Mumbai, October 17, 2014:  The 8-day film extravaganza reached its 4 Day milestone, offering film lovers an uninterrupted entertainment mix of world cinema, regional films, master classes and a chance to personally interact with some industry stalwarts.

The Festival’s key venue Chandan Cinema opened with two French films back to back, Pierre Salvadori’s comedy-drama ‘In The Courtyard’ and one of the most successful films of its time ‘The Last Metro’, an award winning romantic drama starring Catherine Deneuve. The lineup showcased films from  across the globe and brought under one roof, Chadi Abdel Salam’s 1969 film considered as the most important Egyptian film ever made, ‘The Mummy’, Kim ki-Duk’s Korean thriller ‘One on One’ and Xavier Dolan’s Canadian family drama ‘Mommy’.

Cine goers at PVR Andheri were equally elated with the film fiesta. Danish film ‘Mission Rape – A Tool of War’ directed by Annette Mari Olsen and Katia Forbert Petersen left audiences spellbound and in a state of shock, as did Gabe Polsky’s much talked about feature documentary ‘Red Army’. Other films which were loved by audiences included Attila Szász’s Hungarian political thriller ‘The Ambassador To Bern’, Levent Çetin’s Turkish film ‘Civilian’ in Above The Cut category; and Lesley Manning’s British collection of captivating narratives ‘Honeycomb Lodge’ in the Film India Worldwide segment.

Proving to be the place to be for viewing the best of world cinema, the venue also showcased Ronit Elkabetz’s and Shlomi Elkabetz’s Gett’s Israeli-French drama film ‘The Trial of Viviane Amsalem’, American documentary ‘The 50 Year Argument’ directed by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi, Maxime Giroux’s unusual Canadian romantic drama ‘Felix and Meira’, a powerful Chinese-French drama ‘Blind Massage’ directed by Lou Ye, Elia Kazan’s 1954 Marlon Brando starrer ‘On the Waterfront’, Adriano Mendes’ debut Portuguese film ‘The First Summer’ and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s gripping social drama ‘Two Days, One Night’.

Recreating the magic of Day 3, PVR also delighted the film lovers who had missed out on films like the French comedy ‘Weekends in Normandy’, Bengali mystery-drama ‘Teenkahon’,  ‘Corn Island’, contemporary Iranian film ‘Snow’, 1975 Russian film ‘They Fought for Their Land’, ‘Queen Antigone’, American realist drama ‘The Good Lie’ and the two Greek dramas, ‘Playing with Fire’ and ‘Stratos’. The spree of spectacular cinema continued further with Alonso Ruizpalacios’s Mexican road movie ‘Güeros’, Sofia Norlin’s Swedish teen-centric drama ‘Broken Hill Blues’, Vivek Agnihotri’ Hindi thriller ‘Buddha In a Traffic Jam’ and Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s debut Bengali film ‘Labour Of Love’ spread across the two competitive segments, International Competition and India Gold 2014.

For those who rushed to the Versova multiplex were equally enchanted with an unlimited spell of films, entertainment and more. Films from the World Cinema category opened the day across Cinemax’s four screens – Dietrich Brüggemann’s German film ‘Stations of the Cross’, Argentinean captivating family drama ‘The Third Side of the River’ directed by Celina Murga, Takashi Miike’s Japanese supernatural horror film ‘Over Your Dead Body’ and Feo Aladag’s German film ‘Inbetween Worlds’ set during the World War I.

The day did not cease to enthrall audiences, as they witnessed an enlightening session with Anurag Kashyap in conversation with acclaimed film maker Vinod Chopra in the Film Companion Roundtable. Since the film enthusiasts were yearning for more Vidhu Chopra magic, Anurag Kashyap presented them the 1989 crime drama ‘Parinda’ under the Film Companion Director’s Choice segment. Keeping the Director’s choice in vogue came Rajkumar Hirani and presented his personal favorite, the iconic 1971 film‘Anand’ directed by the master story teller of Indian cinema, Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

Day 4 afternoon was loaded with an enormous engagement and learning opportunity for over 100 Indian screenwriters when Anjum Rajabali, the Convenor of the Mumbai Mantra CineRise Screenwriting Programme brought together an expert panel of film makers comprising Vishal Bhardwaj, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Vikramaditya Motwane, Shridhar Raghavan and Sriram Raghavan who deliberated on ‘Why is there such a dearth of good scripts in India?’ The session unveiled some valuable takeaways for aspiring screen writers.

