Thaindian News

New Delhi, Sep 22 (IANS) The 11th biennial Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) for Documentary, Short and Animation films 2010 will have three new features - students films/videos, mobile films and puppet animation films.
Organised by the information and broadcasting ministry, the gala event will be held Feb 3-9 next year at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Nariman Point, Mumbai.

“We have merged national and international contributions this time, as the quantity (of documentaries) has improved manifold. So, we thought Indian films should also be at par with the international entries,” Kuldeep Sinha, director of MIFF, told reporters here.

“We are also going to have a new section of student films in the competitive section, which will feature around 35 hours of films. We have opened the festival for mobile film screenings too this time, irrespective of film lengths on an experiment basis,” added Sinha at the Films Division Auditorium.

The fest will also see another new feature.

“We always had an animation section but this time we thought of having a deviation and screen puppet animation films… We’ll also have workshops from India and abroad on the same and we will be inviting good puppeteers from across the world,” he said.

The award money from this festival onwards in each category has been raised to a total of Rs 22.75 lakh along with Golden/Silver Conches in different categories.

Dr. V. Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award will also be given to an Indian filmmaker for his contribution to the documentary movement with a cash prize and trophy.

The last date for submission of entries for the MIFF 2010 has been extended to Sep 30 from Sep 10. There already have been close to “200 entries by now”, according to Sinha. These will be shortlisted on grounds of “totality” for the main event.

“Entries are allowed from all over the world irrespective of language… they just need to be sub-titled in English,” said Sinha.