Khadeeja Arif, reports on the upcoming Osian’s Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab cinema

‘The aim of Osian’s - Cinefan festival is to take cinema to the masses. Osian aims to bring all art forms together under one umbrella, though cinema being its main focus’. These are the ambitious words of Nuvelle Tuli, the director of Osian’s, the organizer of the Cinefan film festival. Osian’s-Cinefan festival has been successful in merging cinema and other arts in more than one way. The festival has been screening best of Asian films along with successfully curating art exhibitions, discussions on various aspects of filmmaking. However, as the festival matures, it aims to expand its horizon further and appropriate so called ‘parallel’ cinema into the mainstream consciousness.

Osian’s Cinefan festival is turning ten this year. In these ten years, the cinematic journey of the festival has been more than fulfilling. Every year the numbers of films and competitive categories have increased, to put it in the words of Indu Srikant, another member of Osian, ‘the entries for the festival are still pouring in, despite the call for entries being closed for so long now’.

Osian’s -Cinefan festival of Asian and Arab Cinema will celebrate it 10th anniversary from 10-20th July with around two hundred films including 40 short films from Asia and Arab World. Films will be screened at the Siri Fort auditorium of New Delhi.

Festival is divided into various categories. However, the four main competition sections are: Asian and Arab competition; Indian competition; first features and an interesting competition of films made on the theme of ‘Intolerance’. The new competition section dealing with the theme of intolerance would showcase films and documentaries ‘that respond or deal with the theme of intolerance in our time’.

There are total fifteen films in the Asian and Arab competition. Blink by Ronaldo Bertubin from Philippines, Kantata Takwa by Eros Djarot and Gotot Prakosa form Indonesia, Lemon Tree by Eran Rilkis form Isreal and Ramchand Pakistani by Mehreen Jabbar are some of the films ‘expected to catch the eyeballs’.

In the category of Indian competition, Girish Kasarvalli’s Gulabi Talkies, Gujander Ahire’s Gulmohar, Maqbool khan’s Kabootar and Prayas Gupta’s The Prisoner are talked about much before the start of the festival.

The festival will open with the a Hong Kong film ‘Sparrow‘, directed by the ‘maverick’ filmmaker Jhonny To, starring Simon Yam, Kelly Lin, Ka Tun Lam, Hoi Pang Lo and Kenneth Cheug.

The Festival would close with an Indian film ‘Mumbai cutting‘. The interesting fact about the film is that it has been directed by ten Indian directors: Sudhir Mishra, Jahnu Barua, Rahul Dholakia, Rituparno Ghosh, Shashank Ghosh, Manish Jha, Anurag Kashyap, Ruchi Narayan, Ayush Rainam, Ravthi and Kundan Shah. All the film directors will be present for the screening except Rituparno Ghosh.

There is good news for Wang Kar Wai fans. Osian will be screening ‘My Blueberry Nights‘ as its Centerpiece film.

As for as the special awards and mentions are concerned, along with the award for writing, the festival will ‘bestow’ an additional award, the Osian Lifetime Achievement award for contribution to cinema. This year, The Life Time Achievement award would be given to renowned Indian filmmaker Mrinal Sen. The Writer’s award will be given to Jose’Pete’ F Lacaba from the Philippines.

Ten years old Osian’s- Cinefan will also pay a tribute to Noble Laureate Naguib Mahfouz, Allian Robbe-Grillet, renowned filmmakers Edward Yang and Indonesian actress Christine Hakim.

Apart from the film screenings, there will be parallel events like talent campus India- a six day workshop for aspiring filmmakers from South Asia; Osian’s Asian II exhibition that brings together the world’s largest collection of Japanese Samurai armour and Kabuto helmets alongside a focus on Asian Erotica and, of course the discussions on various aspects of filmmaking.

Paul Schrader, one of the most well known scriptwriters of Hollywood, will deliver a master class on screenwriting and two of his most well received films ‘ Taxi Drivers’ and ‘Mishima’ will also be screened at the festival.

The festival with a strong sense of commitment to cinema and arts rooted in cinema aims to entertain/enlighten the film buff across all section of society and bring cinematic discourse to a level where the lines between mainstream and parallel; commercial and art cinema gets merged.

(4 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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