Mumbai: The Films Division complex, which also houses the National Museum of Indian Cinema is getting ready to host the 17th Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) for Documentary, Short Fiction and Animation films.
The opening ceremony of the weeklong biennial film festival will take place at the Nehru Centre, Worli, while all the festival screenings will happen in the Films Division Complex, which has state-of-the-art auditoriums. (auditoria).
MIFF 2022 has got an overwhelming response from filmmakers across the world, receiving a whopping 808 film entries from 30 countries.
Out of these, 102 films will be screened under the Competition Category – 35 in international competition and 67 in the national competition while 18 films will be screened under the ‘MIFF Prism Category’.
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The Best Film of the Festival will receive the Golden Conch award, along with a cash prize of Rs 10 lakhs. Other awards carry cash awards varying from five to one lakh along with Silver Conch, trophy and certificate. IDPA award carrying Rs 1 lakh and trophy for the Best student film and Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari Award for the Best Debut Director will also be presented on the closing day.
The coveted Dr V Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award that carries a cash award of Rs 10 lakh, Golden Conch and a citation will be presented to a filmmaker of eminence for his/her seminal contribution to Documentary films will also be presented.
S Krishnaswamy, Shyam Benegal, Naresh Bedi, and Vijaya Mulay are some of the prominent filmmakers who have been honoured with this prestigious award in the past.
This award is instituted in memory of legendary filmmaker V Shantaram, who was closely associated with the Films Division as Honorary Chief Producer during the 1950s.
In commemoration of Bangladesh’s 50 years of Independence, the country has been chosen as the ‘Country of Focus’ this year. A special package of 11 films from Bangladesh including the critically acclaimed film Hasina- A Daughter’s Tale will be presented at MIFF 2022.
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The first animation film co-produced by India and Japan ‘Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama’, will also have its special screening at MIFF. The contribution of the Films Division to documentary culture in India will be showcased through a specially curated package, Image-Nation.
Special packages like the Oscar Film package, curated by Shorts TV, Special film packages from Italy and Japan, and Indian Panorama- from the recent editions of IFFI will be a point of attraction for film buffs.
Students’ Film packages from reputed institutions like the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI), Kolkata, Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT) Pune, K R Narayanan Film Institute, Kerala will showcase the spirit of young talent. Also, Students’ Animation Documentary Films from Myanmar and films from Students’ Animation Film Festival Brazil will be a unique curation.
Similarly, curated films from North-East India, best of short fiction from Pocket Films Platform and a special screening of a restored version of Satyajit Ray’s film Sukumar Ray will be showcased.
MIFF, being one of the most reputed documentary film festivals in the world, brings together documentary filmmakers, film buffs, film critics, broadcasters and OTT platforms and students, who debate and discuss contemporary trends in the documentary field.