After a three-year hiatus, the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival is returning with a larger lineup and an expanded focus on South Asian cinema.
9 october 2023
The festival will feature 250 films including 40 world premieres, 45 Asia premieres and 70 South Asia Premieres. The opening and closing films have not been finalized yet.
The festival’s new vision is to become a hub for South Asian and South Asian diaspora cinema and talent and, in keeping with this, the main competition is for 14 films from the region. These include the world premieres of Leesa Gazi’s “A House Named Shahana” (Bangladesh-U.K.), Dibakar Das Roy’s “Dilli Dark” (India), Sumanth Bhat’s “Mithya” (India) and Fazil Razak’s “The Sentence” (India). The new focus will also include 46 non-competition films from South Asia.
The Icons South Asia strand features Anand Patwardhan’s Toronto title “The World is Family”; “Indi(r)a’s Emergency” by Vikramaditya Motwane; and Busan titles – “Paradise” by Prasanna Vithanage and “Something Like an Autobiography” by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki. The Indian gala premiere strand includes Anurag Kashyap’s Cannes title “Kennedy”; Devashish Makhija’s Rotterdam film “Joram”; and Wendy Bednarz’s Toronto selection “Yellow Bus.”
Festival artistic director Deepti DCunha said: “We are very proud that we have managed to achieve such a diverse curation in our South Asia section within the first year of us expanding our vision to be a festival that is focused on building an ecosystem for new cinematic voices from South Asia and the South Asian diaspora.”
Festival director Anupama Chopra added: “We hope to emerge as a melting pot of talent from across the world while spotlighting and creating more opportunities for South Asian films and filmmakers.”
The world cinema section features 99 titles from over 35 countries including Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall” by Justine Triet, Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” Madeleine Gavin’s Sundance winner “Beyond Utopia,” “The Daughters of Fire” by Pedro Costa, Kore-eda Hirokazu’s “Monster,” “In Our Day” by Hong Sang-soo, “Strange Way of Life” by Pedro Almodóvar, “The Old Oak” by Ken Loach, “Fallen Leaves” by Aki Kaurismäki and “La Chimera” by Alice Rohrwacher.
Head of international programming Anu Rangachar said: “These titles have the innate potential to only get bigger with time. Our curation also has some hidden gems that one wouldn’t be able to otherwise watch in India, as the probability of them independently releasing here is fairly low.”
Festival co-director Maitreyee Dasgupta added: “Through the various programs and competitions, the festival strives to be a destination where filmmakers and audiences feel empowered, heard, and experience the joy of cinema, it’s impact and new ideas.”
SOUTH ASIA COMPETITION
“Against the Tide” by Sarvnik Kaur
Language(s): Marathi, Hindi, Koli | India, France | South Asia Premiere
“Agra” by Kanu Behl
Hindi | India, France | South Asia Premiere
“Bahadur – The Brave” by Diwa Shah
Hindi, Nepali | India | Asia Premiere
“Barir Naam Shahana” (“A House Named Shahana”) by Leesa Gazi
Bengali | Bangladesh, U.K. | World Premiere
“Dilli Dark” by Dibakar Das Roy
Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Pidgin English, Yoruba | India | World Premiere
“Guras” by Saurav Rai
Nepali | India | South Asia Premiere
“Kayo Kayo Colour?” (“Which Colour?”) by Shahrukhkhan Chavada
Gujarati, Hindi | India | Asia Premiere
“Mithya” by Sumanth Bhat
Kannada, Marathi| India | World Premiere
“Rimdogittanga” (“Rapture”) by Dominic Sangma
Garo | India, China, Netherlands, Qatar, Switzerland | South Asia Premiere
“Shivamma” by Jaishankar Aryar
Kannada | India | South Asia Premiere
“Sthal” (“A Match”) by Jayant Somalkar
Marathi | India | Asia Premiere
“Thadavu” (“The Sentence”) by Fazil Razak
Malayalam | India | World Premiere
“The Monk and the Gun” by Pawo Choyning Dorji
Dzongkha, English | Bhutan, France, USA, Taiwan | India Premiere
“The Red Suitcase” by Fidel Devkota
Nepali | Nepal, Sri Lanka | Asia Premiere
FOCUS SOUTH ASIA – Non-Competition
Features
“Aattam” (“The Play”) by Anand Ekarshi
Malayalam | India | Asia Premiere
“Aiz Maka Falea Tuka” (“Today Me, Tomorrow You”) by Sreejith Karnaver
Konkani | India | World Premiere
“All India Rank” by Varun Grover
Hindi | India | Asia Premiere
“Bailadila” by Shailendra Sahu
Hindi | India | World Premiere
“Be Kucheye Khoshbakht” (“And, Toward Happy Alleys”) by Sreemoyee Singh
English, Farsi | India | South Asia Premiere
“Before Spring” by Shrutismriti Changkakoti
Assamese | India | World Premiere
