It’s taken me a while to gather my thoughts on Filmart and what is currently going on in Hong Kong. More on that below. First a quick introduction to a new event in India, Cinevesture International Film Festival, which kicks off in the city of Chandigarh next week. And more on Streamlined’s new content strand soon…although Filmart is over it’s still an insanely busy festival and markets season.
Cinevesture IFF: New Indian Film Festival & Market With A Focus On Producers
I’ve just learned that Chandigarh is a union territory that serves as the capital of two Indian states; Punjab to the north, west and south, and Haryana to the east. That sounds like a lot of administration for one city. It’s now also hosting a new film event, Cinevesture International Film Festival (CIFF, March 27-31), launched by a team including Nina Lath Gupta, former head of the NFDC and founder of Film Bazaar; former Films Division head V.S. Kundu; Bina Paul, who was previously artistic director of Kerala International Film Festival; and critic and programmer Namrata Joshi.
The event has an industry platform, CIFF Market, that has a focus on producers and investors, which includes bringing entrepreneurs from other fields into the film industry; and presenting projects to investors that have marketable elements and/or involving filmmakers with a strong track record, although they may have worked in a different area of the industry previously (see projects line-up here).
Among the 20 selected projects (mostly features but also three web series) are works from Alankrita Shrivastava, who directed Bombay Begums for Netflix; Randeep Jha, a director on Netflix series Kohrra and Trial By Fire; Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki (No Bed Of Roses) and local filmmaker Gurvinder Singh, known for a string of award-winning Punjabi films, including Chauthi Koot.
CIFF’s film screenings include recent festivals favourites such as The Taste Of Things, Monster, The Zone Of Interest, Breaking Ice, Paradise and current Korean hit Exhuma (PICTURED ABOVE, see more details of the film programme here), along with workshops and masterclasses. Streamlined will report on the inaugural edition next month.
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