793 entries from 34 countries for Mumbai International Film Festival – MIFF 2014

793 entries from 34 countries for

Mumbai International Film Festival – MIFF 2014

 

Countdown has begun for India’s foremost documentary and short film festival – the Mumbai International Film Festival 2014, that will be held at NCPA, Mumbai from February 3-9. Secretary, Information & Broadcasting, Bimal Julka, along with Joint Secretary (Films) Raghvendra Singh, today held a review meeting with the Festival Director V S Kundu and the Organizing Committee Members in Mumbai .  MIFF-2014 has received 793 entries from 34 countries. Of these, 588 are for the National Section and 205 for the International Section. 

MIFF is the oldest and the largest international film festival for the non-feature and animation films in Asia, and is often held on par with Internationally renowned short film festivals like Berlin, Leipzig, Krakow (Poland) and Tampere (Finland).  Speaking on the occasion Mr. Julka said “the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting is committed to promoting documentary and short films, and MIFF provides one of the best platforms for showcasing our film making talent. MIFF 2014 brings a lot of valuable content for film makers and cineastes.” 

Apart from the regular awards, new awards have been introduced  for producer, cinematographer, editor, sound recordist and animator. Awards for the most innovative film (named after Pramod Pati)  and most popular film of the festival have also been instituted, taking the total number of awards to 32 from 22 in the MIFF 2012. A veteran Indian documentary film maker will be honoured with V Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award. MIFF will distribute cash awards worth Rs. 55 lakhs apart from Golden Conches, trophies and certificates to the winners in different categories.

MIFF 2014 will also see an increased international participation.  As part of an initiative to take cinema to the students, Cinekids, Amsterdam and Lennep Media will hold a  ‘Dutch Children’s film festival-cum-students film workshop’ for school children of Mumbai.  ActionAid will hold a film festival on ‘Our City,  Ourselves’ as part of MIFF 2014.  An attempt is being made to hold a Film Market for documentary films, which will be a first of its kind initiative in India.

In another new initiative, the Festival Directorate has decided to hold parallel screenings of national competition films in Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Guwahati and Nagpur, for the benefit of documentary film lovers, who are unable to travel to Mumbai to participate in the festival.

 

The festival  will pay tribute to the acclaimed documentary film maker, Peter Wintonick who passed away on November 18, 2013, by screening his select works. Besides, the festival will have panel discussions, directors’ adda, retrospectives, homages, curated film  packages, seminars, workshops and master classes   to make MIFF-2014  a rich and wholesome experience for film makers, students and cinephiles.

Government of Maharashtra and the Indian Documentary Producers’ Association, IDPA are the partners of MIFF 2014.