Season of film festivals begins this month

One ends, the other begins. The season of film festivals has begun. The conclusion of the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (MAMI) Film Festival on October 28 will be followed by the opening of the Third Eye Asian Film Festival the very next day.

Organised by the Asian Film Foundation in partnership with Prabhat Chitra Mandal and Enlighten Film Society, the 9th edition of Third Eye will showcase 110 Asian films.

The weeklong festival, from October 29 to November 4, will hold screenings at three venues — YB Chavan Centre (Nariman Point), Plaza Cinema (Dadar), and Fun Republic (Andheri). On the day of its inauguration, veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal will be honoured with the Asian Film Culture Award. National Award-winning director Shaji Karun is the chairman of the jury this year.
The festival will open with the film Son of Babylon from Iraq, the centre piece film being Mrinal Sen’s Akaler Sandhane. For the first time, a Marathi film, I am Sindhutai Sapkal by Anant Mahadevan, will be the closing film.

Kiran Shantaram, festival chairman, Asian Film Foundation, said, “At last year’s edition, we screened Harishchandrachi Factory as the opening film. But by that time, we already knew it was going to the Oscars as an Indian entry. This year, for the first time, a Marathi film has deserved to be the closing film. It’s a film that cannot be missed.”

Two categories will be judged by an international jury — Debut Film Director (11 films) and Short Film Fiction (32 films). Fans of Iranian cinema have reason to cheer as the festival will screen 10 Persian films.
The Debut/Second Feature Film competition section will screen Indian films such as Sangeeta Dutta’s Life Goes On, Gaurav Pandey’s Shukno Lonka, MG Sasi’s Janaki and Rajesh Shera’s Ocean of an Old Man.

The Short Film Fiction competition is expected to be an area of much interest with several Indian films to be screened. Some of these films are Abhishek Pathak’s Boond, Vinoo Choliparambil’s Vitthal, Randeep Bhattacharya and Judhajit Bagchi’s Amen, Somnath Chakraborty’s Let There Be Light amongst others.

Festival passes are available at Rs400 (for adults) and Rs200 (for students) and registrations will begin from October 15 at the screening venues.