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SCO Film Festival to be held in Mumbai from Jan 27, marking India’s Presidency

With an aim to build cinematic partnerships and act as a bridge between the cultures of various countries, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is organizing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Film Festival from the 27th – 31st of January, 2023, in Mumbai, through the National Film Development Corporation.

 The opening of the Film Festival will be held on 27th January at the National centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai and the closing ceremony will be held on 31st January at Nehru Centre in Worli where awards will be announced.

 Briefing the media on the festival, Additional Secretary, Neerja Sekhar informed that total 57 films will be showcased at the SCO Film Festival from SCO countries. In the competition section, 14 feature films are competing and will be screened and the Non-Competition section will showcase 43 films.

 Addressing a press conference on the Film Festival in Mumbai on 24th January, the Festival Director, SCO Films Festival Prithul Kumar informed, “This film festival has been organized to mark India’s Presidency at SCO, which is multilateral organization of eight countries”. It is an offshoot of the long-standing popularity of Indian films in the SCO member countries, he said.

 The festival will open with a world premiere of the Tamil film ‘Appatha’, which is directed by Padma Shri and National award-winning filmmaker Priyadarshan. The film features National award-winning actor Urvashi in the lead role and will be benchmarked as her 700th film and 51 years in the Indian film industry. The Competition section is for the SCO Member States only and comprises various prestigious awards like Best Feature Film, Best Actor (Male), Best Actor (Female), Best Director (Feature Film), and Special Jury Award.

The Non-competition section is for all SCO countries, which includes- Member States and also Observer States, and Dialogue Partners States in the following categories-

 – SCO Country Focus films

– Director Focus films

– Children Focus films

– Short films not exceeding 20 mins in duration

– Indian Restored Classic – 5 films are being showcased

 Indian Films at SCO Film Festival

 The most acclaimed Marathi Film Godavari directed by Nikhil Mahajan and India’s official entry to the Oscars in the Best Foreign Language category, Chhello Show, a Gujarati film also known as Last Film Show will be screened in the competition section.

 Shoojit Sircar’s Sardar Udham, SS Rajamouli’s period film RRR (country focus), Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi (Director Focus), Mridul Toolsidas’s Toolsidas Junior (Children Focus) and Chetan Bhakuni’s short-film Jugalbandi are among the others that will be showcased.

 Eminent directors and actors from the SCO countries, as well as well-known figures from the Indian cinema industry, will attend the festival’s “Masterclasses” and “In Conversation” sessions. There will be sessions with industry experts tracing the history of animation and also presenting the endless possibilities of ‘creating the shot’ with the help of animation & visual effects. With the use of evolving technologies, certain workshops are also being held on the shifting landscape of cinema distributions & in-theater language translations.

India is chairing the SCO Council of Heads of State for a year from September 2022. India joined SCO in 2017 and this is the first time India has assumed chairmanship. The festival will open with a world premiere of an Indian film as the SCO Film Festival is being organized during the Presidency of India at the SCO. The rotational presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was handed over to India in Samarkand, Uzbekistan in the month of September 2022. The SCO Summit of Heads of State will be held in September 2023.

 

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