Mumbai: Former Australian cricket player turned actor Brett Lee during the promotion of upcoming film Unindian in Mumbai, on July 28, 2016. (Photo: IANS)
Lonavla, Aug 1 (IANS) Brett Lee starrer "UnIndian" and Pankaj Kapur's much-talked-about drama "Toba Tek Singh" are among the over 45 films to be screened at the debut edition of the Lonavla International Film Festival, to be held here next month.
The offerings at the gala will be a mix of short films by Indian and international filmmakers as well as student filmmakers.
There is also an interesting selection of feature films, which include titles like "Highway Ek Selfie Aarpar" (Marathi), Assamese filmmaker Partha Borgohain's "1962: My Country Land" (which was screened at Cannes), "Buddha In A Traffic Jam", "Rough Book" and "Rang Rasiya".
"LIFFI is bringing about nine feature films that have yet not released under its premiere category. Most of these films are incidentally by first time directors and are looking for marketing avenues," Riju Bajaj, the festival director, told IANS.
Bajaj added that a bouquet of short films and documentaries will enthrall the audience at Triose Plaza, the festival venue.
"We are thankful to Films Division for stepping up in our support as courtesy content partner by generously letting us screen five of their best films made recently, of which most of them have got international awards," he said.
The picturesque hill station of Lonavla, a little over 80 km from Mumbai, will play host to names like Govind Nihalani, Shyam Benegal, Tanishhtha Chatterjee, Ketan Mehta, Sudhir Mishra, Vivek Agnihotri, Pavan Malhotra and Rajit Kapur to name a few, for the festival.
The event's opening ceremony on September 1 will see Benegal present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Nihalani, known for his socially relevant films like "Aakrosh" and "Ardh Satya".
"The overwhelming response from the film fraternity in lapping up the festival has left us speechless. A cherry on the icing is that there will be Q&A sessions with the filmmakers and delegates," Bajaj said.
The sessions will be conducted and moderated by names like Viveck Vaswani, Dolly Thakore and Khalid Mohammed.
The complete list of films to be screened at the gala is available on its official website.
