‘Half Ticket’ is a new movie section at the festival for young adults and kids
MUMBAI, OCTOBER 23, 2015 – On Friday, 30th October, ‘Dhanak (Rainbow)’ will be premiering in India at PVR Juhu, as a part of the Jio MAMI 17th Mumbai Film Festival with Star India. The festival has a new section called ‘Half Ticket’ which is going to showcase movies specially meant for kids and young adults. Dhanak which has won accolades in the international circuit, will open the festival in this category. The movie is written, directed by Nagesh Kukunoor and produced by Manish Mundra, Nagesh Kukunoor and Elahe Hiptoola.
Dhanak is the story of siblings, aged eight and ten who traverse across Rajasthan to fulfill a promise the elder sister made to her little brother. This year, the movie was honoured at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival with The Grand Prix of the Generation KPlus. The movie premiered at the festival and also received a special mention from Kids Jury there.
When asked what he was most looking forward to at the premiere of Dhanak, writer, director and co-producer Nagesh Kukunoor said, "It's exciting that Dhanak is opening the Half ticket section at MAMI. In its international festival journey so far, Dhanak has been shown to kids from many different countries. I'm really excited to see how Dhanak will be received by Indian kids and to see if the story resonates as strongly with them as it did elsewhere.”
Making its debut this year, Half Ticket will present an exciting slate of 25 films from across the world including fiction, non-fiction and animation.For most children this will be their first exposure to world cinema. Each screening will be followed by post screening discussions in order to nurture a future audience for independent films. 12 features and 10 shorts will compete for silver gateway awards given by the children's jury. The Jury for Half Ticket will consist of 14 kids aged 9 to 15 years from across Mumbai, 7 of whom will judge feature films and 7 will judge the shortfilms.
In addition to this, on Tuesday, 3rd November, a Film writing workshop will be conducted for aspiring school going film writers aged 12 to 15 years, by Imtiaz Ali, Zoya Akhtar and Avinash Arun (director of Killa).
Half Ticket has been curated and organised by Monica Wahi, who has been at the helm of affairs for several prestigious children's film festivals such as The Golden Elephant. She has also served as the 'Creative Head' of Children’s Film Society India (CFSI) and is the 'Founder Director' of South Asian Children’s Cinema Forum.
Monica Wahi, Curator, Half Ticket said "We hope we are not only able to nurture future audiences for independent films, but also nurture independent thinkers. Children and young adults are the largest audience of the country so how they choose to the see the world, becomes critical especially today with rising inequality and intolerance.”
MAMI deserves our applause and support for creating this rare and precious platform for children. And when an established filmmaker like Nagesh Kukunoor makes a film for children, we can also hope that the Indian film industry is beginning to take this audience seriously."
Some notable films to look forward to, are:
The Boy and the World (O Menino E O Mundo) | Dir: Ale Abreu
Brazil | 2013 | 80 mins
Half Ticket (Special) | Feature Animation | Invented
Brazil | 2013 | 80 mins
Half Ticket (Special) | Feature Animation | Invented
Adama | Dir: Simon Rouby
France | 2015 | 82 mins.
Half Ticket | Feature Animation | French
France | 2015 | 82 mins.
Half Ticket | Feature Animation | French
Song of the Sea | Dir: Tomm Moore
Ireland, Luxembourg
Belgium, Denmark, France, | 2014 | 93 mins.
Ireland, Luxembourg
Belgium, Denmark, France, | 2014 | 93 mins.
Half Ticket | Feature Animation | English, Irish, Scottish Gaelic
Birds of Passage (Les oiseaux de passage) | Dir: Oliver Ringer
France, Belgium | 2015 | 84 mins.
Half Ticket | Feature Narrative | French
France, Belgium | 2015 | 84 mins.
Half Ticket | Feature Narrative | French
Celestial Camel (Nebesnyy verblyud) | Dir: Yury Feting
Russia | 2015 | 90 mins.
Half Ticket | Feature Narrative | Russian, Mongolian
Russia | 2015 | 90 mins.
