Pickle IFFI issue Feb 2020

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INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OF INDIA

CELEBRATING THE JOY OF The 51st IFFI (November 20 to 28, 2020) at Goa promises to be as exciting, wide-ranging and bigger as its grand Golden Jubilee Edition last year. IFFI 2020 will celebrate 100 years of India’s legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray. The 9-day cinematic feast will embrace the works of a wide variety of filmmakers across the world with masterclasses, knowledge series and Film Bazaar.

Let’s celebrate the Joy of Cinema.

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IFFI IS

GETTING

BIGGER

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nternational Film Festival of India (IFFI) has evolved into a major forum for cinema across the world. Started in 1952, IFFI has established itself amongst the most important film events across the globe. 50th edition of IFFI, the Grand Golden Jubilee, was celebrated in Goa from 20th 28th November, 2019.

The Festival is organized by the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, in collaboration with the State Government of Goa and the Indian Film Industry. The Festival is recognized by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF).

The International Film Festival of India has become a landmark destination for established as well as young makers and directors from around the world. Continuing

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with the incredible legacy, IFFI provides an excellent opportunity for the filmmakers and film lovers to participate, watch, appreciate and learn the art of film making in a sylvan surrounding and a relaxed creative environment. It also provides great platform for networking with some of the best industry professionals from India and abroad. Some of the international guests who attended IFFI, Goa in 2019 were acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike, renowned French actress Isabelle Huppert, Russian actor Gleb Bochkov and many others.

‘Despite The Fog’ directed by Goran Paskaljevic was the Opening film, ‘Marghe And Her Mother’, directed

by Mohsen Makhmalbaf was the closing film and ‘Traumfabrik’ directed by Martin Schreier was the Mid Fest film at IFFI, 2019.

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REASONS to attend IFFI

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Besides being by far Asia’s oldest film festival, IFFI is regarded as an important event for filmmakers and industry professionals from across the globe. It embraces the works of a wide variety of international filmmakers from an average of over 75 countries every year.

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There is probably no nation in the world that is as linguistically diverse as India. So for IFFI Goa, it is easy to bring a variety of voices under one canopy.

Ten days spent at the film festival are guaranteed to help a visitor get quick but effective glimpses of virtually the entire subcontinent and its many delightful variations.

On the sidelines of IFFI, the National Film Development Corporation organizes a five-day Film Bazaar, which has over the years become a dynamic space for the exchange of ideas, the incubation of new projects and for co-production opportunities.

The Film Bazaar is focused on promoting South Asian talent and offering them a channel to the rest of the filmmaking world.

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There is, of course, nothing to beat India’s cultural diversity. The festival, on its part, does its very best every year to give its foreign delegates a taste of the nation as a whole. It rolls out the red carpet for visitors from abroad.

Be it films or food, IFFI throws the door open for a wholesome experience.

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IFFI importance is also enhanced by the fact that it represents the world’s most prolific filmmaking nation.

The festival takes pride in curating the best from India’s annual cinematic output of a 2000-plus titles.

It is dynamic and flexible in the approach that it takes to the selection of films – reflecting the sheer diversity of the country.

One of the biggest attractions at IFFI are the retrospectives that the festival puts together of cinema’s greatest masters.

It also hosts a slew of well-attended masterclasses targeted at aspiring filmmakers and technicians.

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One of the biggest draws for the foreign delegates at IFFI is the Indian Panorama, which provides an array of wonderful films made in different parts of the country in multiple languages. This offers a great opportunity to international festival programmers to sample a carefully curated programme made up of films by the established masters as well as those by promising newcomers looking to break into the global big league.

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IFFI-2019 HIGHLIGHTS Total Number of Films Screened During The Festival:

304 Films International Competition Section :

15 Films

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For those looking for exposure to a range of South Asian cinema, IFFI is the place to be. Besides India, the festival showcases the works of filmmakers from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Its focus is also on many of the smaller filmmaking nations of the world whose cinema rarely, if ever, travels far and wide.

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At the top of any visitor’s list would be the undeniable appeal that Goa holds as a tourist destination that has many joys on offer for fun lovers and foodies alike. Goa is known the world over for its wonderful beaches where the sun, sand, surf and shacks create a magical ambience that is bound to capture the imagination of travelers.

