16th Mumbai Film Festival (MFF) of MAMI - 2014

16th Mumbai Film Festival Organised by Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (MAMI)

14 - 21 October, 2014

A Detailed Analytical Report

Bravo ! So the ‘Never say die spirit’ of the MAMI Trustees headed by Shyam Benegal, Festival director Srinivasan, Film makers, film buffs and above all the movie spirit of Mumbaikars made this not only to happen but to make it a rocking event with ‘Crowd Funding’ in the annals of International Film Festivals. With respect to organisers I will not comment adversely for not inviting the Media in the Opening and Closing events, but I am unable to comment on the reported joys, sorrows (if any), starry razzmatazz etc. in the main Chandan Cinema. However, for the knowledge of my readers, I would give a list of award winners and films which were announced on the closing day and gathered by me from the next morning newspapers.

HIGH LIGHTS

• The Life time Achievement award was conferred on the iconic Oscar winner French actress Catherine Deneuve for International cinema and the yesteryear queen of dance and actress Helen for Bollywood cinema.
• While the main events like Opening and closing functions were held in Chandan Cinema including screenings; the multiplexes who partnered for screening were all Screens in PVR Cinemas City Mall and Cine Max at Infiniti Mall Andheri.

The panel of Jury for competition films (segment wise) consisted of :

• For International Competition Peter Webber (British Films TV), Mahamat Saleh Haroun (Chad and France), Ritesh Batra (India) , Ron Mann (Canada)
• For Dimensions Mumbai Huma Quereshi (Actor), Rajeev Masand (Film / TV Critic), Satish Kaushik, Gauri Shinde and Homi Adjania (Indian Film makers)
• For India Gold Goran Pascaljevic (Serbia and France), Prasanna Vithanage (Sri Lanka), Bai Ling (China) and Serge Bromberg (France)

Opening film of the fest : “Serena” (USA, France)

Closing film of the fest: “Fury” (UK, China, USA)

Master Classes / Round table discussions were held with Indian and International film stalwarts, lively discussions with panels

Award Winners of the Fest :

1. The Golden Gateway of India for the Best film in International Competition was conferred on the Indian Film “Court” directed by Chaitanya Tamhane.
2. The Silver gateway India Trophy went to Mexican film “Geuros”directed by Alanso Ruizpalacios.
3. Special Jury award was given to the Marathi film “Killa”directed by Avinash Arun.
4. Best director award was given to Chaitanya Tamhane for the film“Court”
5. Best male actor award was for Martin Loizillon in the film “Fever”
6. Best female actor award went to Liron Ben Shulsh for film “Next to her”
7. In India Gold category, Hindi film “Chauranga” directed by Bikas Ranjan Mishra was adjudged best and the second place was bagged by the Marathi film “Killa”
8. In the category of Dimensions Mumbai, the top award was conferred on director Disha Rindani for the film “Mumbai 70”. Film “Unfit” directed by Srishti Jain was second best film.
9. Mumbai Young Critics jury award was given to the Iranian film “Ba Digaran” directed by Nasser Zamiri.

Other Good films (besides the award winning films: “Two Days, One Night” (Belgium, France, Italy) "Blind Massage” (China,France) “Party Girl” (France) "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” (Iran—USA) “Labour of Love” (Silent Indian film) directed by Aditya Vikram Sengupta.”Broken Hill Blues” (Sweden) “Refugiado” (Argentina)“Mommy” (Canada), and the Master film maker Godard’s latest experimental film “Goodbye To Language”

Last but not least, this resurrected MAMI Fest was a big success, but the MAMI Administration needs to improve and make Online Reservation System” transparent and more user friendly.