RIVER TO RIVER in MUMBAI

The River to River Indian Film Festival has been delighting Italian moviegoers for 14 years. It was yesterday at the Blue Frog Mumbai that its India Chapter came to life through the screening of a brief anthology of the festival's winners in the category of documentary film. The event kicked off with a trio of short films who won the Advantage India award, granted by the jury of partnering film distributor Pocket Films.

 

Film maker, Samvida Nanda, was present to receive the 1st Advantage India Prize for her short film The Frame and actor Krishna Wadia responded to a brief Q&A session on 3rd prize winner, Rani, by Manish Sharma, a film that was also awarded at the London Indian Film Festival.

READ MORE

DABBA - 'The Lunchbox" - MOVES CANNES AUDIENCES

Image by Indianexpress.com

 After having bagged at least 15 minutes of a standing ovation at its premiere screening at the 66th Cannes Film Festival, Ritesh Batra's Dabba (The Lunchbox), produced by Anurag Kashyap, has won the Grand Rail d'Or Award, which is an equivalent of the Critics Week Viewer's Choice Award. This has been followed by the purchase of its North American distribution rights by Sony Pictures Classics.
READ MORE>>

Shah Rukh Star Power in Marrakesh

The Marrakesh International Film Festival met with an euphoric crowd of more than 50,000 people at the Jemaa el-Fna square for several hours as fans awaited Shah Rukh Khan to grace the event’s red carpet. The star seemed so moved that he braved his own security to wave at the thousands gathered there.

Indian cinema has a huge following in Morocco and throughout Africa, which also caused crowd incidents when in 2007 Shah Rukh Khan, accompanied by Rani Mukherjee, Preity Zinta and the late Yash Chopra visited France, a country where a large population of Moroccan immigrants has taken residence.

Prince Moulay Rachid later invited the star to a royal dinner and presented Shah Rukh Khan with the Medal of Honour of Morocco for his contribution to cinema.

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL honours Shekhar Kapur

Shekhar Kapur will be presiding over the 2012 Venice Film Festival's Lion of the Future "Luigi di Laurentiis" award, which will be granted to a debut film. He will be selecting the awarded film alongside Isabella Ferrari, Matt Reeves and Michel Demopoulos from the film fraternity and Bob Sinclar from the music world. Other personalities participating in the Biennale's jury for other sections include Laetitia Casta, Pablo Trapero (The Secret in their Eyes), Ari Folman (Waltz with Bashir), and Michael Mann, among others.

The jury shall select only one among all the debut feature-length films competing throughout the various sections of the Venice Film Festival (Official Selection and Independent Parallel Sections) to be awarded. The winner will be announced once the festival starts on August 29th. 

HINDI CINEMA AT CANNES 2012 - Kashyap at the forefront

The Hindi Cinema Blog is gleefully watching how Anurag Kashyap has become the new Indian "coqueluche" at the Cannes cinema festival. The director that our partner CinemaHindi interviewed back in August 2009 (read the Exclusive Interview with Anurag Kashyap) will be showcasing 3 of his banner's films at the coveted screens of the festival: PEDDLERS, by Vasan Bala (assistant in Gulaal and  Dev D), has been selected for the Semaine de la Critique (Cannes Film Critics Week). The film stars Gulshan Deviah (Hate Story) and Kriti Malhotra (acclaimed for her performance in Dhobi Ghat).

Moreover, none other than Kashyap's most recent film, GANGS OF WASSEYPUR (Parts I and II), starring Manoj Bajpayee and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, is one of the select group of films to be scheduled for the festival's Directors Fortnight.

Anurag Kashyap excitedly announced his participation in Cannes through Twitter "Three of our films; Peddlers, Gangs Of Wasseypur (I&II) at Cannes Film Festival. HUGE MOMENT OF PRIDE FOR US!' 'Waiting at theBrussels airport in a silent zone, wanting to scream out loud, off to Copenhagen.. I am very happy..really Happy today." 

Apart from Kashyap’s films, another Indian film, MISS LOVELY, by Ashim Ahluwalia will compete in the Un Certain Regard category, which has been selecting high quality cinema over the years.We are looking forward to see Nawazuddin Siddiqui performing in this film too and are delighted to see two of his films are being showcased. Last but not least, the film DELHI BELLY by Abhinay Deo is allegedly set to be screened at the festival, off competition, and we wish it utmost success.

We hope this new wave of Indian cinema at the prestigious festival will set a precedent and will get the French audience increasingly acquainted with Indian cinema. It is high time!

RIVER TO RIVER FF 2010 Screenings and Guests

One of the most complete and active Indian cinema festivals in Europe is the River to River Film Festival, held annually in the beautiful Italian city of Florence. The 2010 edition of the festival will take place from December 3 to 9 and will feature a retrospective dedicated to renowned director Satyajit Ray as well as the screening of all films who have been awarded during previous editions of the festival.

Read more >>>

'PEEPLI LIVE': FIRST TIME'S A CHARM

Anusha Rizvi's maiden directorial venture has been selected to participate in one of the prestigious meccas of independent and world cinema, the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, USA.

'Peepli Live' is the first Indian feature film to participate in the festival's World Cinema Dramatic competition and also coincidentally the first film that Aamir Khan has produced with the deliberate purpose of entertaining an international audience. The series of seemingly auspicious first experiences linked to the film lead us to think that "first" may indeed rhyme with "outstanding".

Additionally, 'Peepli Live' stars newcomers  Omkar Das and Shalini Vatsa alongside some of India's most notable actors, Raghuvir Yadav and Naseeruddin Shah.

Much speculative talk about the film in past months had reduced its plot to a serious and almost documentary approach on the issue of farmer suicides in India. Rizvi seems however to have taken the challenge further by scripting a film on such a delicate subject with black humour, concentrating on rural life, politics and the media's thirst for "scoops".

Tickets for the first show (January 24) are sold out but viewers able to attend the festival may buy tickets for subsequent screenings from January 26-29 here.

Watch video below of Aamir Khan in Sundance, speaking about 'Peepli Live':

For more promos, image downloads and information on 'Peepli Live' visit the Official 'Peepli Live' website

Director

Anusha Rizvi

Screenwriter

Anusha Rizvi
Cast

Omkar Das, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Raghuvir Yadav, Shalini Vatsa

Produced by

Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao

Coproducer

Ronnie Screwvala

Composer

Mathias Duplessy