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The old world ambience of the main IFFI venue is also a delight for those that love great architecture amid sylvan surroundings. The promenade running along the Mandovi River adds to the impressive beauty of the location, making IFFI one of the world’s more attractive festivals in terms of the site that it stands on today.

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International Section:

171 Films Premiers (World, International, Asian, Indian):

107 Premieres Indian Panorama:

41 Films Other Indian Section:

78 Films Countries Participated:

76 Countries Focus Country:

Russia Master Classes and InConversation Sessions:

33 Sessions Delegates:

Around 10,000

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Plenty in store in 2020 IFFI is thrilled that Bong Joon-ho’s South Korean film Parasite, which had its India Premiere at IFFI Goa 2019, won multiple Oscars for Best Picture, screenplay and director. Now, IFFI is scouting for films from masters of the craft at Berlinale

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he preparations for 51st edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) have begun in full swing.

IFFI’s Golden Jubilee edition will be remembered for a long time for a string of things- from honouring film industry legends Rajinikanth to Amitabh Bachchan and high profile International Jury for Competition Films.

The India delegation at the ongoing 70th Berlin International Film festival is led by Ms. TCA Kalyani, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and other senior members. Chaitanya Prasad, IFFI festival director is also at Berlinale 2020 to find films, collaborate with festival heads and extend invitation to filmmakers and industry professionals to attend IFFI IFFI 2020 is being planned as exciting as that of the Golden Jubilee Edition.

It will be as wide-ranging and bigger as its last year edition. IFFI 2020 will celebrate 100 years of India’s legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray. The 9-day cinematic feast will embrace the works of a wide variety of filmmakers across the world with masterclasses, knowledge series and Film Bazaar.

IFFI is thrilled that Bong Joon-ho’s South Korean film Parasite which

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had its India Premiere at IFFI Goa 2019 won multiple Oscars for Best Picture, screenplay, director.

At Berlinale, IFFI is meeting up with film executives, sales agents, festival heads to collaborate and looking at curating another edition of fabulous films from across the globe. IFFI will also have knowledge sessions, master classes and open forum besides festival films. Asia’s oldest event of its kind, IFFI still holds on to its preeminent position as a showcase of cinematic excellence. It has over the years witnessed numerous alterations in character, nomenclature, location, dates and duration. Through it all, it has remained steadfast in its emphasis on showcasing the diversity of Indian cinema as well as in its commitment to the celebration of excellence across moviemaking genres.

Over the past two and a half decades, several other international film festivals have sprung up across India, notably in Kolkata, Kerala and Mumbai, and they all contribute meaningfully to the collective task of taking quality cinema to people weaned principally on a staple diet of star-driven, song and dance extravaganzas. But IFFI continues to retain its preeminent position owing to its size, scope and vintage.

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Not just in the Indian context but also in relation to the other major Asian film festivals, IFFI matters. And this is despite all the inevitable ups and downs that it has seen over the years.

All the other major Asian festivals – Tokyo, Busan and Shanghai – are of far more recent origin and therefore lack the history that is associated with IFFI. IFFI hands out prize money to the tune of US$ 200,000. The winner of the Golden Peacock for the best film takes home $80,000. That apart, the best director and the Special Jury Prize winner bag $30,000 each, while the two acting prizes come with a cash component of $20,000 each.

IFFI also confers two Lifetime Achievement Awards – one to an international film personality, the other to an Indian great. The moves to push IFFI up a few notches have unfolded since the coastal state of Goa became its permanent venue in 2004.

IFFI now has a far more settled feel than ever before, with each improvement in terms of infrastructure and programming initiatives adding value to both the event and the location.

On the programming side, IFFI not only unveils the best films from around the multilingual country with the aim of providing a glimpse of the sheer range and dynamism of Indian cinema, it also puts together a remarkable slate of brand new world cinema titles.

IFFI also hosts many retrospectives, tributes, master classes and special

sections, which enhance the variety and depth of the event. The master classes have emerged as a highlight of the festival, especially for film school students who converge in Goa during the ten-day event.

India’s first international film festival was organized within five years of the nation attaining Independence. It was a non-competitive event held in 1952 in Bombay (Now Mumbai). A special feature of the inaugural function was the screening of the first film screened in India in 1896 by the Lumiere brothers. Frank Capra was part of the American delegation that attended the festival.

