This year, it's not just about films

To mark Indian cinema’s centenary, MFF will have a Mumbai Film Mart (from October 18-20 at The Taj President, Cuffe Parade), the India Project room and Filmy Room. Special master classes by industry veterans Bruce Beresford, song composer Ilan Eshkeri, editor Jill Bilcock and filmmaker Leos Carax are expected to be a big draw along with India’s first-ever composers lab.

Film-maker Shyam Benegal felt the Mumbai Film Mart would address a long-standing demand from trade circles. “They wanted a platform where they too can exchange ideas with their fraternity.

It makes MFF one of the few festivals to have such an initiative.”

Festival director Srinivasan Narayanan said, “We want to take the festival beyond the cinema screen into all aspects of the film business.”

Film historian Mukund Joshi lauded what he called the “branching out” of MFF. “Festivals need dynamism and people from all walks of life. It cannot be the privilege of a few khadi-clad, jholawallahs who talk about cinema in intellectualisms and abstracts.”