IFFI 52, 051: Towards better IFFIs What makes a good international film festival? Some criteria. Good international films Good Indian films Good scheduling Good international participation Good fringe events Good ‘festival’/festivities Good venues, with good projection Good budget Good (long-term) independent directors and heads of departments Good and early planning Quality of films selected is a reflection of the ...

IFFI 52, 046: The urge to merge – DFF, two other units, to become part of NFDC Students of Business Administration, Management and Public Relations are taught about the reasons, modalities and possible consequences of mergers and acquisitions of companies. Terms like Holding Company, Group and Subsidiary Company come up and are defined. In the corporate sector, major companies undertake a massive PR exercise, leading up to the merger/acquisition and for some time afterwards, are underta...

IFFI 52, 045: The last days of Directorate of Film Festivals Bumping into a senior Films Division (FD) officer at IFFI, I asked him if any preparations had been made for the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF), which, in normal circumstances, would be held in the end of January-beginning of February. The Films Division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B), Central Government of India, has been making documentary, short and animation films for decades. Very few of th...

IFFI 51, 16-24 January, 42: Investing in Life chronicles survival in unfavourable conditions “A film on survival of every living being in unfavorable situations like social boycott, road accidents and man-animal conflict.” This is how Vaishali Vasant Kendale, director of ‘Investing Life’, describes her 52-minute non-feature film, produced by Films Division, that was screened at the 51st International Film Festival of India (IFFI). In the post-screening press conference...

MIFF 2020, Open Forum 3: “Crowd-funding comes from your own sources” For its third Open Forum, Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA) chose a topic that captured the fancy of several veteran and newbie documentary-makers, ‘Crowd Funding’. A four-member panel presented their thoughts, views and experiences, while Aditya Seth (Vice-President, IDPA) moderated. Panelists comprised cinematographer-director Priyanka Singh, Wishberry partner Anshulika Dubey, d...

IFFI 50: MIFF 2020 to offer Rs. 10 lakh as prize to best film Festival Director, Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF as it is known globally), Mrs. Smita Vats Sharma called for the widest and biggest participation of film-makers and film lovers, for the 16th edition of the oldest and largest film festival for non-feature films in South Asia. Addressing a press conference at the golden jubilee edition of the International Film Festival of India, Mrs. Sharma, who is also the Director Gener...

National Museum of Indian Cinema: Preserving a rich heritage Director General, Films Division (FD), Prashant Pathrabe, (above, left) addressed a press briefing on 19th March, at the FD Complex, which was followed by a tour of the National Museum of Indian Cinema (NMIC), exclusively for journalists. FD was established in 1948, to articulate the energy of a newly independent nation (India gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947). For more than six decades, the organisation has s...

MIFF 2018, XIII: IDPA's Open Forum No. 1   ...

MIFF 2018, XI: 400 years of the Negro That is what it took for the black people in America to get civil rights. And almost prophetically, the then Attorney-General and brother of the President, Robert Kennedy predicted that America would have a black President in 40 years. But not before thousands had been brutalised, beaten and even killed, including leaders like Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., none of whom lived to be 40.   Oscar nominated documentary on the...

MIFF 2018, VI The oldest and largest film festival for non-feature films in South Asia, Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) for Documentary, Short  and Animation films (28 Jan – 03 Feb 2018), which began in 1990, is organised by the Films Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India. The Organising Committee of MIFF is headed by the Secretary, I&B, and consists of eminent film personalities, documentary makers and film critics. This year, th...

MIFF 2018, V A total of 24 films are scheduled to be screened in the National Prism section at the Mumbai International Film Festival, to be held in Mumbai, during January 28-February 3. These have been clubbed under three categories: short fiction, up to 45 minutes; documentaries up to 60 minutes and documentaries above 60 minutes. Here is the list. It includes Breaking all the Way, directed by Sunita Malpani, who has worked in TV serials and feature films, and produced by Films Division. En...

MIFF 2018, IV Besides the competitive section, Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) 2018 will screen national and international films in the Prism category. A list of twenty films has been released in the International category under Prism. They are divided into three categories: Animation, short fiction up to 45 minutes in length, and documentaries of any duration. National selection will follow in the next update. LIST OF FILM SELECTED FOR INTERNATIONAL PRISM SECTION...

*In quoting me, the word creditability has been used. 'Credibility' is the correct word.  *The clubbing of Films Division in the same quote is out of context as FD does not post news on social media. *Mike Pandey's Green Oscar winning film is titled Shores of Silence, not Whale Shark Hunting, as the report says. Incidentally, Mike Pandey is the President of the Indian Documentary Producers' Association and a former Chairman of the IFFI Steering Committee. (This writer t...

IFFI Goa 2017, XIV: Open Forum: 'Social media an enabler, not competitor for documentary filmmaking' Panellists, however, added a caveat that the authenticity of videos needs to be verified as they have the potential to create social unrest. 27 Nov 2017 12:57 IST The Open Forum organised by IDPA (Independent* Documentary Producers' Association) on Sunday, 26 November, was the topic, 'Crowding the social media: Is documentary only source of genuine information?'  &nb...

MIFF 2018, I: Last call for entries Last date for sending entries to the 15th Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) for Documentaries, Shorts and Animation Films is fast approaching: November 15. The biennial festival began in 1990 and is organised by the Films Division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. It will be held during January 28-February 03, 2018. International Film Competition Eligibility - Films made in India or abroad, between 01 September...

Siraj Syed reviews ‘A Million Rivers’: Complex hOMage to simple man PURI This ‘homage’ began as a ‘tribute’ to Om Puri, counterpoised against Lillete Dubey, by writer-director Sarah Singh, four years before his death, in 2013, and was completed in 2016. We saw the film on 30th January 2017, at the Black Box, in Central Mumbai, courtesy the G5A Foundation for Contemporary Arts and Culture. When I last met Om Puri in the last week of November 2016, at the In...

Siraj Syed’s IFFI 2016 diary X, Open Forum 6: Finding your way across 2K, 4K, 6K, 8K  or 18K A digital technician who has built theatres (Lightbox in Mumbai, for one)-Neil Sadwelkar, Na Tum Jaano Na Hum producer Vivek Singhania, and Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA) President Mike Pandey, participated in the last Open Forum of International Film Festival of India 2016, organised by IDPA, at old GMC building, Panaji, Goa, on 27 November. The moderator was film-m...

FICCI FLO Film Festival, Report, I: FLO Mo Known for organising India’s biggest three-day Media and Entertainment conclave in March every year, FRAMES, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) held its first film festival in the city of Mumbai, during February 18-20, a fortnight after the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) and six weeks before FRAMES. It was organised by the FICCI Ladies Organisation, FLO. Unfortunately, due to a host of reasons, FICCI F...