The 16th edition of the Mumbai Film Festival will take place in the home of the Indian film industry from October 14-21, with PVR Cinemas acting as the main venue and Liberty Cibemas as a satellite.
Among this years highlights will be almost 200 film screenings from 65 countries, US$200,000 in cash prizes and a Lifetime Achievement Award for French stalwart Catherine Deneuve, along with screenings of a selection of the actresses movies. This year’s festival will also feature sections honouring Arab cinema since the fifties, and celebrating 100 years of Mosfilms Studios, the Moscow studio that was the incubator for talent such as Sergei Eisenstein and Andrei Tarkovsky and is debatably the oldest film studio in Europe.
Key films this year include Xavier Dolans' Mommy , Mike Leigh's Mr Turner, Ken Loach's Jimmy's Hall, Boyhood by Richard Linklater and Jean-Luc Godard's Goodbye to Language.
The line up was announced at a press conference a host of representatives from the festival and the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image, as well as industry key players and festival supporters such as directors Kiran Rao and Farhan Akhtar.
Srinivasan Narayanan, festival director, commented: “This year’s festival stands testimony to the deep-rooted belief of the film fraternity and film lovers in this event. The much anticipated festival would not have been possible without the incredible support from industry stalwarts, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, RajKumar Hirani, Manish Mundra, Mr Anand Mahindra and Mr Rohit Khattar and most of all Ms Anupama Chopra’s passion and hard work at every step of organizing this mega event. We are elated to see this kind of support and are thankful to everyone who have contributed in their own way to make this festival rise like a phoenix.”
