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| Edited By: Arcopol Chaudhuri |Source: DNA |Updated: Sep 01, 2010, 12:20 AM IST
Movie buffs in the city can rejoice as the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (Mami) has announced the 12th edition of the Mumbai Film Festival (MFF) – to be held from October 21-28. It will screen about 200 films from around the world.
In a move that is being touted as a first, the MFF will be judged by an all-women jury, headed by Hollywood filmmaker, screenwriter and producer Jane Campion. She is best known for her film Peel, which won the Golden Palm at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival.
She is one of the only four women directors to be nominated for the best director award at the Oscars. Accompanying her will be four other acclaimed names of world cinema – Tanya Seghatchian, Samira Makhmalbaf, Yoon Jeong-Hee and Suhasini Maniratnam.
Seghatchian is a pivotal person in the Harry Potter film franchise, having developed and produced the first four films in the series for Warner Bros. Makhmalbaf, who at 18 became the youngest director to participate in Cannes, is an Iranian filmmaker and scriptwriter and won the jury prize at the festival in 2000 for her second film Black Board.
Yoon Jeong Hee, a veteran South Korean actress, has acted in over 250 films and won over 20 awards for her work. Suhasini Maniratnam, the only Indian on the jury, is a National Award-winning actor, director and screenplay-writer besides being the wife of celebrated director Mani Ratnam.
Srinivasan Narayanan, festival director for the Mami, said, “We are delighted to have such an esteemed panel on-board. With over 700 entries for the festival, out of which 170 are in the competition section, audiences will have a lot to look forward to.”
This year, the Mami has introduced a new category called ‘Celebrate Age’ to encourage filmmakers to look beyond the stereotypes of old age and instead highlight the positive side of ageing. Entries for this category close on September 20. The ‘Dimensions Mumbai’ category, which invites five-minute shots from filmmakers under the age of 25, closes for entries on September 15.
