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ShareThe Third Eye Asian Film Festival which is all set to unfold in the city has a spellbinding line-up in store. Supported by DNA, the festival will be organised in association with Taj Enlighten Film Society which is dedicated to promoting world cinema.
This year, at least 100 feature and short films will be showcased from 24 countries belonging to the continent. And there is no dearth of star presence as Amitabh Bachchan will be honoured with the Asian Film Culture Award for outstanding contribution to Asian Cinema.
The festival will kick-start on December 4 with the Marathi film Harischandrachi Factory (the official Indian entry for the Academy Awards this year). With Marathi film showing resurgence in the past few years, the festival also has a specific section named 'Young Marathi Cinema' where five films by young directors will be showcased.
Jafar Panahi, the internationally renowned film-maker from Iran who could not make it to the MAMI festival has been selected as the 'Film-maker in Focus' section. His award-winning films such as The Circle (Dayereh), Crimson Gold (Talaye sorkh) to the controversial Offside will be screened during the fest.
Sudhir Nandgaonkar, director of festival says, "Unlike European cinema, Asian cinema showcases all sorts of religions, but culture ties them together. Moreover, Asian films feature the pain and happiness of the continent which audiences can relate to unlike
Hollywood or European films. We are in the eighth year and this year too the enthusiasm among cinephiles is astounding. Besides the huge number of films being screened, we also make an attempt to popularise films from Asia among film-goers."
The country in focus this time is Egypt and a 10-member film delegation comprising producers, directors, and stars will be participating. Seven contemporary Egyptian films will be screened too.
A retrospective of Japanese film-maker Mikio Naruse whose work Akira Kurosawa described as "a great river with a calm surface and a raging current in its depths" will be held. Also, five films by Japanese master Nagisa Oshima will be screened in the section of 'Asian Masters.'
