With Indian films earning accolades at the recent Toronto International Film Festival, three-city tour of the Indo-European Film Festival and no dearth of cine lovers, Indian film makers are spearheading the need for adequate representation for an international audience while the country continues to inspire international film-makers, both in terms of stories and a keen ground for showcasing their films, but not without challenges.

Posted by Larry Gleeson

By Anisha Mandal

Adoor Gopalakrishnan, a veteran Indian film director, scriptwriter, producer and a revolutionary figure for Malayalam cinema, just had his film Pinneyum, literally ‘Once Again’, left the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF 2016) in awe. As someone who has headed the National Film Awards.

In India, he was asked if Indian films getting selected in film festivals outside the country sends a message in the favour of sustainable content in Indian cinema, to which he said, “Generally, festivals are US-Europe centric. Most of the Indian films being made are neither erotic nor exotic. This is a big handicap in catching the attention of the usual festival selectors. Some important films in the Indian context simply do not get selected because the selectors are hardly familiar with life and goings on in India.”

This year, TIFF showcased 12 Indian films and films centred around the country, comprising Deepa Mehta’s Anatomy of Violence, Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Pinneyum and Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Bait. The documentary section saw young filmmakers, Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya’s Cinema Travellers which spelled poetry on screen with its showcase of the gypsy-distributors of films who took the art far and wide as well as Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla’s An Insignificant Man, an important film for the democracy that is India. Ranka’s gift to the country in the form of the first virtual reality film, Right to Pray, was also showcased during the festival. Despite the slow footing that Indian filmmakers are gradually finding, it was imperative to ask Gopalakrishnan if in his opinion India is failing to make a mark in international film festivals. He echoed the sentiment of independent filmmakers in the country by stating, “There is no conscious effort on the part of the Indian nation to support and promote the production of a cinema of excellence. The so- called film industry also makes it difficult for new voices to be heard.”

André Ceuterick, Director, Festival International du Film D’Amour de mons, suggests that more face-to-face interactions are required between India and the world for prospects to be explored, owing to which he came down to conduct a Masterclass on filmmaking at Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), a reputed film institution in Kolkata. “It’s about meeting the right people, going to the right places, and wanting to show your films,” said Ceuterick, when asked about how independent filmmakers can overcome the obvious challenges of the commercial viability of the films that they make and the subjects that intrigue them to make their films.

Both Andre Ceuterick and Adoor Gopalakrishnan had very interesting takes on censorship as a factor that hinders the scope for filmmakers. Gopalakrishnan noted, “Censorship is an archaic concept suitable for dictatorships, not democracies. Unfortunately, the official view is that the viewer is immature and he/she should be protected from bad influences. While the censors look for explicit scenes of sex to cut, terrible sequences of violence get through unhurt.” Also, passing a remark on the censor boards even in film festivals, Ceuterick said, “I was once surprised in an Arab country where people in the audience were openly watching porn on their phones, but an artist’s vision of inculcating nudity as a motif was banned in form of not allowing such films being screened at the festivals there.”

It is safe to concur that the increasing exposure to international funds and finding a way to showcase films at international film festivals is indeed creating new avenues for filmmakers in the country. It is however a source of despair for all to not be able to garner adequate encouragement and support in the country itself. It, perhaps, reminds one of what Bob Dylan once famously said, “Look, when I started out, mainstream culture was Sinatra, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Sound of Music. There was no fitting into it then and of course, there’s no fitting into it now.”

(Source: http://www.mediaindia.eu)

Posted by Larry Gleeson

By Pete Hammond

When the 54th annual New York Film Festival opened  making history. Ava DuVernay’s powerful 13th which explores the history of race relations through the prism of prisons and the preponderance of young black and Latino men who make up a large part of their populations, will become the first documentary to open the Big Apple festival. It will also be the first one that will become available on television just a week later when it debuts on Netflix day-and-date with a limited theatrical release.

The choice of 13th surprised many, as major Oscar contenders normally fight to get that high-profile slot. By making this choice, NYFF has thrust the Netflix doc right into the awards-season limelight and perhaps propelled its chances to prevail in the nascent Best Documentary Feature race.   Certainly NYFF has had its footprint in past Oscar seasons by debuting the likes of eventual Best Picture nominees Hugo, Lincoln, Bridge of Spies, Her, Life of Pi and Captain Phillips, to name a few. Birdman, an eventual Best Picture winner, played New York for its official North American premiere (even though it unofficially played Telluride at the time) and skipped the more awards-centric Toronto fest, causing lots of friction at the time between TIFF and Telluride.

Coming just two weeks after what is known at the fall festival trifecta of Venice/Telluride/Toronto, NYFF carefully has used its opening, centerpiece and closing slots as bait for Oscar-hungry contenders. With the unusual choice of 13th as its opener and James Gray’s The Lost City 0f Z — a 2017 release not playing in this year’s awards sandbox — as the closer, the NY event risked losing some of the Oscar cred the other three fests have built up.

The centerpiece film from savvy indie A24, Mike Mills’ transcendent 20th Century Women is a certain contender with a brilliant performance by Annette Bening as well as wonderful turns by Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning as the influential women in the life of a young man somewhat reminiscent of Mills himself. The December release is sure to generate Oscar buzz once it premieres next week in New York.

After the official announcement of this year’s NYFF lineup, the festival sprang two more contenders on awards watchers — most significantly the October 14 world premiere of Ang Lee’s much-anticipated Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, which will be shown in a groundbreaking format of 120 frames-per-second 4K 3D. It is an ultra-real process that no mainstream studio release has been exhibited in before and will be watched just as carefully for Oscar potential as the new film from a man who already has two directing Oscars for Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi, as well as one for his 2000 Foreign Language Film winner Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. For those of us stuck on the West Coast, studios usually offer up a simultaneous screening of this type of contender in Los Angeles, but not for Billy Lynn’s. The process is so delicate, NYFF had to go to a specially equipped commercial theater in New York City instead of the fest’s normal site of Alice Tully Hall.

Another film, just recently announced, is Fox Searchlight’s Jackie, which will have its U.S. premiere at NYFF after a world premiere in Venice and North American launch in Toronto. The NYFF screening is sure to further Best Actress speculation for Natalie Portman’s uncanny Jackie Kennedy in the film from Chilean director Pablo Larrain (who has his Foreign Language Film entry Neruda playing New York). Like 20th Century Women it doesn’t open until December, so a key festival slot like this keeps it front and center in the awards conversation that now is going in earnest.

This is a very long festival, running from tonight through October 16, but the actual number of movies being shown that hope to advance through the also very long awards season is rather small compared with, say, Toronto, which had nearly 300 movies on display. Several titles from this year’s Cannes lineup — including Aquarius, Elle, Toni Erdmann, Graduation, Julieta, Neruda, Paterson, Personal Shopper, Sierranevada, Staying Vertical, The Rehearsal, The Unknown Girl and I, Daniel Blake — also show the impact that world-renowned film festival in the South of France always seems to have on this one in New York. Percentage-wise, it is a much higher number than Telluride or even Toronto poached from Cannes. Additionally, two very promising indie players will continue their fest exposure at NYFF: Sundance sensation Manchester by the Sea and A24’s terrific Moonlight, which debuted at Telluride. Both also played TIFF.

All in all, the 54th edition of NYFF promises to be, as usual, a very arty affair that could be seismic in terms of Oscar impact, if that October 14 unveiling of Sony’s big hope, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, ignites the race the way many think it could. Of course, it should be remembered that just last year another big, technically innovative Sony hope with Walk in its title tried to make a similar splash and sent some people running for the exits with vertigo. You never know.

(Source:www.deadline.com)