Films from 34 countries to be screened at MIFF 2014

New Delhi: The 13th edition of the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) for documentary, short and animation films will screen movies from 34 countries around the world in both competition and non-competition section.

The bi-annual fest organised by Films Division, Government of India, will be held from February 3-9 at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai. "There are two section in the competitive category- national and international. We have got an encouraging response this year. We have received 600 entries in the national section and 205 for the international section," Virendra Singh Kundu, Director General, Films Division and Director, MIFF, said. Kundu also revealed that the selection process for the upcoming edition was modified. "It was a two-tier selection process for the entries in the national section. First films were selected from five regions in the country and then the final selection was done in Mumbai," Kundu added. Besides best director, this year new awards have been introduced including technical honours for best producer, cinematographer, editor, sound recordist and animator. New categories like most popular film named after acclaimed filmmaker Pramod Pati and most popular film of the festival have also been instituted, taking the total number of awards to 32. "We have decided that the best film award will be shared by the director and the producer so as to give an impetus to budding producers to make more docu films," Kundu said. A veteran documentary filmmaker will be honoured with V Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award. MIFF will give away cash awards worth Rs 60 lakhs besides the golden conches, trophies and certificates to the winners in different categories. MIFF 2014 will have a number of special events. It will organise an internationally acclaimed pitching forum `Good Pitch Squared` partnered by BRITDOCS and Sundance Institute Documentary Programme. It will also partner with Cinekids from Amsterdam and Lennep Media to hold a Dutch Children`s film festival-cum-students film workshop, as run up events to MIFF. The festival directorate has decided to hold parallel screening of MIFF 2014 competition films in cities like New Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Guwahati and Nagpur. Appreciating MIFF`s endeavour to help filmmakers, documentary director Pankaj Butalia, who is the member of selection committee of the festival, said, "MIFF is better than all other films festivals because it does not require films to go through censorship. It gives creative freedom to filmmakers and this is the USP of MIFF." The festival, which was first held in the year 1990, this year will pay tribute to acclaimed Canadian docu-filmmaker Peter Wintonick, who passed away recently, by screening his select works.