Pro Tools
FILMFESTIVALS | 24/7 world wide coverage 3x3v41
Welcome ! 652bt
Enjoy the best of both worlds: Film & Festival News, exploring the best of the film festivals community.
Launched in 1995, relentlessly connecting films to festivals, documenting and promoting festivals worldwide.
Working on an upgrade soon.
For collaboration, editorial contributions, or publicity, please send us an email here.
|
Trumbo, Review: Oh my God! A Communist wrote Roman Holiday! z1j6n
Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) is a successful American screen-writer in the Hollywood of the 30s and 40s. However, his outspoken for labour unions, and his hip of the Communist Party of the USA, draws the contempt of staunchly anti-Soviet entertainment industry figures, such as columnist Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) and actor John ‘Duke’ Wayne (David James Elliott). J. Parnell Thomas (James DuMont) heads the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Trumbo is one o...
MIFF 2016: Winners’ list 2p3r5f
MIFF 2016: Winners’ list Manipuri documentary film Phum Shang (Floating Life) won the Golden Conch Award for the Best Documentary Film (up to 60 minutes) at the 14th Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) for Documentary, Animation and Short Films, which ended on 03 February 2016. Swiss film My Name is Salt, and Indian entry Placebo shared the Gold Conch award for the Best Feature length Documentary Film. In the picture are, l to r, Mukesh Sharma (Director,...
MIFF 2016: Q & A, with the International Jury In the last press conference of Mumbai International Film festival (MIFF), three of the five of the international competition jury came up to the Media Centre on Tuesday, 02 February, met of the press, and answered various questions related to their experience at MIFF. Jesper Anderson from Denmark is a journalist and film curator, Don Askarian a German film-maker of Armenian origin whose award-winning films are being screened a...
MIFF 2016: National Jury speaks its mind 5p4i16
MIFF 2016: National Jury speaks its mind Films in the competition section at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) are divided into three main categories, national, international and Public Service Advertising (PSA). A five-member jury viewed the 27 films in the national category, and, after completing their task, met the press at the Media Centre, on 02 February, Tuesday. Two of them--internationally acclaimed wildlife film-maker Mike Pandey and Taiwan-based festival programmer and ...
MIFF 2016: Festival Director and Jackie Shroff meet the press 1v3oi
Midway through Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF), the Director and the Brand Ambassador met the press on Monday, 01 February, at the Media Centre, in the Films Division Complex. It was the customary mid-fest conference, but with the addition of a new feature, the brand ambassador. “I am delighted to see that large numbers of viewers are sitting in our halls and watching documentary, short and animation films from around the world,” began Mukesh Sharma. (He was being...
MIFF 2016: Indian women pack a punch 592n1i
MIFF 2016: Indian women pack a punch Ameesha Joshi, born in Canada to immigrant Indian parents, and Anna Sarkissian, of Egyptian/Armenian-Irish parentage, could not have imagined that their documentary on Mary Kom, Sarita Devi and Chhoto Loura, famed women boxers of India, would take 10 years to complete. But, like resolute boxers, they never let circumstances knock them out, and, to their delight, their ambitious 87-minute film, With This Ring (not be confused with the 2015 American TV film ...
MIFF 2016: Harshal Wadkar: Cyclic emotions 476xg
MIFF 2016: Harshal Wadkar: Cyclic emotions Pune-based amateur film-maker Harshal Wadkar, whose film 30-minute short fiction film Cycle was screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) in the national competition section, met the press at the Media Centre, Films Division, on the 31st of January, and followed it with a Q and A session. To begin with, some clips of his film were shown, to set the tone, after which he made his opening remarks. Wadkar said he and a group of his fri...
MIFF 2016: FD’s North-East outreach 485m2h
MIFF 2016: FD’s North-East outreach Films Division (FD) has initiated an outreach programme to inculcate the fine art of film-making in the far-flung areas of India’s North-East. Six young, first-time film-makers were taught the intricacies of the craft at a prolonged mentoring effort. It was literally ‘a dream come true’ for Pi Lallianpuii (Deputy Director, Information and Public Relations, Mizoram), Aldrin Losanghina (Mizoram), Anungla (Nagaland), Tiakumzuk Ao (Nagal...
MIFF 2016: Mike Pandey: “We need many more documentary makers” u5l1w
MIFF 2016: Mike Pandey: “We need many more documentary makers” In 1994, Mike Pandey won the Wildscreen Panda Award, better known as the Green Oscar, for his film on the capture of wild elephants, The Last Migration: Wild Elephant Capture in Surguja. Till he made the film, nobody believed they existed off the Indian coast! He won the award twice again, in 2000 for Shores of Silence: Whale Sharks in India, and another Panda came for Vanishing Giants (2004), making it a total o...
