Big B, Javed Akhtar and Pyarelal to be awarded at MAMI

Courtesy: IndiaFM
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
The 9th International Film Festival of Mumbai (IFFM) organized by Mumbai Academy of Moving Images (MAMI) will be inaugurated on March 8, 2007 at the YB Chavan Centre. The weeklong film festival will continue till March 15, 2007 at 3 prominent venues including the YB Chauhan centre, IMAX Adlabs and Fun Republic.

This year the event has a new sponsor. Says Shyam Benegal, "This year we are very happy to announce our new sponsor Reliance Adlabs". Speaking about the compilation of movies being played at the festival this year Benegal adds, "The festival will see a variety of films which include 8 award winning Spanish films, 7 South African films and 2 films from the Berlin film festival"

The weeklong festival will see a total of 100 films from 32 different countries including India. The festival will commence with a Chinese film The Curse of the Golden Flower and will close with Mira Nair's film The Namesake.

This year the festival is dedicated to the memory of Hrishikesh Mukherjee who was the founder chairman of MAMI. Five prominent personalities feature on the MAMI awards list of 2007. Benegal reveals, "We have a set of awards that include Special Award to Salute Indian Cinema's Global Icon which will be presented to Amitabh Bachchan during the inaugural function and an award for Indian film music with Javed Akhtar and Pyarelal being felicitated for their contribution to Indian Cinema with Lifetime achievement award and outstanding contribution to Indian film music award, respectively. Govind Nihalani will be felicitated with the Kodak Award for Technical Excellence while Aparna Sen will be awarded for her significant contribution to cinema over 25 years.

The festival also has an award for the best film of the year with Girish Karnad as the chairman of the jury. This year 12 Indian films in different languages are in competition.

The jury includes members from Nigeria, Portugal, and India, along with foreign delegates from countries like Iran, Italy, Britain, South Africa, Brazil and China. The director of information centre, Hungary will also be seen visiting the festival.

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