MFF to screen 24 French films

Twenty-four French films will be screened at the forthcoming 16th edition of Mumbai Film Festival (MFF), which is likely to be attended by 15 French cinema professionals as well as French actress Catherine Deneuve, who will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Organised by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI), MFF promises to showcase the best of contemporary French cinema when it opens here Oct 14. The event will also welcome artists for the seventh edition of the Rendez-vous with French Cinema, co-organized with the Embassy of France, InstitutFrançaisin India and UniFrance films.

During the opening ceremony, MFF will honour Deneuve with the Lifetime Achievement Award, while names like Mahamat Saleh Haroun, Thomas Cailley, Indika Udugampola and Raphael Neal will attend the festival and interact with the audience.

"The Indians as well as the French love cinema. Amongst all the French films that will be showcased, we are delighted to screen a retrospective film dedicated to Catherine Deneuve who will honour us by her presence in Mumbai," said François Vandeville, cultural counsellor and director, InstitutFrançais in India.

The special section -- Rendez-vous with French cinema -- seeks to establish an exhilarating platform for showcasing the various facets of French contemporary cinema, helping Indian distributors to promote new French films and celebrate the growing Indo-French ties.

On Oct 16, the Rendez-vous with French cinema section will open with the film "In the Courtyard" by Pierre Salvadori in presence of Deneuve and the director.

Other important films to be screened as part of this section include "Clouds of Sils Maria", "French Riviera", "Girlhood", "Life of Riley", "Love at First Fight", "Metamorphoses", "Saint Laurent", "The Blue Room" and "The Search".

Srinivasan Narayanan, director, MFF, has also said there will be a specially created Remake Market, "a new vehicle to present some of the latest French productions which can be remade in Indian languages".

As part of this initiative by UniFrance films and Indo-French production company La Fabrique Films, to be held on Oct 15 and 16, a selection of recent French films selected for the compatibility of their narratives with the tastes of Indian audiences will also be presented to Indian producers in the presence of the films' French producers and/or exporters.