Six decades on, IFFI continues to provide a useful platform to young Indian filmmakers who work outside the mainstream distribution and exhibition system and in languages that do not have access to the panIndian market that Hindi cinema has.

The Indian Panorama, a section that is made up of both features and nonfeatures, opens global avenues for films made by veterans and newcomers alike.

IFFI now has a permanent home in Goa. The coastal state has benefitted appreciably from the shift. Its cinema has received a huge fillip in the decade and a half that Panaji has hosted IFFI. Filmmakers in the coastal state have been increasingly making their mark on the national and international stage.

Bong Joon-ho’s South Korean film Parasite, which had its India Premiere at IFFI Goa 2019, won multiple Oscars this year. The first non-English speaking film to win Best Picture

FLASHBACK

IFFI Golden Jubilee Edition Packed into the nine-day festival were 200- odd films from 76 countries, which offered cineastes a wide sampling of last year’s most lauded works, besides a slew of landmark films of historical worth from across the world.

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he 50th edition of Asia’s oldest international film festival was a major success. Packed into the nine-day festival were 200- odd films from 76 countries, which offered cineastes a wide sampling of last year’s most lauded works, besides a slew of landmark films of historical worth from across the world.

The best of contemporary world cinema apart, IFFI 2019 brought to film fans in Goa an impressive array of films from the past, including a package of nine previous winners of the Golden Peacock, the festival’s top trophy that now comes with a cash prize of over $55,000.

The Golden Peacock retrospective included the 1963 winner, Changes in the Village, directed by Lester James Peries, who is regarded as the father of Sri Lankan cinema. Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan (2014) was also in the segment along with James Ivory’s The Bostonians (1984), Miklos Jancso’s Hungarian Rhapsody (1979), Samira Makhmalbaf’s At Five

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in the Afternoon (2003) and Sergey Dvortsevoy’s Tulpan (2008). The sole Indian film in the selection of Golden Peacock winners was the Bengali film MonerManush (2010), directed by Goutam Ghose.

A bunch of equally fancied names were part of IFFI’s Festival Kaleidoscope, which showcased films that earned critical accolades. Led by Bong Joonho’s Palme d’Or winner Parasite, this section includes several other titles that premiered in Cannes: Mati Diop’s Atlantique, Jessica Hausner’s Little Joe and Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

Another commemorative segment aimed at underlining the special status of the 50th edition of IFFI was a retrospective of Oscar- winning films.

Entries in this section ranged from Casablanca, Gone With the Wind and Ben-Hur to The Godfather, Forrest Gump and The Silence of the Lambs.

All About Eve, The Best Years of Our Lives, Lawrence of Arabia and The Sound of Music completed the line-up of Oscar winners.

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All eyes were also on the ‘filmmaker in focus’ Takashi Miike, a Ken Loach mini-retrospective, two restored Indian classics (RitwikGhatak’s Titas Ekti Nadir Naam and Uday Shankar’s Kalpana) plus Master Frames and Festival Kaleidoscope, sections devoted to films hailed in Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Toronto.

Six films were screened as part of the Takashi Miike retrospective. The package included the relatively mellow The Bird People of China. The other Miikefilms in IFFI are Audition (1999), with which the maverick Japanese director known for his no-holds-barred depiction of violence and sexual excess began to acquire international fame; Ichi the Killer, a manga adaptation that is still banned in several countries; the yakuza thriller Dead or Alive; the samurai film 13 Assassins; and First Love, which played in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight this year.

The 50th IFFI competition had assembled 15 films that gave the fivemember jury headed by John Bailey, veteran Hollywood cinematographer and former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, plenty to choose from. As for the composition of the jury, IFFI had rarely got it better than it has done this time.

As president of the main competition jury, Bailey worked with four top-flight filmmakers: Scotland’s Lynne Ramsay, France’s Robin Campillo, China’s Zhang Yang and India’s Ramesh Sippy.

