FTII dazzles at Goa film festival

PUNE: City-based Film and Television Institute of India has made a strong presence at the International Film Festival of India in Panaji, Goa. And it is significant, particularly when the country is celebrating the centenary of Indian Cinema, a statement issued by the institute said.
Apart from the two diploma films - Afterglow (Kaushal Oza) and Allah is Great (Andrea Iannetta) - selected for the non-feature section of Indian Panorama, IFFI has offered a special section for FTII films for the second consecutive year.The section featured five films, including Prabhat Nagari Film 1 (Aman Wadhan), Juju (Sujata Chowdhury), Green Balcony Aunty (Faisal Rahman), Tatpatchat (Vasudev Keluskar) and Tapish (Rakesh Sharma). All the films were made during this year.
Also, GRAFTII, an association of graduates of FTII, has an offer from IFFI to screen a package of FTII films, the statement said. Accordingly, this section will screen at least 55 recent films, which will include a number of films by students and which have won accolades at national and international film festivals. For example, Udedh Bun (Siddhartha Sinha), has won a Silver Bear at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival, 2008. Aadmi ki Aurat Tatha Anya Kahaniyan (Amit Dutta) was honoured with special mention in the competition section of Horizon (Orizzonti Section) - 66th Venice International Film Festival held in September, 2009. Vaishnav Jan Toh... (Kaushal Oza), second year dialogue exercise, had bagged the best student film, short fiction, (Gold) award of Indian Documentary Producers' Association (IDPA) in 2009, the statement said.
Another interesting feature of this section is films by women students of FTII. Rizwan (Deepti Khurana) has won special jury mention at the 5th International Short and Documentary Film Festival of Kerala, which was held in June. Saanjh (Jasmine Kaur) won national award for best film on family welfare, Dhin Tak Dha (Shraddha Pasi), Shyam Raat Seher (Arunima Sharma), best cinematography national award and Pune International Film Festival, and Echoes of Silence (Reema Borah), national award for best music, to name a few.
Apart from films made in Hindi and English, the section also highlights some of the best films made in other Indian languages, for example, Kaatal (Marathi, Vikrant Pawar), Ekti Kaktaliyo Golpo (Bengali, Tathagat Singha) and Vadhakramam (K M Kamal). The section also includes works by some students who have made a mark as professional filmmakers in the Indian entertainment industry, the statement said.
This category includes Three of Us and Gaarud by Umesh Kulkarni, who, after passing from the institute, has made three feature films in Marathi, including one for Amitabh Bachchan's AB Corp. When This Man Dies by Arun Sukumar, who has recently directed a commercial Hindi film for Rajshri Productions, will also be screened, the statement added. The festival will go on till November 30.