“The Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival unveiled its lineup for 2023 on Monday, with over 250 films spanning across 10 days”

The festival will take place at the Jio World Centre, a convention, theatre, and concert hall complex located in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC).

“It will take place from October 27 through November 5. The selection includes around 40 World Premieres, 45 Asia Premieres, and 70+ South Asia Premieres, with a record-breaking 1000+ entries for the South Asia programme”, it was reported.

The festival intends to highlight current South Asian films and fresh cinematic voices. The South Asia Competition is the festival’s major competition this year. It is consistent with the festival’s new objective of being a South Asian centre. It is consistent with the festival’s new objective of becoming a destination for South Asian and South Asian Diaspora cinema and talent.

This competitive segment seeks to highlight groundbreaking contemporary South Asian films.

“The press conference, held at Mumbai’s Nita Mukesh AmbCultural Centre (NMACC), was attended by the festival’s distinguished board members. Anupama Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Rana Daggubati, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Vikramaditya Motwane, Zoya Akhtar, Rohan Sippy, and Ajay Bijli present a carefully curated selection of the greatest in world and South Asian films,”, a news report reported.

“We are very proud that we have managed to achieve such a diverse curation in our South Asia section within the first year of us expanding our vision to be a festival that is focused on building an ecosystem for new cinematic voices from South Asia and the South Asian Diaspora,” said Deepti DCunha, Artistic Director, Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. This dedication goes beyond film screenings, with the goal of facilitating the interchange of ideas, collaborations, and business prospects while bringing the greatest of international cinema to Mumbai.”

“With each new edition of the festival, we hope to create a larger impact for all our stakeholders, from filmmakers to audiences,” stated Anupama Chopra, Festival Director, Jio MAMI. Our dedication to cinema and filmmakers is central to all we stand for at the festival, and we aspire to emerge as a melting pot of talent from around the world while highlighting and expanding chances for South Asian films and filmmakers.”

The following important categories (competition and non-competition) were announced by the festival:

1. South Asia Competition: The festival’s competitive portion features 14 groundbreaking modern South Asian films in a variety of languages.

Highlights: Sumant Bhat’s Mithya, Leesa Gazi’s Barir Naam Shahana (A House Called Shahana), and Fidel Devkota’s The Red Suitcase.

2. Focus South Asia (Non-Competition): This category includes films from the South Asian Diaspora that highlight and promote the region’s diversity.

The films in this area highlight talent from South Asia and the South Asian diaspora, as well as the diversity of narratives that comprise the South Asian experience, and feature a diverse range of lengths, languages, storytelling styles, and forms. It includes 46 films of varying lengths.

Highlights: All of India Rank is written by Varun Grover, Pushtaini is written by Vinod Rawat, Stolen is written by Karan Tejpal, and Mai is written by Milin Dhamade.

3. South Asian Icons: This section contains classic films by renowned South Asian actors.

Highlights include Anand Patwardhan’s Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, Vikramaditya Motwane’s Indi(r)a’s Emergency, Prasanna Vithanage’s Paradise, and Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s Something Like an Autobiography.

4. Gala Premier South Asia: This section includes a selection of the year’s most ambitious Indian films. It features known talent as well as diverse directing voices from throughout the country.

Highlights include Anurag Kashyap’s Kennedy, Tahira Kashyap’s Sharmajee ki Beti, and Rajat Kapoor’s Everyone Loves Sohrab Handa.

5. Marathi Talkies: This segment, which debuted in 2016, exhibits the greatest of contemporary Marathi films. Marathi Talkies is a platform for Jio MAMI to include a broader range of contemporary voices from its home state of Maharashtra. Sachin Chate is this year’s curator of the area.

Highlights: Ashish Bende by Aatmapamphlet (Autobiography Pamphlet), Riteish Deshmukh by Ved, and Paresh Mokashi by Vaalvi.

6. Dimensions Mumbai: Ms. Jaya Bachchan added Dimensions Mumbai to the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in 2009, and it has since become one of the festival’s most popular sections. Many Mumbai award-winning filmmakers have gone on to helm feature films and online series.

Highlights: Should I commit suicide or have a cup of coffee? Halfway by Kumar Chheda, City of Mirage by Anjani Chadha, and Nivedita Rani by Vidar Joshi

7. World Cinema: This renowned section highlights highly acclaimed cinema from around the world created during the festival’s calendar year.

Highlights include Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, Pedro Costa’s The Daughters of Fire, Monster by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Hong Sang-soo’s In Our Day, Pedro Almodovar’s The Old Oak, Fallen Leaves by Aki Kaurismaki, Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimaera, Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast, and Bradley Cooper’s Maestro.

8. After Dark: Curated by BIFAN’s Jongsuk Thomas Nam, this area highlights the most exciting features from around the world.

Highlights include Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy (Restored), Cameron Cairnes’ Late Night with the Devil, Colin Cairnes’ Dream Scenario, Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario, and Virat Pal’s Night of the Bride.

9. Large Short Films Selected by the Royal Stag Barrel: Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films recognises the expanding popularity of the short film format.

It seeks to celebrate creative short films and provide opportunities for promising young filmmakers to display their work on the big screen. The Perfect Ten competition, which is part of the Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films, is available to Indian filmmakers with films under 10 minutes in length.

Highlights: Dibakar Banerjee’s Badminton, Rishav Kapoor’s Next, Please, and Shrirang Phatak’s Themb (The Drop).

10 Classics Restored: The festival is dedicated to recognising and conserving cinematic history.

This section features digitally remastered classic Indian and international films.

Highlights include Yonfan’s Bugis Street, Claire Denis’ Chocolat, and Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s Millennium Mambo.

11. MAMI Tribute: This section honours individuals who have made significant contributions to cinema by contributing their knowledge to the progress of the art form.

12. Retrospective: Jio MAMI’s Retrospective segment honours famous film personalities for their lifetime achievements. It resurrects works from international film history on the big screen.

13. Recap: This section revisits our 2020 and 2022 choices.

Highlights: Aparna Sen’s The Rapist, Prasun Chatterjee’s Dostojee, and Payal Kapadia’s A Night of Knowing Nothing

The post Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival Announces Diverse Lineup for 2023 appeared first on Mumbai Metro Times.