It’s that time of the year again when the home-grown MAMI (Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image) Film Festival will keep cinephiles on their toes for the next five days. Over 110 films in over 50 languages ​​from over 45 countries are scheduled to be screened from October 19-24.

On Friday evening, October 18, Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes earlier this year, was screened as part of the opening ceremony. on its banks, India Today Digital Spoke to MAMI Director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur about the reasons behind organizing this festival.

“They didn’t want any extra prefix to the celebration.”

According to sources, this year the festival started without a title sponsor as Jio backed out after its five-year contract. Addressing this, Dungarpur, who is also the director of the Film Heritage Foundation, mentioned how he wanted the festival to not have any additional prefixes or taglines. He also shared that they wanted to keep the festival more intimate so that people would have a chance to interact with each other and also meet all the filmmakers participating in the event.

“It’s happening at two locations this time, Juhu and Regal Cinema. We made it smaller to maintain the festival feel. We wanted people to meet and interact with the filmmakers. It should feel like a festival , and not spread out. We did this, I don’t want it to be scattered all over the city,” he shared.

In addition to registration fees, the festival has also received funding, although limited this year. However, Dungarpur is confident about the lineup, which will be a real crowd puller. “Apart from Payal’s film, we also have our closing film Anora, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year. We have the best of South Asia’s film and novel competitions and some classic films from world cinema. Girls Will produced by Richa Chadha “B” girls are also being screened. Another highlight is Shabana Azmi who was honored with the Excellence in Cinema Award given by the great Waheeda Rehman.”

Honoring Shabana Azmi

Talking more about Azmi and why he was selected for the award, the festival director said, “It is important for a festival like ours to honor an actor of his stature. If we don’t do it, who will ?Aunty has shown them continuously. Shabana will also be in conversation with Vidya Balan at the festival, which will be another highlight of the festival.”

Dungarpar also opened up about choosing Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light as her debut film. Not many know that the filmmaker has a long association with them, having started his career with the Film Heritage Foundation. “This was always in mind because it is a perfect film for the Mumbai Festival. It is an independent cinema that tells the story of the city and its women. We should celebrate our cinema, and not depend on international films for a start.” We were very clear that this would be their film, we need to celebrate homegrown talent.”

Giving more details about what goes behind organizing such a festival, the director said that as soon as the first festival is over, they will start working on the next festival. “It takes a year to make. As soon as the festival ends, the next month, the team gets to work on the next thing. It’s constant work because you want to keep thinking about what can be done next. You’re looking for something better, because MAMI needs the best,” he shared.

The joy of organizing a film festival

While the team has around 30-40 permanent staff, they employ additional staff for the festival, including PR, event management and even volunteers. “The count can go up to 100 people during the festivities,” Dungarpur said. He laughingly said that although he has many sleepless nights, at the end of the day he feels very happy when he sees people enjoying films in theatres. He shared that the team is working 24X7 to address the queries and requests from the industry, students and film lovers. However, they have maintained the fact that the process will be fair, and all registered patrons will be treated equally.

While withholding the exact number of registrations, the director shared that last year the number was more than 10K. “This time we will have better data and we are waiting for the final data. MAMI is the most popular film festival in the city as it represents the vibrancy of Mumbai and reflects regional trajectories through our selected films. We are independent cinema, and Shivendra Dungarpur said, “It can be an encouragement to young filmmakers who are struggling. “They can believe that their dreams may soon come true.”

MAMI Film Festival will be held in Mumbai from October 19-24.