The 18th MAMI Mumbai Film Festival will honor Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke and Indian filmmaker Sai Paranjpye with ‘Excellence in Cinema’ awards.
The festival that runs Oct. 20-27 will open with actor Konkona Sen Sharma’s directorial debut “A Death in the Gunj” that bowed at Toronto and will play in Busan.
Two new gender-based awards have been instituted. In partnership with Oxfam India, the best Indian film on gender equality carries a cash prize of $15,000 (INR1 million.) The best Indian female filmmaker award has a cash prize of $22,500 (INR 1.5 million.)
Films in the ‘India Gold’ competition strand include Rohit Mittal’s “Autohead,” Manas Mukul Pal’s “Colours of Innocence,” Haoban Paban Kumar’s “Lady of the Lake,” Alankrita Shrivastava’s “Lipstick Under My Burkha,” Sushanshu Saria’s “Loev,” Prithvi Konanur’s “Railway Children,” Saumyananda Sahi’s “Remembering Kurdi,” Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya’s “The Cinema Travellers,” Jaicheng Jai Dohutia’s “The Hidden Corner,” Satish and Santosh Babusenan’s “The Narrow Path,” and Milind Dhaimade’s “You Are My Sunday.”
The international competition strand includes: Jerome Reybaud’s “Jours de France,” Ana Barragan’s “Alba,” Davy Chou’s “Diamond Island,” Jordan Schiele’s “Dog Days,” Dren Zherka’s "Echo,” Natalia Almada’s “Everything Else,” Ralitza Petrova’s “Godless,” Ben Young’s “Hounds of Love,” Felipe Guerrero’s “Oscuro Animal,” Elite Zexer’s “Sand Storm,” Karl Lemieux’s "Shambles,” Pieter-Jan De Pue’s “The Land Of The Enlightened,” and Heidi Brandenburg and Mathew Orzel’s “When Two Worlds Collide.”