The 17th edition of Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) organized by the Pune Film Foundation and the Maharashtra Government will take place in Pune between 10th and 17th January, 2019.
· 7 Marathi Feature films nominated in the competition
· Expert Jury from 7 countries to Judge the Films
· PIFF Forum to educate delegates about different aspects of Cinema
· Spanish film 'Damn Kids' is the opening film of PIFF
Marathi Feature films shortlisted for competition, list of jury and various activities planned for this year's PIFF Forum were announced by Dr. Jabbar Patel, the Festival Director, PIFF during a Press Conference held in the city today.
Ravi Gupta, Secretary, PIFF, Satish Alekar, Selection Committee Member, Abhijeet Randive, Selection Committee Member, Sabina Sanghavi, Trusty, Pune Film Foundation, Prakash Magdum, Director, National Film Archives of India (NFAI), Dr. Mohan Aagashe, Megharaj Rajebhosale, Chairman, Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal were also present on the occasion.
This year, seven Marathi films across various genres have been shortlisted in the competition at PIFF. The movies 'Mulshi Pattern', 'Naal', 'Khatla Bitla', 'Bhonga', 'Chumbak', 'Bodhi' and 'Dithee' have made it to the list. The festival will be opened with a Spanish film from Chile, 'Damn Kids' (Dir. Gonzalo Justiniano).
PIFF will have a special section 'Retrospective' in which the festival will honor great director and producer Mehboob Khan showcasing his movies 'Amar', 'Andaz' and 'Mother India'. This section will also feature Bernardo Bertolucci, the Italian director and screenwriter. His acclaimed movies 'The Last Emperor', 'Little Buddha' and 'Last Tango in Paris' will be shown in PIFF.
Also, PIFF will have few movies as homage to the artists of the film fraternity who passed away recently. Films like 'English Vinglish' (Sridevi, Actor), 'Rudaali' (Kalpana Lazmi, Director), 'To Live' (Shinobu Hashimoto, Japanese Screenwriter). A tribute will be paid to great Director Mrunal Sen by showing his movie 'Bhuvan Shome'
The special section called 'Country Focus', this year will feature selected movies from Hungary, Argentina and Turkey. In this, 4 movies from Hungary, 6 movies from Argentina and 3 movies from Turkey will be shown. In the Student Live Action section, 6 movies from 5 countries will be shown, while, Student Animation section will feature 16 movies from 10 countries.
PIFF has gone extra mile especially for all the film buffs by offering late evening screening of the movies. "Like last year, this time also, we have kept special shows of movies to be screened at NFAI theatre between 9-11 pm in the night for all the working-movie lovers. Apart from this, the regular screenings start at 12pm daily during the festival," informed Magdum. NFAI will also host an exhibition marking 150 years of birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
According to the theme of this year's PIFF, two critically acclaimed movies 'The Making of Mahatma' (dir. Shyam Benegal) and 'Gandhi' (dir. Richard Attenborough) will be showcased to celebrate the 150 years of birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Continuing the tradition of roping in global cinema experts as the Jury, this year's jury at PIFF includes B. Lenin, veteran Editor and Director (India), Christer Holmgren, Actor and Director (Sweden), Daniela Ciancio, Costume Designer (Italy), Joseph Israel Laban, Filmmaker (Philippines), Kamlesh Pandey, Film Writer (India), Prasanna Vithanage, Director (Sri Lanka), Shabnam Gholikhani, Actor (Iran), Thorsten Schütte, Cinematographer, Editor and Director (Germany).
A unique initiative has been started concurrently to the festival called the PIFF Forum, while highlighting this Dr. Patel said, "This year it is bigger platform where a lot of activities for aspiring writers, producers, directors, costume designers like workshops, seminars, panel discussions, networking sessions, exhibition stalls etc. will take place. The key intention of PIFF Forum is to educate those interested in filmmaking without letting it become dull or stale. Here, one can directly interact with several successful and reputed film personalities."
The main gate of the PIFF Forum will be named after Sudhir Phadke, renowned Musician and G. D. Madgulkar, renowned Poet. The main stage of the PIFF Forum will be named after P. L. Deshpande. The forum will also pay homage to great Musitians Naushad, Snehal Bhatkar and Tabla Maestro Ustad Alla Rakha.
Through January 11th to 17th, PIFF Forum will have various activities and sessions starting on Friday, January 11 at 12:20 pm with a lecture by acclaimed Actor Rohini Hattangadi. She will speak on the topic 'My Journey- An Actor's Truth'.
On Saturday, January 12, veteran Director Shyam Benegal will talk about the 'The Continued Relevance of Gandhi' at 10.30am. On the same day, director of the recent famous Hindi movie ' Andhadhun', Sreeram Raghavan will talk about the process of this film, starting at 12:20pm. On this day at 6pm a program 'Singing Strings' will be performed by Manas Gosavi which will be a performance on Mohanveena.
On Sunday, January 13, a session discussing the success of Marathi movies in 2018, will be conducted jointly by Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal, Lead Media and PIFF, starting at 5pm. The participants include Praveen Tarde, Bhaurao Karhade, Digpal Lanjekar, Sandeep Jadhav, Rajendra Shinde, Saumitra Pote, Meghraj Raje Bhosale and Vinod Satav.
On Monday, January 14, a demonstrative workshop and seminar on '360 Cinema and Transmedia' will be conducted by Baiju Kurup, Vivek Suvarna & Niraj Gera. This session will start at 3pm. On this day, at 8pm, a band performance 'Tapas' will take place.
On Tuesday, January 15, Italian Costume Designer Daniela Ciancio will be speaking about the creative art of costume designing. This session will also start at 3pm.
This year's 'Vijay Tendulkar Memorial Lecture' will be undertaken by famous Film Writer Kamlesh Pandey. It will be held on Wednesday, January 16 at 3pm. A presentation of Don Studio will be held on Thursday, January 17.
The list of 7 Marathi feature films selected in the competition:
- Mulshi Pattern ,(Director - Praveen Vitthal Tarde)
2 .Naal, (Director - Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti) - Khatla Bitla , (Director - Paresh Mokashi)
- Bhonga (Director - Shivaji Lotan Patil)
- Chumbak, (Director - Sandeep Modi)
- Bodhi, (Director - Vinit Chandrasekharan)
- Dithee (Director - Sumitra Bhave)