The competition line-up included two Indian titles: Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Jallikattu and Anant Mahadevan’s Mai Ghat Crime No. 103/2005. Among the other films in the IFFI 2019 competition were Pema Tseden’s ruralTibet set Chinese production Balloon, Ali Aydin’s Turkish entry Chronology, Swiss filmmaker Blaise Harrison’s first fiction feature Particles, Brazilian actor Wagner Moura’s historical epic Marighella, Indonesian director Yosep AnggiNoen’s The Science of Fictions and the Slovenian film Stories from the Chestnut Woods, directed by Gregor Bozic.

World Panorama also had the Canadian film Coda, directed by Claude Lalonde.

Master Frames brought together 19 films by directors such as Pedro Almodovar (Pain and Glory), Olivier Assayas (Wasp Network), Hirokazu Kore-eda (The Truth, Roy Andersson

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A bunch of equally fancied names were part of IFFI’s Festival Kaleidoscope, which showcased films that earned critical accolades. . Led by Bong Joon-ho’s Palme d’Or winner Parasite, this section includes several other titles that premiered in Cannes: Mati Diop’s Atlantique, Jessica Hausner’s Little Joe and Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

(About Endlessness), Costa Gavras (Adults in the Room), Roman Polanski (An Officer and a Boy, Goran Paskaljevic (Despite the Fog), Werner Herzog (Family Romance LLC), Atom Egoyan (Guest of Honour).

Russia was the focus country at IFFI. Speaking on the joint production of films and cultural exchange through films, Russian Ambassador to India Nikolay Kudashev said that such efforts will bring the spirit of India and Russia together. Head of Russian delegation at IFFI and Editor in Chief of Kinoreporter Maria Lameshev said that there was a great interest for Russian films among Indian people.

She added that according to the coproduction agreement, 40 percent of budget of the film would be given back by the Ministry of Culture.

The 2019 edition of the Open Forum organised by the Federation of the Film Societies of India opened with the pertinent topic: Focus on IFFI @50: Flash Back and Moving Forward.

The session was inaugurated by Chaitanya Prasad, Festival Director, ADG, Directorate of Film Festival (DFF), Kiran Shantaram, President, Federation of Film Societies of India, AK Bir, Filmmaker and Chairman of Technical Committee, IFFI 2019, Alexey Govorukhin, Executive Producer, Kinoreporter Magazine, Russia and Marianne Borgo, actress from France.

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GLIMPSES OF IFFI 2019

IFFI- 2019 AWARDS WINNERS Best Film: Golden Peacock Award:

ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Medal:

‘Particles’ by Blaise Harrison won the best Film Award

Riccardo Salvetti for Rwanda Special Jury Award: Pema Tseden for Balloon

The Best Director Award: Lijo Jose Pellissery won the Best Director award for his film ‘Jallikattu’

Special Mention Jury Award:

Amin Sidi Boumediene for Abou Leila and Marius Olteanu for Monsters

Hellaro directed by Abhishek Shah Special mention under ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi medal: Bahattar Hoorain directed by Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan

IFFI Best Actor Award (Male):

ICON OF GOLDEN JUBILEE OF IFFI:

Seu Jorge for the film Marighella

Rajinikanth

IFFI Best Actor Award (Female):

IFFI-2019 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD:

Best Debut Film of a Director (Shared):

Usha Jadhav for the film Mai Ghat : Crime No 103/2015.

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Isabelle Hupper

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IFFI

CATEGORIES 51 International Film Festival of India, Goa ( 20 -28 November, 2020) COMPETITION Feature films from all continents TOTAL PRIZE MONEY - 2,00,000 USD approx AWARDS Best Film Golden Peacock and a prize money of 40,00,000/-

OTHER SECTIONS 1. World Panorama 2. Foreign Retrospective, Tributes, Special Focus, etc.

3. Indian Panorama, Indian Retrospectives, Tributes.

4. Technical Workshops 5. Masterclasses 6. Film Bazaar

Best Director Silver Peacock and a prize money of 15,00,000/-

WORLD PANORAMA

Best Actor (Male) Silver Peacock and a prize money of 10,00,000/-

FOCUS

Best Actor (Female) Silver Peacock and a prize money of 10,00,000/Special Jury Award Silver Peacock and a prize money of 15,00,000/Award for the Best Debut Feature Film of a Director - Silver Peacock, Certificate and Prize Money of 10,00,000/Lifetime Achievement AwardCertificate, shawl, scroll and a prize money of 10,00,000/-

A choice of the year’s best international cinema.