Buffs enthusiastically juggled across screens to catch the rare feat of French films screened in the Rendez-vouz with French Cinema category including the award winning rom-com ‘Love at First Fight’ directed by Thomas Cailley, comedy drama ‘Life of Riley’ directed by Alain Resnais and Céline Sciamma’s ‘Girlhood’. Prasad Namjoshi’s offbeat Marathi film ‘Rangaa Patangaa’ and Partho Sen-Gupta’s Indian film ‘Sunrise’ participated in the India Gold 2014 whereas Zeresenay Berhane Mehari’s Ethiopian narrative feature film ‘Difret’ and Nasser Zamiri’s Iranian film ‘With Others’ represented the International Competition segment. The theatre turned into a perfect showcase of world cinema with Rolf de Heer’s award winning Australian film ‘Charlie’s Country’, novice director Bhaurao Karhade’s Marathi film ‘An Obstacle’, Indika Udugampola’s Sri Lankan feature film ‘The Night Is Still Young’, ‘Echoes’, a Rajesh Shera film made in collaboration with UK and Netherlands, and Anja Marquardt’s American film ‘She’s Lost Control’.

Music Composer’s Lab in its 2nd edition at the festival  added a new dimension to the cinematic bonanza of day 4. Held at the Whistling Woods’s The Andheri Base , a series of informative musical seminars under ‘Film Music: The Creative and the Business’ theme spanned various sides of film music. This one of its kind initiative came into being last year as UK based composer and producer Andrew T. Mackay’s brain child for the 15^th Mumbai Film Festival. Aimed at music composers, engineers, producers and directors as well as delegates and filmmakers, the Music Composers Lab presented by Bohemia Junction Limited and Abbey Road Studios in association with PRS for Music, UK and supported by BMI and FAMES Project with further support from Whistling Woods, brought out various nuances of film music.

Celebrities spotted on Day 4 included Adil Hussain, Tisca Chopra, Satish Kaushik, Richa Chadda among others. Mumbai Film Festival on its Day 4 floored Mumbai’s cine goers and gave them a reason to throng in large numbers to the three cinemas for a weekend full of films and fun.

Day 4 was drawn to a close with thanks to the main sponsors:  70 EMG, Andrew T McKay – Music Composers Lab, Asian Paints, Bajaj Group, BookmyShow, Chandan Cinema, Cinestaan & Mumbai Mantra, Embassy of France in India, Fab India, Film Companion, Ford Foundation, Fountainhead, GalaLite, GVK, HBO Premium Channels, HDFC, Hindustan Times, Institute France, J.W. Marriott, LionsGate, Mahindra n Mahindra, McAfee. Part of Intel Security, NDTV, Nitin Desai Studio, Pinkerton, Pulz, PVR, Radio One, Raheja – Infiniti, Real Image (Qube), Reliance Media Works, Rentrak, Star TV, The 120 Media Collective, UniFrance, Varuna Jani, Vinod Chopra Films and Yahoo!. The event was drawn to a close with thanks to the main supporters and special thanks to the Government of Maharashtra.

About Mumbai Film Festival: The Mumbai Film Festival is organized by Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) – a Trust comprised of Indian film industry stalwarts, was founded in 1997 by late filmmaker Shri Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Noted filmmaker Shri Shyam Benegal heads the body that consists of film directors including: Veteran film maker Ramesh Sippy, Director Sudhir Mishra, young directors Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap, Umesh Kulkarni, Kiran Rao, Vikramaditya Motwane and Farhan Akhtar, publisher Navin Berry and producer-director-lyricist Amit Khanna.

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