The Jio MAMI film festival returns to Mumbai this year from October 29 to November 5, 2015. Besides roping in Kiran Rao as chairman, Anupama Chopra as the new festival director and Neeta Ambani as co-chair of the board of trustees, the festival that has faced a few rocky seasons in the past, hopes to work towards reclaiming its spot as the most important film festival in the country. MAMI or the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image is a not-for-profit trust that was founded in 1997 by a group of film industry stalwarts headed by the acclaimed director Hrishikesh Mukherjee.And the new core team comes armed with a fresh vision, and renewed vigor to help consolidate the status of the festival in the years to come. Chopra has been noted as saying that the aim is for the Jio MAMI film festival to evolve gradually into a ‘Cannes meets Jaipur Literature Festival’ kind of event.Heading the International Competition jury at the upcoming 17th Jio MAMI Film Festival, is American director-screenwriter Ava DuVernay, who most recently co-wrote and directed the Academy Award-nominated historical drama “Selma” that chronicles Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic 1965 protest march. She said in a press note, “I’m thrilled to have been invited to head the international jury for MAMI and look forward to celebrating the work of a diverse array of filmmakers with energetic, engaged audiences in the dynamic city of Mumbai.”Another one of the many firsts this year is the fact that a Hindi film will open the festival. “Aligarh”, the latest film from National Award-winning filmmaker Hansal Mehta (“Shahid”), will open MAMI on October 30th. The film has been screened at the BFI London Film Festival as well as the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, and stars Manoj Bajpayee as a professor fired from his job for his sexual orientation. It is based on true events of 2010 when Marathi professor Dr S.R. Siras was fired from the Aligarh Muslim University for being a homosexual.An impressive lineup of films has been announced for the year, with titles such as Portugal’s “Arabian Nights: Volume 2”, Chile’s “The Club”, France’s “Mustang”, Romania’s “Aferim”, Argentina’s “Dog Lady”, Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos’s English language film “The Lobster” (starring Colin Farrell), Russia’s “Francofonia”, and the enigmatically-named British film “The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers”.Also lending his support to this year’s festival is master composer A.R. Rahman, who will be composing a signature tune for the festival, to be played in full at the opening ceremony on October 29, and also as a part of the festival’s campaign film. This film, directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, features Bollywood heavyweights such as Shyam Benegal, Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Kangana Ranaut, Nimrat Kaur and also the chairman Rao. It has these celebrities talking about their special relationship with the city of Mumbai and their passion for cinema. Says Motwane, “I’ve been watching films at the Mumbai Film Festival from the very first edition. It’s been one of my cinema teachers. I’m delighted to be assisting Jio MAMI in its new avatar by making this tribute to both Mumbai and the film fraternity.”Speaking about this campaign Film, Kiran Rao adds, “I came to Mumbai because I wanted to make movies. Mumbai has an energy that infuses you with new ideas, different way of looking at things, cheek by jowl things that you cannot avoid. It’s changed the way I look at stories, the way I look at life. It’s a natural choice that a film festival should happen in Mumbai. I think it’s a perfect fit because it’s a city that lives and breathes the movies. My hopes are that different kinds of films and film makers find a breeding ground and a place that gives them some sort of support, some kind of network, some sense that their films are appreciated, a place where it makes people feel very much a part of the film community.”The 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival will be held in Mumbai from October 29th to November 5th 2015. The film screenings will take place at PVR Versova, PVR Citi Mall, Andheri, PVR LP, Phoenix Mills and Regal – Colaba. To register for the festival, viewers can register online or at registration counters at the festival venues listed above.For more information, visit the MAMI Website, Twitter handle, Facebook Page, Instagram and YouTube.A complete schedule of the films to be screened at the festival is available here.
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