A representative selection of films from another country or region.

INDIAN AND FOREIGN RETROSPECTIVES Works of famous film personalities are screened as part of this section, during the festival.

INDIAN PANORAMA A selection of the year’s best of Indian cinema. Indian Panorama provides a platform to the national film makers from all regions and languages. Films are chosen in this section for their thematic and aesthetic excellence and are also sent to festivals within the country and abroad.

Indian Film Personality of the Year Award- Silver Peacock, Certificate and a prize money of 10,00,000/-

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The star-studded gala opening ceremony of IFFI saw stalwarts of Indian cinema Amitabh Bachchan and Rajinikanth getting honoured for their outstanding contribution to the Indian cinema. While Mr Rajnikanth was conferred the ‘Icon Of Golden Jubilee Award’, a retrospective of Mr Bachchan’s films was among the main attractions at this edition of the festival.

“There is always this bickering between us... There are times when I give him some advice and then there are days, when he suggests something to me.

Though, we never follow each other’s advice.... I feel that relationships are about all of this.”

- Mr Amitabh Bachchan

“I want to dedicate this (the award) to my directors, producers, technicians and my fans.�

- Mr Rajinikanth

India Impresses

John Bailey Interview with John Bailey

IFFI is truly international.

IFFI has Indian Panorama and Indian section, but international competition is truly international. Some festivals tend to highlight and have a narrow focus.

IFFI’s Competition films are from everywhere,” says John Bailey head of International Jury for Competition Films at IFFI 2019.

Everybody talks about the colors of India. Colors are magnificent.

But the texture is fascinating, says JOHN BAILEY, acclaimed American cinematographer and film director known for his work on In the Line of Fire (1993), The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (1991) and Silverado (1985). Bailey along with wife Carol Littleton was recently in Goa to attend the International Film Festival of India as head of International Jury for Competition Films.

In an interview with Pickle, he expresses his keenness to explore India to shoot a film. For him, “India is many countries in one.” The country, he says has many cultures, many ethnicities of which “I know only a very small part.”

How have been your experiences in India?

In some other countries where I go; where the country is small or the culture is contained, you feel like you know the country after you visit one or two places. But India is many countries in one. It has many cultures, many ethnicities of which I know only a very small part. We have been to Delhi in

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North, we were in Mumbai and Goa, but we have not even touched the South of India or East of India. There is a huge country left for us to explore. I will definitely come back, if someone asks me to. Being in India is such an intense experience. We see so many people.

There are so many things to see and hear. It is like having a very rich meal.

The sense of culture and happenings is so intense for us because we are quite people back home.

Share your thoughts on IFFI 2019?

It is truly international. IFFI has Indian Panorama and Indian section, but international competition is truly international. Some festivals (in Europe and Asia) tend to highlight and have a narrow focus. IFFI’s competition films are from everywhere.

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Being in India is such an intense experience. We see so many people.

There are so many things to see and hear. It is like having a very rich meal

You are a cinematographer. What does your eye tell you when you see India? Will you do a film in India?

I would love to do a film in India. It is incredible. Everybody talks about the colors of India. Colors are magnificent.

But the texture is fascinating.

How do you see streaming services taking over?

The only thing that will change is change itself. Change is constant.

Change and uncertainty has been the history of motion pictures from the very beginning. Because unlike some of the other arts, which are made by smaller groups of people or painters, motion pictures involves lot of people and lot of money. Therefore, money and finance play a large role. That’s a

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given. As long as there is a change in shifting between art and commerce, we are going to have these challenges. I don’t know what’s going to happen. But I can tell you this. A lot of people—I am not saying older conservative people, but some young people—feel that the essence of a motion picture is being seen in a dark room on a large screen with an audience; where you go some place and you surrender yourself to a collective experience.

What are your plans for 2020?

I want to continue to work as a director of photography. If I find a good screenplay and good director, I will do that. Otherwise, I would continue to write. There was tribute book at Camaro Image with a retrospective on my writings. I enjoy writing very much. I wanted to write a book on my life and reflections on how my life was defined by movies in five decades. I joined the Union in May 1969. I was a camera assistant for eight years and a camera operator for almost four years. And then, became a Director of Photography in 1978.