MIFF 2016: Daredevil Naresh Bedi and his stunning documentaries 6k5p27
MIFF 2016: Daredevil Naresh Bedi and his stunning documentaries World-renowned wildlife filmmaker Naresh Bedi was honoured with the V. Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award at the opening ceremony of the Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Animation and Short Films, MIFF 2016 on Thursday, 29 January. The next day, Bedi shared his wildlife film making experiences with media persons at the MIFF Media Centre. Love of n...
MIFF 2016: Master Class by Festival Director Mukesh Sharma 3t5r1d
MIFF 2016: Master Class by Festival Director Mukesh Sharma Varied experience and a long, eventful career, make Mukesh Sharma just the person to speak on ‘How not to make films’. And he speaks so fast that he can compress so much in an hour-and-a-half! On 30 January 2016, a packed and refurbished RRIII theatre, on the 10th floor, of the Phase I building, at the Films Division headquarters in Mumbai, heard him talk about his acclaimed film children’s feature film Anokha Aspata...
MIFF 2016: Open Forum V: Embedding documentaries in film studies 4w283n
MIFF 2016: Open Forum V: Embedding documentaries in film studies Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF)’s fifth and last Open Forum was held on 02 February. It was organised by the Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA) every day, for five days, in the step-garden of the Films Division (FD) Complex. For this adieu session, topic chosen was ‘Building awareness of documentary and non-feature films in the younger generation: Is the documentary genre getting suffici...
MIFF 2016: Open Forum IV—Pointing inwards, pointing outwards 3e4s1c
MIFF 2016: Open Forum IV—Pointing inwards, pointing outwards Mathieu Roy, Canadian film-maker and member of the jury at MIFF, a former personal assistant to Martin Scorsese whose films include Ecclestone’s Formula (1) and Surviving Progress, and the feature; Ziba Bhagwagar, ad film maker and former journalist, who has moved on to make all kinds of non-feature films with partner Roohi Dixit, known for her films Freaky Chakra, Spaces between and Scattered Windows, Connected Doors; K...
MIFF: Open Forum III--Real documentaries, and faking it! z1c5r
MIFF: Open Forum III--Real documentaries, and faking it! On the 31st of January, four ionate speakers and one discussed another complex issue at the Mumbai International Film Festival’s Open Forum. Bina Paul, film editor and former Artistic Director of the International Film Festival of Kerala, had Miriam Chandy Menacherry and Audrius Stonys seated to her right, and Mamta Murthy and Sophy Sivaraman to her left. Facing the was an audience composed of Indian Documentar...
MIFF 2016: Open Forum II--The travails of docu-makers i1m6d
MIFF 2016: Open Forum II--The travails of docu-makers ‘The challenge of filming documentaries in public places—legitimate documentary film-makers need to be distinguished from the feature film industry, press and media, and the ing tourist. What can be done to better establish documentaries as a separate genre of film and liberate its spirit from unnecessary obstruction; what incentives need to be provided for its growth?’ The second day’s Open Forum at the Mum...
MIFF 2016: Open Forum, I--Balancing Act 1z96v
MIFF 2016: Open Forum, I--Balancing Act Open Forum, a platform for discussing and debating ideas related to several aspects of documentary, short and animation films, is a permanent feature of Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF). It is organised by the Indian Documentary Producers’ Association (IDPA). The first of these forums was held on 29th January 2016, in the open space outside J.B. Hall, Films Division Complex, the main venue of the festival. ‘Ethical and moral dilemmas...
Naresh Bedi and his wildlife world 6n4f6u
Love of nature and wild-life was inculcated in Naresh Bedi by his father, Dr. Ramesh Bedi, an international expert in plant medicine and a consultant to the government of India. Born and raised Haridwar, close to forests and animal habitats, Naresh Bedi recalled the days when his father carried him on his shoulders into the forests. He also ed the day when he, all of eight years old, was returning from a trek, and suddenly spotted an elephant waking up from slumber. Terrified, he had ...
Astérix and Obélix-The Mansions of the Gods, Review: Caesar’s seizure 454n3e
Astérix and Obélix-The Mansions of the Gods, Review: Caesar’s seizure Adventures of French cartoon characters Asterix and Obelix, created by René Goscinny (stories) and Albert Uderzo (illustrations), were originally serialised in the magazine Pilote, in 1971, and translated into English in 1973. They have been made into films too. This is the first Asterix film animated in 3D, and was released in on November 26, 2014, with DVD, VOD and Blu-ray versions ...
