MUMBAI: Established in 1999 the 10 day film festival, Osian’s Cinefan will commence on 20 July and will go on till 29 July 2007.

While the Mumbai premiere of the 9th Osians Cinefan was held on 8 June 2007, showcasing nine films, the grand festival will be held in Delhi exhibiting over 120 films from all over, including countries like Algeira, Egypt, Vietnam and Bangladesh. The venues in Delhi for the festival include Rivoli, PVR Plaza, Siri Fort Complex and Alliance Francaise.

This year around the Festival, with the tagline ‘Recreating Cinematic Culture’ will focus on Japan and will pay a nine-film tribute to director Kenji Mizoguchi. The festival will showcase his works counting films like Legend of Bailiff Sansho, Water Magician and Street of Shame amongst others.

Opening the festival with the first screening will be Raami, directed by B Shirinsefat, while Hala Khalil’s Cut and Paste will close the festival. A host of mainstream Bollywood films will also make its way through the festival. Bollywood films like Dor, Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd, Manorama Six Feet Under, Via Darjeeling, Omkara and Rajat Kapoor’s Mithya will be shown.

Besides the screening of the various films, a special exhibition will be organized, exhibiting rare Japanese films, horror and sci-fi film posters. Other segments like 1857: Hyms of freedom, Springboard: a tribute to film festivals and Silhottes, highlighting the stories of women will be held at the 10 day festival.

Judging the entries in the different competition sections will be filmmakers, critics and authors including Anurag Kashyap, Rupa Ganguly, Asoka Handagama, Hala Khalil, Saeed Mirza, Amir Muhammed and Francois Da Silva.

Various panel discussions and forums are also slated to be conducted during the festival. An international conference on the origins of cinema in Asia, focus and subjects in Arab cinema and independent filmmaking are a few amongst the many to be conducted.

While many of our Bollywood stars have graced the event since its inception in 1999 this year around it waits to be seen who makes their presence felt at the festival buzzing with international invitees.