Lockdown Film festival – a novel concept
During this period of Lockdown, in order to keep the creative people busy, Virus Marathi a YouTube channel has organised a ‘Lockdown Digital Film festival’ . The film could be a short film or a documentary , shot at home, observing all the rules of lock down set by the Government.
This offers a good opportunity to young film makers to attempt something creative which could be noticed . The film can be shot on a mobile or a camera and should have neat presentation with proper editing.
This unique Digital Film festival will offer three prizes in short film section as well as documentary section. The first prize will be of Rs. 7,500/- Second Prize : Rs. 5,000/- and the third prize : Rs. 3,000/-.
Writer Arvind Jagtap, actress Sonali Kulkarni, director Santosh Kolhe, director Sameer Patil have been appointed as Judges for this contest. Last date for submission of entries is 10th May 2020. The bet 10 films will be shown on Virus Marathi channel. For more details: e mail : vmffest[at]gmail[dot]com
‘Partu’ and ‘Halal’ to be screened in Competition section of PIFF
We are all aware that the most prestigious Pune International Film Festival is presently going on in Pune. Earlier, we had heard about screening of Marathi films like ‘Kaul’, ‘Highway’, ‘Ranga Patanga’, ‘Natasamraat’ and ‘Ringan’ to be screened in the competitive section of Marathi films. But, now we understand that two more Marathi films, namely ‘Partu’ directed by Nitin Adsul and ‘Halaal’ directed by national award winning director Shivaji Lotan Patil is also being screened in this competition section of PIFF.
Many films from different countries are also being screened in the international film’s section, besides some special sections. In ‘Marathi Cinema Today’ section, films like ‘Ganvesh‘, ‘The Silence’, ‘Bho Bho’, ‘Anuraag’ & ‘Aakrandan’ will also be screened. The festival will go on till 21st January 2016. From this year onwards, PIFF Bazar will be a new section, to enable films to market their films.
Dr. Mohan Agashe felicitated at Third Eye Asian Film Fest
We are all aware that the 14th Third eye Asian Film Festival is in progress. On Tuesday evening the Asian Film Foundation & P.L. Deshpande Maharashtra Kala Academy jointly felicitated veteran actor Dr.Mohan Agashe , for his performance in the film ‘Astu’. It may be recalled that Dr. Agashe had recently won the Filmfare award, for his performance in the same film. Even otherwise, ‘Astu’ had won many popular awards in the recent past.
Speaking on the occasion Dr. Agashe said that those who studied the language of cinema in depth, are able to understand language of this media very well. On this occasion Mr. Dilip Bapat from Baburao Painter Film Society, Kolhapur was also conferred upon an award in memory of late Satyajit Ray. Mr. Bapat was overwhelmed with this gesture from the hosts. He announced that he was dedicating his award to his wife and close associates.
‘Ticha Umbaratha’ making rounds at Film Festivals
Many Marathi films are receiving good response at film festivals. In fact, it has become a trend to first do the rounds of numerous National and International film festivals, get recognition and then release the film commercially. While doing so, these film makers use the laurels and awards received, during the promotions of their film.
While still unreleased ‘Court‘ is busy with film festivals, one more Marathi film ‘Ticha Umbaratha’ is also doing the rounds, at film festivals. This film has been produced under the banner RDX Cinema by bollywood action director Ravi Dewan and directed by Pradeep Ghonsikar. It was honoured with Best Cinema Today award at PIFF (Pune International Film Festival) and has also won couple of awards, including the best actress award (Tejaswini Pandit) at Sangli International Film Festival. It has also bagged five nominations at one of the TV channels’ awards.
‘Ticha Umbaratha’ is about trials and tribulations of an urban middle class house-wife, who is forced to cross her limits at one point of time in life; and how she fights it without compromising on her values. The story is by Jayant Pawar and bollywood’s renowned cinematographer Yogesh Jani is behind the camera. The cast includes Chinmay Mandlekar, Tejaswini Pandit, Jyoti Chandekar, Suyash Tilak among others. As this film is busy with film festivals, the release date has still not been finalised.