Editor

Second Jaipur International Film Festival (JIFF-2010) held at India’s Pink City Jaipur of Rajasthan screened 87 films, representing 21 countries (five continents) at OTS’ Bhagwat Singh Mehta Auditorium from January 29-31 amid jam packed and spell bound viewers. 12 films were awarded in different categories.


"Le Grand Sault", a Canadian entry, winning the award for the Best short film. The 15 minute film has been made by Herve Demers of Canada. Amfuem made by Rainer Strecker of Germany won the Best Sound award. The Best Script and Best Editing awards were conferred on Spain's Mario de la Torre for the film La Condena (Sentence) and Jesus Perez-Miranda for the film Dear Child Jesus respectively.
The Best Cinematography award was conferred to Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni for his short fiction Gaarud.
The Best Director award was received by Vinoo Choliparambil for his short fiction film Vitthal while Ravi Williams and Roshani Bhati got the best documentary award for their film Lamsena, a love story of the tribe Baiga.
In the Indian section, S Prince Ennnares Periyar's film Thira on Gujarat's communal violence and Anurag Sharma's film "It can't be red" (in Rajasthan section) on the Jaipur serial blasts were given the Special Jury Mention and Special Jury Award respectively.
“Mandli ke badhte kadam” (Best film from Rajasthan) is a film by “Community video Unit” Jal Chitaran of Jodhpur. In this the local villagers were trained in film making by Jal Bhagirathi foundation and the film about water conservation was made by local villagers.
The Critic Award went to New York Film Academy film maker Naman Goyal for his short fiction film An Affair with New York.
Each award presented by Rakesh Verma, Principal Secretary GAD Government of Rajasthan carried a trophy and citation.
Filmmaker Arun Dutt, son of legendary filmmaker Guru Dutt, inaugurated the three-day long Jaipur International Film Festival (JIFF) on January 29, 2010. After the lighting lamp ceremony, Dutt said in the past the short films and documentaries were neglected due to low profile technology, but now with the technology up gradation and the internet, world has become a global village, hence such festivals should be organised inviting foreign filmmakers in parts of the country. This kind of festival would encourage the young talents and their creativity on silver screen.
Ceremony was attended by Dr. Amer Singh Rathore (DPR-Director, Rajasthan Govt.) film makers Gauhar Raza, Shubhradeep Chakravorty, G.L. Bharadwaj and Deepak Roy, JIFF advisory board members, movie researcher from UK Sumanta Barua and Directors and Producers from Iran.
In a joint venture of BSNL-Aksh-JIFF, ten films have been chosen for telecast on IPTV network in the country after screening of these movies at the festivals. This would be a unique presentation of entries at the drawing room of viewers across the state among those who subscribes IPTV cable.
The inaugural movie titled 'Thira' (open it) by a young director S Prince Ennares Periyar based on 2002 Gujarat communal riots was screened. The movie has sent ripples to Hindu fundamentalists like RSS activists who demanded that this should not be screened.
The next film was “Dreams Do Come True” by Sree Chaitanya. The third film was Bahar, a short fiction from Iran by Farzaneh Farshad. It is the story of a widow who cares for her baby and her café and survives with only her husband’s memories for company.
During the three days of screening there were no romantic songs to hum, no death-defying stunts, and no hero or heroine to hold your attentions, but the thought provoking documentation of real life circumstances on celluloid still captivated the audience of both genders and without any age bar. They enjoyed 24 movies including documentaries and a feature films “Pyaasa” on the first day.
As “Pyaasa” is a special film, the legend Guru Dutt’s son was invited to the festival; Arun Dutt said he was eight years old when his father had died. “My father had a controversial past, but I only remember him as a legend. I remember the day when I went to see ‘Pyaasa’ from Santa Cruz to South Mumbai on a bicycle”. The movie was screened late in the evening which was viewed by jam packed audience.
Thirty-one films were screened on second day of the festival and a special 140 minutes movie “say Salam India” was enjoyed by viewers despite cold wave conditions outside the theatre. Last day of the festival featured 31 movies including award winning.
Festival concluded with a special animation film “Tanhaai” (solitude) of Mehrdad Sheikhan from Iran.
Learned experts and invited speakers have also delivered lectures on different aspects of film making namely marketing of documentary films, India and Iranian cinema, Different aspects of short film making. Out of 87 films screened 71 were short fictions, 3 animation and 13 documentary films.
Forty-nine films were from India including 14 from Rajasthan. Apart from these 10 films from Iran, 5 from Spain, 2 each from England, USA, Argentina and Germany, one each from Canada, Liberia, Portugal, Brazil, Italy, Czech Republic, Israel, Greece, Russia, Poland, and Swaziland would be screened. Three joint venture films from India-England, China-Germany and Scotland-England are also participating in this festival.
Two student’s category films, ‘A little heart beat’ from Center for Mass Communication, University of Rajasthan, and ‘Kaash’ (IIFA film school, Jaipur) were among the 87 movies in the festival.
Ninety-four films were sent to Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Government of India, New Delhi for official approval, and of that 87 films got censor clearance.
Overwhelming response to the festival could be assessed world over as fifty films landed in the festival office after the last date of submission of the entry, December 31, 2009. Keeping the content and aesthetic value in consideration, transparency and fairness was observed in selection of 94 movies out of 310 entries from 41 countries.
This year JIFF had declared Iran as a Guest country because of maximum films’ entries from Iran, and a number of foreign delegates from Iran who participated in the three days festival.
Rajasthan has emerged as the movie producing state in the country despite that a FILM CITY proposal by the Rajasthan Government is hanging in balance for years. It may be engineers or professionals, stage artists, amateur film makers, and young generation; the film output is very satisfactory in the sandy desert state. The festival was organized with strenuous efforts of Hanu Roj to promote and provide a platform to these makers. And fourteen movies found place on screen and viewers in three days of events.
This year JIFF promoted “Smoke free Jaipur” a campaign supported by Rajasthan Voluntary health association (RVHA), Jaipur. This is to make a collective effort towards a clean and healthy environment in Jaipur.
Over five thousands cine goers attended the three days festival which included more than 40 film makers from India and abroad. More than 350 delegates had registered themselves with JIFF-2010. Entry for the festival was free.
Jaipur has a long and vibrant history of arts and culture. The “Pink city” is a place where heritage looks forward to future. Through JIFF, we are trying to bridge these two worlds. It is our vision to develop and enhance a progressive film culture in the state. We dream of bringing film community of the globe together at this time of violence, conflicts and wars and address those issues using the mesmerizing art of Cinema.
Next one: third JIFF-2011’s poster was released at the award ceremony. It would be aiming for Pink Carpet festival after the name of pink city, Jaipur. Next year the event would also include Animation Film Category.

Awardees - JIFF-2010

Best Short film Le Grand Sault (Canada)
Best Documentary film Lamsena (India)
Best Director Vitthal, Director-Vinod C
Best Cinematography Gaarud (India) Cameraman- Deepu S. Unni
Best Sound Amfuem (Germany), Sound -Johannes Malfatti
Best Script La Condena (Spain) Script writer- Mario Del A Torre
Best Editing Dear Child Jesus (Spain) Editor- Jesús Pérez-Miranda
Special Jury mention (Indian) Thira (India)
Special Jury mention (Foreign) Pago par aver (Pay per view) (Portugal)
Best Film Rajasthan Mandali ke badhte kadam (Jal Bhagirathi Sansthan)
Critic Award An affair with New York, Director-Naman Goyal
Special jury award – Rajasthan It can’t be Red, Director-Anurag Sharma