MFF to put spotlight on Afghani, Spanish films

The 15th edition of the Mumbai Film Festival (MFF), starting Oct 17, will brings as many as 200 films from 65 countries, celebrate Spanish cinema, and put the spotlight on Cambodian movies, Afghani movies and much more for cinegoers.

"The Butler" is the inaugural film of the festival where $220,000 will be awarded as cash prizes.

"This year we have a special celebration of Spanish Cinema which will be in two sections. We will have 19-year-old Spanish film and five new Spanish films will be shown in the second section," Srinivasan Narayanan, director, MFF told IANS at a curtainraiser press conference here.

"Besides, we are also supporting Afghani films with 'Kabul Fresh' section. There are many Afghani filmmakers who don't have proper resources and cameras to shoot so this is a special initiative to support films from Afghanistan. Total nine Afghani films will be shown this year," he added.

The entertainment industry veterans and international personalities Costa Gavras and Kamal Hassan will be conferred with the annual Lifetime achievement award for their contribution made to global cinema.

The eight-day fest is being presented by Reliance Entertainment and is organised by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI).

Filmmaker Shyam Benegal, chairman of MAMI, said that a lot of hard work and research went into selecting the films.

"I am quite amazed to see the selection of films this year. There are some incredible and wonderful films, which will be showcased. A lot of hard work has gone through to select some good films," said Benegal.

The festival will also pay homage to Yash Chopra, Rituparno Ghosh and Pran.

The country's first composers' lab will be launched at the fest.

The movies will be showcased at venues like Liberty Cinema, Metro Big cinemas, Marine Lines and Cinemax, Versova during the festival.