MUMBAI: The Third Eye 6th Asian Film Festival, which started in Mumbai in 2002 to enable a cultural exchange of films between Asian countries, this year, will be held at three venues across Mumbai.
The festival will be inaugurated on 2 November at 6:30 pm at the Plaza Theatre (Dadar) and the venues will Y. B. Chavan Centre and Fame Nakshatra (Dadar). Each venue will have five daily screenings for festival delegates. The opening ceremony will have a screening of the Turkish film ‘Mutluluk (Bliss)’ directed by Abdullah Oðuz. This year over 70 films would be unspooled during the seven-day festival in 35 mm as well as digital formats. This time around the focus of the festival is on China.
The Asian Film Festival started as an attempt to build a greater understanding between Asian people about peace, harmony and development. The festival was organized under the aegis of the Asian Film Foundation headed by film producer and former Sheriff of Mumbai, Kiran Shantaram.
The Indian Express Group has been working closely with the Asian Film Foundation since 2004 to support the Annual Asian Film Festival in Mumbai and is the Print Media Partner.
This year the Govt. of Maharashtra, the Bajaj Group, the Consulate General of Japan in Mumbai, HIVOS and Taj Mahal Tea-Enlighten Films are supporting the Festival.
The delegate registration for the festival is opened on 15 October and will be on at Y. B. Chavan Centre and Plaza Cinema between 1 pm and 7 pm daily.
The various competitions and awards of this year at The Third Eye 6th Asian Film Festival are as under:
Competition for debutant directors
This year Third Eye Asian Film Festival is initiating another mission of bringing new directors from Asia into focus, who have made first and/or second film. Around 60 films entered in response to the ‘Call for Entries’ out of which the selection committee has chosen 13 for the competition.
The three-member international jury headed by film maker Amol Palekar along with Philip Cheah (Singapore) and Pouran Derakhshandeh (Iran) will judge the entries and decide the winner. The award includes trophy and cash prize of Rs. 1,00,000/- for the winner.
Competition for short fiction films:
In order to search new talents in Asia, the Third Eye 6th Asian Film Festival will have another competition of Short Fiction Films (duration upto 30 minutes, on digital format). They have received 140 entries from all over Asia, out of which 10 hour’s programme is selected for competition.
The three-member international jury consisting of N. Narahari Rao (India), Ashley Rathnavihushana (Sri Lanka) and Makoto Itakura (Japan) will decide the winner. The award included trophy and cash prize of Rs. 50,000/- for the winner.
Asian Masters of Cinema
Starting this year is a new section called Asian Masters of Cinema, purpose being to introduce today’s youngsters to classic Asian directors.
Satyajit Ray Memorial Award
Satyajit Ray Memorial Award is organized for promoting film as an art form. To recognize the services of journalists, professors, film society activists, researchers and so on, this award has been instituted last year. This year it will be presented to Aruna Vasudev, the founder editor of magazine ‘Cinemaya’ devoted to Asian cinema and founder Director of Osian’s Cinefan Festival (New Delhi) which is now 10 years old.
Asian Film Culture Award
Asian Film Culture Award is instituted since beginning to propagate Asian cinema in India. It honours the renowned and acclaimed film directors from Asia. This year Asian Film Culture Award will be presented to veteran Bengali director Tapan Sinha, whose retrospective is being organised.