As a cinematographer, is doing a web series same compared to doing a motion picture?

If you look at my credits, I have done only a few TV movies. Even as a camera assistant and operator, I have done only feature films. And, I cannot help or work to think as a feature cinematographer. I am very committed to anamorphic aspect ratio of 240, which in the 1990 was starting to die-off.

It was not popular. But with the digital camera, almost every film that we have seen in this international competition has been shot in the 240 aspect ratio.

Somehow, shooting in 240 says shooting feature films because TV and streaming is almost 185. So, if you want to really make a statement and say it is a motion picture, not a TV movie or a streaming movie you shoot in 240.

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get your film take wings at

film bazaar Block your date : 21st-24th November, 2020

National Film Development Corporation’s Film Bazaar has created a climate in which young filmmakers can dare to attempt transcending geographical boundaries.

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s an incubator of new film projects in India and the rest of the subcontinent, the NFDC Film Bazar Goa, now in its 14th year, has rendered yeoman service by engendering an ecosystem that allows originality to thrive while not losing sight of tried and tested ground rules that have proven beneficial.

It isn’t surprising, therefore, that many of the subcontinent’s most applauded and well-travelled contemporary films have taken shape – and wings – on this platform that has made mentoring and

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networking facilities available to them.

Think Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox, Chaitanya Tamhane’s Court, Paobam Paban Kumar’s Loktak Lairembee and Ashim Ahluwalia’s Miss Lovely and you cannot help but recognise the assistance that these acclaimed Indian films have received at the Film Bazaar where buyers, sellers, festival programmers and producers converge in search of the next lot of supportworthy films.

It isn’t unusual for veteran screenwriters and directors (such as Govind Nihalani and Kamal Swaroop)

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to turn up in this dynamic marketplace with the intention of exploring coproduction possibilities, the Bazaar is numerically dominated by younger filmmakers, a large percentage of them being first-timers.

Film Bazaar Goa is held on the sidelines of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), but it is a hub of activity so intense that it often overshadows the main event. The greatest strength of the Bazaar is the youthful energy that propels it and the range and depth of international participation that the annual event commands. The result is a space where a free exchange of ideas and synergies take place and yields salutary results.

Filmmakers from across the subcontinent have benefitted immensely from the time and energy they have spent in Goa in reaching out to the world and pushing their ideas, films and screenplays. A majority of Indian films that have played in the leading international festivals – The Lunchbox, Miss Lovely, Titli, Chauthi Koot, Thithi, Killa and Ship of Theseus, to name only a few – have participated in Film Bazaar at crucial stages of their development.

Assamese director Bhaskar Hazarika’s Aamis (Ravening) was part of the Film Bazaar’s Co-Production Market in 2017. It returned to the Viewing Room – Film Bazaar Recommends in 2018 and went on to screen in the Tribeca Film Festival in 2019.

Geetu Mohandas’ Moothon (The Elder One), which had its world premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September, opened in Indian multiplexes in the second week of November. The film had started its journey in Film Bazaar’s Co-Production Market in 2016 (the title back then was Insha’allah).

Moothonwas in the Work-in-Progress (WIP) Lab the very next year alongside several other Indian films that got picked by international festivals – Ere Gowda’s Balekempa, Dominic Sangma’s Garo-language Ma’Ama and Ivan Ayr’s Soni.

Mohandas, an actress-turnedfilmmaker also owes the rise of her debut film, Liar’s Dice, to Film Bazaar.

The film was in the Co-Production Market in 2011. It premiered in the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in 2013

INDIA @ BERLINALE 2020 Three of the four films selected in Berlinale 2020 have been recognised or participated in NFDC’s Film Bazaar at crucial stages of their journey LAILA AUR SATT GEET Berlinale Encounters Section Director: Pushpendra Singh Laila Aur Saat Geet was part of the Work In Progress (WIP) Lab at the NFDC Film Bazaar 2019 The timeless story of the proud and beautiful nomadic shepherdess Laila is set against the backdrop of the current Kashmir conflict. A tribute to a very modern female figure, inspired by mystical poetry and traditional songs.

