Highlights of this year's Mumbai Film Festival will include the first edition of a mini-market for remakes of French films and a special award to be presented to Catherine Deneuve.
The 16th Mumbai Film Festival (MFF) organized by the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI) will open its doors in the Indian city on October 14 with a special evening event at which Catherine Deneuve will receive an Achievement Award for her contribution to the cinema arts. The festival also features a tribute to the legendary French actress, organized with support from the French Institute, with four cinema classics to be screened (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, La Vie de château, The Last Metro, The Beloved) along with two recent films (In the Name of My Daughter and In the Courtyard). Ms. Deneuve will also take part in a master class with Indian actress Konkona Sen Sharma.
France's presence at the MFF as strong as ever!
As part of its partnership with UniFrance Films over the past three years, the MFF will showcase a wide selection of French films in all festival categories. Particular focus will be placed on around ten titles presented in the French selection, which will kick off on October 16 with a screening of In the Courtyard, held in the presence of Catherine Deneuve, Pierre Salvadori, and the film's producer Philippe Martin.
International Competition
Fever by Raphaël Neal (in his presence)
Above the Cut Section
The Night Is Still Young by Indika Udugampola
Party Girl by Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger, and Samuel Theis
French Selection, in partnership with UniFrance Films and in collaboration with Renault
In the Courtyard by Pierre Salvadori (in his presence)
Love at First Fight by Thomas Cailley (in his presence)
Metamorphoses by Christophe Honoré
Girlhood by Céline Sciamma
Life of Riley by Alain Resnais
The Search, by Michel Hazanavicius
The Blue Room by Mathieu Amalric
Clouds of Sils Maria by Olivier Assayas
In the Name of My Daughter by André Téchiné
Saint Laurent by Bertrand Bonello
World Cinema
Weekends in Normandy by Anne Villacèque
Goodbye to Language by Jean-Luc Godard
United Passions by Frédéric Auburtin
Corn Island by George Ovashvili (French minority co-production)
Je ne suis pas lui by Tayfun Pirselimoglu (French minority co-production)
Gett, The Trial of Viviane Amsalem by Ronit & Shlomi Elkabetz (French majority co-production)
Jimmy's Hall by Ken Loach (French minority co-production)
Two Days, One Night by Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne (French minority co-production)
Still the Water by Naomi Kawase (50% French co-production)
The Real Reel
Iranian by Mehran Tamadon
The first "Remakes mini-market"
The Indian movie industry is the world's most productive, with around 1,000 feature films produced each year and local films accounting for over 90% of national movie admissions. Also known as a big consumer of screenplays, Indian cinema had for a long time helped itself to stories borrowed from international movies to produce remakes, without paying the necessary film adaptation copyright fees. However, such practices have now been rectified and the market for legal remakes has boomed in recent years.
In association with its efforts to boost the presence of French films on Indian movie screens—a long-term undertaking—UniFrance Films has found that French screenplays can be of considerable interest to Indian producers.
In the wake of the remake of After You by Pierre Salvadori, which became Nautanki Salaa! in India in 2013, and the recent sale of remake rights for The Intouchables and Beautiful Lies (which will start shooting in India in October), UniFrance Films is organizing for the first time, together with the Franco-Indian production company La Fabrique Films, a Remakes Mini-Market, which will be held on October 15 and 16. UniFrance Films now benefits from the services of Valérie-Anne Christen, our permanent representative in Bombay, whose work focuses on India and South-East Asia.
A selection of recent French films selected for the compatibility of their narratives with the tastes of Indian audiences will also be presented to Indian producers in the presence of the films' French producers and/or exporters. A series of individual meetings will be held following the screenings. The films selected include Serial (Bad) Weddings, which will be presented by Alexandre de la Porte (UGC), In the Courtyard (Philippe Martin, Les Films Pelléas), Not My Type (Patrick Sobelman, Agat Films & Cie), Where Do We Go Now? & Superchondriac (Pathé), and Homeland (Quad).
Finally, in what may be serendipity or a simple quirk of the calendar, at exactly the same time at the same place, the director Nicolas Saada will start shooting his second feature film, Taj Mahal, starring Louis Do de Lencquesaing, Stacy Martin, and Gina McKee, produced by Ex Nihilo.