“Chingari” (“The Spark”) by Rajesh S. Jala
Hindi | India | South Asia Premiere
“Daayam” (“Inheritance”) by Prasanth Vijay
Malayalam | India | World Premiere
“Dear Latika” by Kanchan Pant
Hindi, Kumaoni | India | World Premiere
“Follower” by Harshad Nalawade
Hindi, Kannada, Marathi | India | Asia Premiere
“Ghaath” (“Ambush”) by Chhatrapal Ninawe
Marathi | India | Asia Premiere
“Naangal” (“This Is Us”) by Avinash Prakash
Tamil | India | World Premiere
“While We Watched” by Vinay Shukla
English, Hindi| India, U.K. | Asia Premiere
“Pushtaini” (“Ancestral”) by Vinod Rawat
English, Hindi, Kumaoni | India | Asia Premiere
“Riders on the Storm” by Jason Motlagh, Mark Oltmanns
Farsi, Pashto | Austria | Asia Premiere
“Sahela” (“Companion”) by Raghuvir Joshi
English, Hindi | Australia | Asia Premiere
“Shwe Pyi Taw Hmyaw Taing Way” (“Golden Land Fantasy”) by Anatta
Burmese | Myanmar | World Premiere
“Stolen” by Karan Tejpal
English, Hindi, Marwari, Santhali | India | Asia Premiere
“Sultana’s Dream” by Isabel Herguera
Basque, Bengali, Hindi, English, Spanish | India, Germany, Spain | South Asia Premiere
“The Scavenger of Dreams” by Suman Ghosh
Hindi | India | South Asia Premiere
“Was Von Der Liebe Bleibt” (“Between Us”) by Kanwal Sethi
German | Germany | Asia Premiere
“Zende” by Akshay Shah
English, Hindi, Marathi | India | World Premiere
Shorts
“Aakhiri Tukda” (“The Last Fragment”) by Anant Jain, Pranjal Acharya
Hindi | India | World Premiere
“Battisi” (“Dentures”) by Siddharth Potade, Nikhil Lama
Hindi | India | Asia Premiere
“Chaar Chappalein” (“Four Slippers”) by Anurag Kashyap
Hindi | India | Asia Premiere
“Chiso Ghar” (“A Bleak Home”) by Bidushi Giri
Nepali | Nepal | World Premiere
“D-Grade Se A-Grade Tak” (“The Blessed and The Damned”) by Aniket Kumar
Hindi, Magahi | India | World Premiere
“Farther than Distance” by Taruna Khatri
English, Hindi | India | World Premiere
“Flowering Man” by Soumyajit Ghosh Dastidar
Hindi | India| World Premiere
“Foreigners Only” by Nuhash Humayun
Bengali, English | Bangladesh, U.S. | South Asia Premiere
“Goodbye, Hello” by Omkar Phatak
English | India| Asia Premiere
“Helena” by Ayarush Paudel
English, Hindi, Nepali | Nepal, UAE | World Premiere
“Kamathipura” by Aayushman Pandey
Hindi | India| Asia Premiere
“Mai” by Milind Dhaimade
English, Hindi, Marathi | India| World Premiere
“Melody Day” by Shailesh Singh
Polish | Poland | World Premiere
“Nazar” (“The Gaze”) by Sean Sankalp Raju
Hindi | India, U.S. | Asia Premiere
“Nehemich” by Yudhajit Basu
Marathi | India | Asia Premiere
“Pha-Yar-Sin” (“The Altar”) by Moe Myat May Zarchi
Burmese | Myanmar | South Asia Premiere
“See-Zar Tain” (“Evening Clouds”) by Aung Phyoe
Burmese | Myanmar, Czech Republic, France | South Asia Premiere
“Slow Shift” by Shambhavi Kaul
No dialogues | India, U.S.| Asia Premiere
“The Flamingos And Other Migratory Birds Tour” by Pranjal Dua
English, Hindi, Marathi | India | World Premiere
“Thirty” by Ei Mon Kyaw
Burmese | Myanmar | World Premiere
“Ullarivu” (“The Awakening”) by Sumi Mathai
Malayalam | India | World Premiere
“White Ant” by Shalini Adnani
English, Hindi | India, UK | South Asia Premiere
“Windhorse” by Sunil Gurung
English, Nepali | Nepal, USA | World Premiere
“XO” by Samrat DasGupta
Bengali, English, Hindi | India | South Asia Premiere
ICONS: SOUTH ASIA
“Animating the Archive” – short films by Amit Dutta
“Gau Ayeko Bato” (“A Road to a Village”) by Nabin Subba
Nepali | Nepal | South Asia Premiere
“Indi(r)a’s Emergency” by Vikramaditya Motwane
English, Hindi | India | World Premiere
“PaathKatha” (“The Golden Thread”) by Nishtha Jain
Bengali, Hindi | India, Netherlands, Norway, U.K. | South Asia Premiere
“Paradise” by Prasanna Vithanage
English, Hindi, Malayalam, Sinhala, Tamil | Sri Lanka, India | South Asia Premiere
“Something Like an Autobiography” by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki
Bengali | Bangladesh, Germany, India | South Asia Premiere
“Trolley Times” by Gurvinder Singh
Punjabi | India | World Premiere
“Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (“The World is Family”) by Anand Patwardhan
English, Hindi, Marathi | India | Asia Premiere
GALA PREMIERES
“Berlin” by Atul Sabharwal
English, Hindi | India | Asia Premiere
“Everybody Loves Sohrab Handa” by Rajat Kapoor
Hindi | India | World Premiere
“Joram’ by Devashish Makhija
Hindi | India | South Asia Premiere
“Kennedy” by Anurag Kashyap
Hindi | India | South Asia Premiere
“Sharmajee Ki Beti” by Tahira Kashyap Khurrana
Hindi | India | World Premiere
“Yellow Bus” by Wendy Bednarz
Arabic, English, Hindi, Tagalog, Urdu | India, Jordan, UAE, USA | Asia Premiere
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