Mumbai Film Festival to commence from October 29

The 11th edition of Mumbai Film Festival, which will commence here from October 29, will feature over 200 movies from 56 countries.

Besides screening movies like Man On Wire, Ajami and Rita, the festival this year has introduced new features and attractive prize money.

The week-long event will also honour actor, filmmaker Shashi Kapoor and Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos for their contribution to cinema.

The festival is divided into five sections, International Competition for the First Feature Films of Directors, World Cinema, Indian Showcase, Dimensions Mumbai and Retrospectives.

"Above the cut, will highlight those debut features which are extra-ordinary but could not be included in the competition section," said noted filmmaker Shyam Benegal, chairperson of Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (MAMI), organisers of the festival.

This year the festival is introducing an international competition for the First Feature Films of Directors with one of the biggest cash awards in the world.

The Best First Feature Film gets a cash award of Rs50lakh, while the Jury Grand Prize winner is awarded with Rs25lakh cash.

A brand new section 'Real Reel' will showcase a selection of high quality feature length documentaries.

This year MAMI is introducing a $20,000 prize as Audience Choice Award. Films from all sections except Retrospective and tributes will compete for this award, Benegal said.

The 11th MFF will hold a retrospective of the Greek master Theo Angelopoulos,  known for movies like Broadcast and Reconstruction. The legendary filmmaker will attend the festival where he will be bestowed with the International Lifetime Achievement Award.

Noted actor-filmmaker Shashi Kapoor will be honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award for an Indian Personality and the festival also includes a retrospective of his  films.

The event will also pay tributes to the outstanding cinematic achievements of renowned Hollywood filmmaker Paul Schrader who has written movies like Taxi Driver, Raising
Bull, Last Temptation of Christ and directed American Gigolo, Mishima. He will be on the jury of the festival.

Some of the films in Above The Cut, include She, a Chinese' film by Xiaolu Guo which won the Golden Leopard award at Locarno Festival.

The film narrates the story of Mei, a young Chinese woman who leaves her humdrum  village life behind for the excitement of the nearest big city and goes all the way to London.

Ajami (Germany-Israel) by Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani (Camera dOr special mention at Cannes 09), deals with the tragic fragility of human existence where enemies must live as neighbours.

'The World cinema section' would screen the latest cinema handpicked from festivals around the globe.