marathi Competition section will have seven and the Whistling Woods International Student Competition section will consist of 18 films.


    Also, different sections will highlight global cinema, retrospectives, contenporary Indian cinema, Marathi cinema, documentaries and tributes.


    This year the special ‘Country Focus’ section will screen 47 films from Germany.


    As per a tradition of PIFF, the SD Burman award for creative music and sound is given to a person who has made a significant contribution in the field of music.

  • Ultra making Jal Bin Jalpari with Panda at helm

    Ultra making Jal Bin Jalpari with Panda at helm

    MUMBAI: Ultra Distributors, the Rs 3 billion film production, distribution and restoration company headquartered in Mumbai, is in the process of making a children‘s film titled Jal Bin Jalpari directed by Nila Madhab Panda, known for his debut film I Am Kalam.

    Ultra group CEO Sushil Kumar Agrawal said, “After watching I Am Kalam, I was fascinated about the film, message and the director‘s vision. When Panda, narrated me the story of Jal bin Jalpari, I was very much confident of his vision and thought that this is the best opportunity to be socially active through mainstream cinema.”

    The film will tackle issues like increasing water scarcity and the skewed child sex ratio through the children‘s viewpoint.

    The cast of the film comprises of Parvin Dabas, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Suhasini Mulay, VM Badola, Rahul Singh and Harsh Mayar of I Am Kalam.

    The film will be shot in one single schedule in November-December in various locations in north India, including Haryana and Delhi.

    Two Delhi kids, Lehar Khan and Krishang Trivedi are playing the protagonist duo of Shreya and Sam, while Salman and Hebron from NGOs Salaam Balak Trust and Ummeed will play other vital child characters along with Harsh Mayar.

    Panda, recently back from Cinekid International Film Festival, Amsterdam, said that buyers from countries like Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Taiwan and Argentina have evinced great interest in the new film considering that I Am Kalam did very good business in these countries.

  • ABC News Now expands to Europe

    MUMBAI: As part of its international expansion plans, ABC News has launched its international service ABC News Now in three European territories on the internet service Zattoo.

    The service will be initially available in Germany, Spain and Belgium but would soon expand its reach into additional markets including UK in the next six months.

    Showing keen interest in the international markets, ABC had earlier announced plans to launch in India, which is still awaiting regulatory approval.

    “We plan on significantly increasing our international presence. It is critically important for our news coverage and our survival to expand overseas and into broadband band other digital platforms,” said ABC News senior VP digital Paul Slavin.

    In October ABC opened seven new international bureaus in places that include Seoul, Rio de Janeiro, Dubai, New Delhi and Mumbai in India, Jakarta, Indonesia, and Nairobi, Kenya. All the international bureaus have a single correspondent known as digital reporter, who primarily creates content for the digital platforms.

    Slavin further added, “There were not a lot of outlets for international stories when we were just serving our television newscasts and there were other ways to cover international stories. It is hard to justify a bureau in a country when maybe four stories a year get on the air. Now, with the internet and with the cost of distributing content getting so much cheaper, we see international as significant opportunity and we are making a significant investment to become an international organization.”

    He said that they are looking for all types of distribution for the ABC News Now channel and content.

    “Broadband is probably the easiest, but we will utilise every platform from cable, satellite, IPTV, broadband and mobile,” he said.

    He stated that ABC is looking for content partnerships to help expand their international presence and customise their international services.

  • Reliability issues turn off mobile TV users in Europe

    Reliability issues turn off mobile TV users in Europe

    MUMBAI: A survey of 22,000 European mobile users commissioned by Tellabs has revealed that a high percentage of early adopters of mobile TV and video services are snubbing a second helping. The research, conducted by M:Metrics in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France and Spain, brought up an interesting issue: on average, former users of mobile TV and video outnumber current users by more than 19%. Users cited price, quality and reliability issues as the main reasons why they do not come back for more.

    “At 3GSM we will be treated to a feast of new mobile TV launches with millions of dollars being spent on developing, marketing and distributing mobile TV services. But if services fall short of user expectations on quality and reliability, it could be money wasted,” said Pat Dolan, Tellabs vice president for Europe, Middle East and Africa. “So while we share our industry’s enthusiasm for mobile TV, the detailed results of this survey provide important food for thought for the global operator community, who want to address network backhaul issues to improve mobile TV and video services.”

    Forty-five percent of European mobile video and TV users cited pricing issues as a factor causing them to switch off the services. And nearly a quarter (24%) of users who tried mobile video and TV stopped using the services due to concerns about service quality and reliability.

    The split between perception and reality was most pronounced in the United Kingdom. Only 6% of those who had never used mobile video and TV cited quality and reliability as reasons not to try such services, but 29% of users had stopped using services because of quality and reliability.

    “Pricing has already been highlighted as a stumbling block for recurrent use of mobile video and TV services, but we were surprised by just how much value users place on quality and reliability,” said Paul Goode, senior analyst, M:Metrics. “Once the basic requirements of quality and reliability are good enough, the focus will rightly shift to issues of programming, brands and marketing in addition to price. This research highlights the need to address quality and reliability so the industry can retain viewers, which is a key part of growing audience numbers.”

  • Confluence of Young Film Makers

    NEW DELHI: Over 25 films from Germany, Nepal and India are to be screened in the First Frame 2007 international students’ film festival being held on February 6 and 7 in the capital.

    Organised by the Madhubala Institute of Communication and Electronic Media (MBICEM), the Festival will feature documentary, fiction and short films. Awards will be presented for best Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Film, and a special award to be presented by the co-sponsor UNITECH.

    First Frame 2007 has gone global this year and the media partner for the event is SAHARA NCR. The event has been co-sponsored by UNITECH and is supported by Bajaj Hindustan and other corporate organizations.

    Former Film and Television Institute of India Director Mr. Mohan Agashe, senior film critic and indiantelevision.com Consulting Editor Mr. B B Nagpal, and KATHA Centre for Film Studies Director Mr. Prabodh Parikh are among the jury for the Festival. The final entries were shortlisted from those received from Germany, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Canada, Nepal and India by a four-member panel comprising renowned poet Kailash Bajpai and filmmakers Pankaj Singh, Ajay Bedi, and Raza Haider.

    Many of the entries received have been to prestigious festivals including the Mumbai International Film Festival, Berlin Asia Pacific Film Festival, Asian Film Festival (Singapore), Indian Social Forum 3-Screen Festival, and the first Wordless International Short Film Festival.

    The Film Festival opens on February 6, and screenings are open to all. Ancillary activities include workshops like Reality Films by renowned documentary filmmaker from Magic Lantern Foundation, Delhi, Gargi Sen, and Gone in 30 seconds, conducted by Advertising professional Azaz Ahmed, Creative Head, Publisis India. These workshops can be attended by registration and payment of nominal fee.

    Started in 1996, MBICEM is a media institute affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, imparting education in Print Media, Radio, Television, Advertising and Video Production. The institute aims to equip the students with professional skills to meet the requirements of the corporate media world.

    First Frame in its very first edition in 2003 screened both fictional and documentary films. The participation of students was from three media colleges of Delhi; MBICEM, IP College for Women and Sri Aurobindo Institute of Mass Communication. Mrs. Aruna Vasudev, Editor, Cinemaya, was the guest of Honor for the event. The 2004 edition was bigger, inviting participation from institutes at national level like MCRC, St.Xavier’s College Mumbai, YMCA and FTII.