Room, Review: Psychopathos 2s116h
24-year-old Joy (Brie Larson) and her five-year-old son Jack (Jacob Tremblay) live in a squalid shed they call “Room”. They share a bed, toilet, bathtub, a rickety old television, and a rudimentary kitchen; the only window is a skylight. They are captives of a man they call ‘Old Nick’ (also an old Christian nickname for the Devil), Jack's father (Sean Bridgers), who abducted Joy seven years ago, and routinely rapes her, while Jack appears to be sleeping in the wardr...
MIFF starts tomorrow in Mumbai, screenings in 9 other cities too 5x6x
MIFF starts tomorrow in Mumbai, screenings in 9 other cities too The 14th edition of Mumbai International Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films, popularly known as MIFF, will be held between January 28 and February 03, 2016. MIFF, which began as BIFF (Bombay International Film Festival), became MIFF when the city had a change of name. The biennial festival, restricted to Documentary, Short and Animation Films, with some rare or restored features thrown in, is organised by the F...
Bimal Roy Film Festival: Dharmendra, Helen, Ameen Sayani honoured q5z2t
Bimal Roy Film Festival: Dharmendra, Helen, Ameen Sayani honoured Cinemas in Mumbai usually play the country’s national anthem, ‘Jana gana mana’, written by Rabindranath Tagore, before the feature film, a practice mandated by the government. Two weeks ago, at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (BVB) in south Mumbai, which is not a regular cinema hall, the song was played as part of the Bengali film that had incorporated it in its credit titles. Udayer Pathe (on the way to enlightenm...
Joy, Review: Mop to the Top 3a3s58
Joy, Review: Mop to the Top Is it possible to watch a film based on a true story and feel that some of the scenes are unreal, artificial or contrived? It is. Probably more so, when the writer/director takes liberties galore with the original story and tries to universalise it, adding smart anecdotes and witticisms where honest narrative might have worked better. Joy is one such example. It’s a genre-defying tale, and that’s welcome. Half-baked plot points and half-hearted characte...
The 5th Wave, Review: Earthnic cleansing b591a
The 5th Wave, Review: Earthnic cleansing Aliens want the earth, without the baggage of humans. Obviously, 6.5 bn humans are not going to commit mass suicide, to oblige the extra-terrestrials, so the aliens decide to exterminate them. But, for reasons unclear, they are unable to do so in one attempts; several ‘waves’ are launched, some of them literal and tidal, to carry out operation decimation. Nothing new, except plot structure. And the not entirely credible premise that childre...
The 33, Review: Deep, Down, Dark, and Die-hard 1f4a20
The 33, Review: Deep, Down, Dark, and Die-hard A Chilean-Colombian co-production, The 33 (Los 33 in Spanish) has a Mexican director, Puerto Rican and the son of Guatemalan immigrants as two of the writers, American, British, Irish, French, Brazilian and Filipino in the cast, and even more nationalities in the production. This is what we can call an international ensemble film, in the real sense of the world. It is an almost true reproduction of a mining disaster that trapped 33 miner...
The Hateful Eight, Review: Bounty-hunters v/s cowboy gangs 3l2m3x
The Hateful Eight, Review: Bounty-hunters v/s cowboy gangs Some things are characteristic Tarantino: Crime, betrayal and revenge; several guns going off at regular intervals; chapter-wise narrative; a central black character, repeatedly referred to as ‘nigger’; flash-backs or intertwined narrative; a large ensemble cast, with good footage to each actor; direct or indirect reference to the Bible or Jesus Christ. The Hateful Eight has all these elements, and even more QT traits. And...
|
About Siraj Syed 2623p
 Syed Siraj
(Siraj Associates)
Siraj Syed is a film-critic since 1970 and a Former President of the Freelance Film Journalists' Combine of India. i601g
He is the India Correspondent of FilmFestivals.com and a member of FIPRESCI, the international Federation of Film Critics, Munich, x224u
Siraj Syed has contributed over 1,015 articles on cinema, international film festivals, conventions, exhibitions, etc., most recently, at IFFI (Goa), MIFF (Mumbai), MFF/MAMI (Mumbai) and CommunicAsia (Singapore). He often edits film festival daily bulletins. 6u5xn
He is also an actor and a dubbing artiste. Further, he has been teaching media, acting and dubbing at over 30 institutes in India and Singapore, since 1984. c205a
Bandra West, Mumbai
Send me a message
|
