CLOSING CEREMONY OF MAMI 2008

Spanish Director Carlos Saura felicitated with Global Lifetime Achievement Award on the closing of 10th MAMI IFFM 08

~ “Dharmendra, Rishi Kapoor, Gulzar & Hitendra Ghosh amongst other awardees” ~

BY SONALEE SHYAMSUNDER & PRABAL BHARDWAJ

Mumbai, 13th March 2008 - The 10th MAMI International Film Festival’s awards ceremony was held on Thursday night, March 13th, Spanish Director Carlos Saura felicitated with Global Lifetime Achievement Award. The Chief Guest of the event Mr. Dev Anand, veteran Actor-Director, presented the Lifetime Achievement award to Shri Dharmendra.

The closing gala event had the esteemed presence of film directors from several countries along with Mr. Shyam Benegal, Chairman of the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI) and other Trustees of MAMI.

On the Closing Gala Night, the Japanese film The Mourning Forest was screened, a film that won the Grand Prix at the 60th edition of Cannes Film Festival in 2007.

The Closing screening started at Cinemax, Versova. Mr. Shyam Benegal fecilitated Mr. Carlos Saura in presence of large number of press & delegates.. Carlos Saura addressed the audience with great enthusiasm. The Press Conference of Carlos Saura was also conducted at the venue. The venue was full of Press and Delegates. After that audience has been briefed about the Closing Movie “The Mourning Forest”. With the brief introduction of movie “The Mourning Forest” screened.

To commemorate a decade of excellence, this year MAMI IFFM ‘08 introduced a host of exciting new initiatives. The Global Lifetime Achievement Award has been instituted this year to recognize an international director for his/her contribution to the world cinema. The first award was conferred on Carlos Saura, the renowned Spanish director who was in Mumbai to presided the function.

After the screening of movie, all the Invites, Press & Delegates started moving to J W MARRIOTT for the last moment of MAMI International Film Festival 2008. The venue started getting momentum with the presence of Mr. Dev Anand, Mrs. Aishwarya Rai Bachhan, Mr. Shyam Benegal, Mr. Gulzar, Mr. Rishi Kapoor, Mr. Ashutosh Gowarikar, Mr. Dharmendra, Mr. Ramesh Sippy, Mr. Ranbir Kapoor, Mr. Hitendra Ghosh, Mr. Dan Wolmen, Mr. Kiran Shantaram, Mr. Sudhir Mishra and the Chairman of FIPRESCI Jury Mr.Rolf Hamachar

Shri Dharmendra Deol received The Lifetime Achievement Award. And other honorable awardees at the 10th MAMI International Film Festival were Shri Rishi Kapoor for Significant Contribution to Cinema over 25 years, Shri Gulzar for Outstanding Contribution to Indian Film Music as Lyrics Writer and the Kodak Award for Technical Excellence to Shri Hitendra Ghosh.

In order to nurture talent and provide a platform to new generation of filmmakers, on the occasion of its 10th edition, Mrs. Jaya Bachchan, one of the trustees of MAMI, introduced a new initiative called Dimensions Mumbai. Digital films under five minute durations depicting various aspects of life in Mumbai were invited, for which there was a tremendous response with of more then 80 entries. Vaapsi by Srinivas Sunderrajan won the cash prize of Rs. 1, 00, 000/- as the best entry and Mumbai Half Marathon by Aishwarya won the runner up prize of Rs. 30,000. The Third Prize given to Live Mumbai by Ganesh Dattaram More with the cash of Rs.20,000/-.

The Dimensions Mumbai Jury also made a Special Mention of the films Patri by Akshara Prabhakar and Handful of Sky by Neha Singh.

“Tingya” were selected as the best Indian films judge by a special five member International Jury and also a three-member FIPRESCI (International Critics Organisation)The Jury Special Prize given to the Film Frozen Directed by Shivaji Chandrabhushan. Special mention for Actress given to Swati Sen for touching role as Janki in the film Antardwandwa. Special mention for Best Child Actor has given to Darsheel Safari for his convincing interpretation in the film Tare Zameen Par

Presented by Reliance Big Entertainment, the weeklong festival was inaugurated on March 6 and screened more than 140 films from several countries across the globe.

Here are some highlights of the festival:

· The Opening Gala Night marked the screening of Polish master Andrzej Wajda’s latest film Katyn, nominated for an Oscar in the foreign film category. Katyn was premiered at the recently concluded 58th Berlin Film Festival and Mumbai Festival witnessed the grand Asian premiere of the film.
· The Italian silent film Pinocchio (1911) restored by Cineteca was centre piece of the festival. The film, based on famous Collodi’s novel, was screened with live music. The screening was sponsored by the Italian Consulate, Mumbai.
· Daily master Classes by renowned film makers like James Mimikos, Shriram Raghavan, Prof. Dragan, Stefano Odoardi, Govind Nihalani and Dan Wolman.
· The festival celebrated the 50th year of Andrzej Wajda’s legendary film Kanal
· Film maker in focus was Carlos Saura whose eight films including Carmen were screened
· Special screening of To Each His Own Cinema made by 25 world renowned directors to celebrate 60 years of Cannes Festival – 2007
· Retrospective of Ritwik Ghatak and Andrzej Wajda.


For more information, please see http://mamifest2008.blogspot.com/ or contact:
Kirti Kumar
Mobile: +91 9322149070
Email: manoranjanone@gmail.com


Prachi Deshpande / Malika Bhavnani
CMCG India Pvt Ltd
Mobile: +91 9967078886 / 9820496099
Email: prachi.deshpande@cmcgindia.com
malika.bhavnani@cmcgindia.com