The 14th edition of the Mumbai International Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films, popularly known as MIFF, will be held between January 28 and February 3, 2016.
The biennial event, organised by the Films Division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and supported by the Government of Maharashtra, will feature 30 films in the International Competition segment, including 12 from India, and 27 films in National Competition that will vie for the Golden Conch Award. The festival will screen a total of 385 films over the six-day event.
At a press conference on Sunday, Festival Director Mukesh Sharma also named Jackie Shroff the brand ambassador for MIFF 2016. He said, “For the first time, MIFF has roped in a brand ambassador, Jackie Shroff, who regards documentaries as catalysts for social change and is planning to make short films to spread awareness about dreaded diseases and on social issues.”
Highlighting the importance of documentaries that deal with real life challenges, veteran filmmaker Mike Pandey stressed the need for a dedicated documentary channel in the country. Shri Sharma said that in order to increase the outreach of documentary films, the Films Division had signed an agreement with the Prasar Bharati Corporation, under which Films Division’s documentaries would be shown on the DD Bharati Channel.
Some of the best documentaries of 2015, among them Mohammed Ali Naqvi and Hemal Trivedi’s Among the Believers , a documentary about the roots of religious extremism in Pakistan and Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence , a Danish documentary about Indonesian killings of 1965-66 and Rinku Kalsy’s For the Love of a Man , a documentary about the cult of adulation for Rajinikanth in south India are among the top draws.
The International Jury for the Festival is made up of documentary-makers Don Askarian (Germany), Jesper Andersen (Denmark), Mathiue Roy (Canada), Siddharth Kak and Gitanjali Rao. Mike Pandey, Uma DaCunha, Biju Dhanapalan, Audrius Stonys (Lithuania) and Jane Yu (Taiwan) are members of the National Jury. The festival will also have master classes by the jury and filmmakers, camera and digital workshops, a Producers’ Forum, panel discussions and seminars.
The screenings will be held at the Films Division theatres, Russian Culture Centre and Sophia College theatres at Pedder Road, Mumbai. Screenings will also be held at the Mumbai University auditorium in Kalina and Doordashan Kendra, Worli.
For details on registration and more, see www.miff.in
