India’s Cinevesture International Film Festival (CIFF, March 27-31) has announced its full line-up of film screenings, masterclasses and workshops, along with details of its market platform, CIFF Market, which will showcase 20 projects from South Asian filmmakers.
The festival, which is taking place in Chandigarh in northern India, will open with Tran Anh Hung’s The Taste Of Things (pictured above), which won best director in Cannes last year, and close with Korean filmmaker Jang Jae-hyun’s Exhuma, which is currently a big hit in Korea and other Asian territories.
Other highlights of the screening programme include Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone Of Interest, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster, The Whale starring Brendan Fraser, Berlin award-winning documentary Seven Winters In Tehran, Singapore’s Oscar entry Breaking Ice, and Roshan Mathew starrer Paradise.
Indian films include Rima Das’ Assamese-language Tora’s Husband, Gurvinder Singh’s Punjabi-language Adh Chanani Raat and Toronto award winning Marathi film Sthal. The festival is also hosting a series of outdoor screenings of classic films, including Satyajit Ray’s Jalsaghar, Guru Dutt’s Kaagaz Ke Phool and Francis Ford Coppola’s recut of The Godfather Part 3, while an experiential cinema exhibition will celebrate the works of Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand.
Stars and prominent filmmakers attending the festival include Richa Chadha, Ali Fazal, Roshan Mathew, Gulshan Devaiah, Varun Grover, Rasika Duggal, singer Rashmeet Kaur, Hansal Mehta, Shekhar Kapur, Sudhir Mishra and Tahira Kashyap Khurrana.
Market platform
The festival, which has a focus on producers and investors, is also hosting an industry platform, CIFF Market, which will present a line-up of 20 projects to industry guests. The projects have been curated with an emphasis on marketable elements and/or filmmakers with a track record in the industry (see full line-up of CIFF Market Projects here).
CIFF Market also includes a Producers Lab, mentorship programmes, masterclasses and workshops, including a workshop that will introduce entrepreneurs to the basics of film investing.
CIFF’s team includes festival director V.S. Kundu, who was formerly head of India’s Films Division; artistic director Bina Paul, formerly artistic director of Kerala International Film Festival; Cinevesture founder and CEO Nina Lath Gupta, who previously launched India’s Film Bazaar; and critic, journalist and programmer Namrata Joshi as CIFF Market curator.
Gupta said: “Cinevesture International Film Festival is envisaged as a platform for the two key stakeholders, namely audiences and producers. Its various verticals have been designed keeping the same in mind. We trust that in time, CIFF will serve as a reliable festival offering high-quality content for audiences and enhanced business opportunities for the film industry.”