EEB ALLAY OOO! Berlinale Panorama Section Director: Prateek Vats EEB ALLAY OOO! won the Facebook Award in the Work In Progress lab at the Film Bazaar 2018 Monkey repellers such as Anjani have an exceedingly tricky job in downtown New Delhi. With the sensitivity of a documentary and an Indian sense of humour, the film depicts the harsh life of a migrant and subtly mirrors today’s social realities.

STHALPURAN Berlinale Generation KPlus Director: Akshay Indikar Sthalpuran (Chronicles of Space), began its journey at Film Bazaar Recommends Viewing Room 2019 After his father’s disappearance, eight-year-old Dighu seeks refuge from loneliness in his imagination and diary entries. Long continuous shots full of wistful beauty tell a tender tale of coping with change and loss.

In a nation that produces more films than any other in the world, Film Bazaar has created a climate in which young filmmakers can dare to attempt transcending geographical boundaries before being screened in the Sundance Film Festival and 2014. Liar’s Dice was India’s official nomination that year for the Best Foreign Language film Oscar.

Besides a host of films that have come out of the country’s many filmmaking centres, projects conceived and developed in Mumbai have enjoyed a lion’s share of the spoils in Film Bazaar. The most notable among them is The Lunchbox. After its world premiere in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2013, it travelled to TIFF and Karlovy Vary. The Lunchbox was distributed in more 50 countries – a record for an independent Indian film.

Interestingly, the Film Bazaar has over the past decade and a bit mentored films that have subsequently taken on commercial trappingsand gone on a different tangent. SharatKatariya’s Dum Laga Ke Haisha, starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Bhumi Pednekar, which came to Goa as a work in progress, went mainstream with Yash Raj Films throwing its weight behind the film.

Films such as Shanghai and Nil BatteySannat, among others, have found similar theatrical outlets. In the case of Alankrita Shrivastava’s Lipstick Under My Burkha, Prakash Jha Productions was involved from the very outset. It was part of Film Bazaar’s WIP Lab in 2015. Completed in 2016 and released in 2017 after a protracted run-in with the censors, the film earned critical accolades and substantial commercial success.

Gitanjali Rao’s animation film Bombay Rose has had the longest gestation of all the titles that have emerged from the Film Bazaar. It was in the Screenwriters’ Lab in 2015, the Co-

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Production Market in 2016 and the WIP Lab in 2017. In 2019, it premiered at the 76th Venice Film Festival and then travelled to TIFF, Busan International Film Festival and BFI London Film Festival. It now scheduled to screen in the Doha Film Institute’s Ajyal Film Festival and Marrakesh International Film Festival.

Not every film that participates in the Film Bazaar soars into the stratosphere.

In fact, a chunk of the entries that have been listed on the Viewing Room roster run into dead-ends. But that does not diminish the significance of the exercise. Over the last decade, almost every film that is regarded as fine specimen of Indian indie cinema – among them Nagraj Manjule’sFandry, Rahi Anil Barve’sTumbbad, KanuBehl’sTitli, Shanker Raman’s Gurgaon,Pushpendra Singh’s Ashwatthama, Amit V. Masurkar’s Newton, Devashish Makhija’sBhonsle, Dipesh Jain’s In the Shadows and RidhamJanve’s The Gold-Laden Sheep & the Sacred Mountain – is a Film Bazaar product. The event helps these filmmakers not only to evolve into outstanding films but also to find a place on the radar of the spotters that are sent out by major festivals.

In a nation that produces more films than any other in the world, Film Bazaar has created a climate in which young filmmakers can dare to attempt transcending geographical boundaries. The Mumbai movie industry in particular is notoriously insular and cannot see beyond box office collections. But filmmakers working outside the pale of the mainstream are compelled to think of the wider world – the Film Bazaar fulfils that needed admirably, helping independent filmmakers engage with the world on an equal footing.

One of the biggest contributions of the Film Bazaar is manifested in the support it has extended to filmmakers from other countries of the subcontinent. Bangladesh’s Mostafa Sarwar Farooki, Rubaiyat Hossain and Golam RabbanyBiplob, Sri Lanka’s Prasanna Vithanage and Prasanna Jayakody, Pakistan’s Mehreen Jabbar and SabihaSumar, Nepal’s Deepak Rauniyar, Bhutan’s KhyentseNorbu and Afghanistan’s Siddiq Barmak have been part of the Film Bazaar over the years.

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