New Delhi, Aug 29: The best of Asian cinema including a focus on Korea and a special tribute to the talented Smita Patil will be the highlights of CINEFAN, the Second Cinemaya Asian Film Festival, being held in the Indian capital this year from Sept 10. Being organised by the Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) in collaboration with the Delhi Government, CINEFAN will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Shiela Dixit and will continue till September 17. The films will be screened at the India Habitat Centre, and the French Culture Centre. More than 30 feature and short films are to be screened at the festival, which will be attended by eminent filmmakers from all over Asia and India. NETPAC President and eminent film critic Aruna Vasudev, who is also the founder editor of India's only film journal devoted to Asian cinema Cinemaya, told UNI that a special section at the festival will be the Carte Blache organised by Cinematheque of Paris with five silent films with some Asian character, including the classics Broken Blossoms by D W Griffiths and The Thief of Baghdad. Artist M F Husain's feature film Gajagamini inspired by actress Madhuri Dixit is expected to be shown in a special screening. With the institutionalising of this fete, Delhi joins the select band of cities in the country which now have their own annual festivals: Calcutta, Thiruvananthapuram, and Mumbai. But unlike the fetes in the other three cities, the Delhi festival will be devoted to films from Asian countries in keeping with the objectives for which NETPAC was established ten years ago following an initiative by Vasudev. There will also be symposium on ‘Director, Actor - Who Creates the Character ?’ in memory of the late Smita Patil who leant a rare realism to her roles. The tribute to her and the symposium are being organised in collaboration with the Smita Patil Foundation being managed by Smita's sister Manya. The Asian Panorama will have twelve new films of the last two years. The silent films include Maharaja of Sindrapohre whose director is unknown and the film was found lying in the archives of the Cinematheque, which will be represented by Claudine Kauffman. Delhi already hosts the International Film Festival of India which is held every alternate year with a competitive section on Asian cinema. The festival is held as a non-competitive fete in some other film production centre in the intervening year. — UNI