Half Ticket | Feature Narrative | Russian, Mongolian
Operation Arctic (Operasjon Arktis) | Dir: Grethe Bøe-Waal Norway | 2014 | 87 mins. Half Ticket | Feature Narrative | Norwegian
Promise (Ghol) | Dir:
Mohammed Ali Talebi
Iran| 2015 | 75 mins.
Half Ticket | Feature Narrative | Persian
Half Ticket | Feature Narrative | Persian
X+Y | Dir: Morgan Matthews
UK | 2014 | 111 mins.
Half Ticket | Feature Narrative | English
Half Ticket | Feature Narrative | English
About a Mother (Pro Mamu) | Dir: Dina Velikovskaya
Russia | 2015 | 7 mins.
Half Ticket | Short Animation | No Dialogue
Half Ticket | Short Animation | No Dialogue
Giovanni and the Water Ballet (Giovanni en het waterballet) | Dir: Astrid Bussink
The Netherlands | 2014 | 17 mins.
Half Ticket | Short Narrative | Dutch
The Netherlands | 2014 | 17 mins.
Half Ticket | Short Narrative | Dutch
Malek Means Angel | Dir: Lea Hjort MathiesenTunisia, Denmark| 2014 | 28 mins.
Half Ticket | Short Narrative | Arabic
Half Ticket | Short Narrative | Arabic
The Game Turns Serious (Kali Karyamaayi) | Dir: Mili EugineIndia | 2015 | 6 mins.Half Ticket | Short Animation | Malayalam
Alienation | Dir: Laura LehmusGermany | 2014 | 6 mins.
Half Ticket | Short Animation | German
Half Ticket | Short Animation | German
The early morning shows of Half Ticket are restricted to school audiences and all 36 shows have already been booked by Mumbai schools. However there are five pubic screenings open to all adult delegates including Annecy winners 'The Boy and The World' and 'Adama' and Oscar Nominee 'Song of the Sea', Tokyo film festival awardee 'Birds of Passage' and British Independent Film Awardee 'X+Y'.
To attend the festival, viewers can register online at http://in.bookmyshow.com/
JIO MAMI VISION 2015
The Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival With Star India is an inclusive movie feast. We showcase the latest cutting-edge, independent cinema - art house fare alongside genre movies from Bollywood and Hollywood and cult international movies. We offer the best of world cinema to the people of Mumbai and we offer the best of Indian cinema to the world. The festival is run by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image popularly known as MAMI. This is a space where we revel in the sheer pleasure of cinema, the joy it gives us and how much it enhances our lives. The goal is to nurture and ignite a passion for movies. We want Jio MAMI to be shorthand for excellence in cinema.
ABOUT JIO MAMI
Mumbai - the financial capital of India is also the epicentre of the Indian film industry. The city plays such a major role in production and dissemination of Indian films and television programmes that it is widely known by its acronym 'Bollywood'. In 1997, a group of film industry stalwarts headed by late Hrishikesh Mukherjee founded the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) as a not-for-profit Trust. Their main objective was to organise an annual International Film Festival which the film industry and the country could be proud of. MAMI has been organising the festival for the last 16 years and aims to foster a climate of good cinema. MAMI engages people from all walks of life across the city and country who enjoy and love good cinema. It is Mumbai’s only film festival that is entirely created and run by film professionals and a group of members from corporate India. Appreciation of good cinema, stripped off all the limiting labels of art and commercial, can only come about through exposure to the best of films the world has to offer. The Festival is the first step in that direction.
In their Mission Statement in 1997, the MAMI Board of Trustees said, "We feel it is the need of the hour to disseminate and inculcate good cinema among Indian audiences. The only way to achieve this is to celebrate cinema by hosting an International Film Festival in Mumbai, India 's film and entertainment capital. MAMI (Mumbai Academy of Moving Image) is committed to start Mumbai's first independent international film festival organized by practicing film makers."
For more information on MAMI and the upcoming 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival scheduled to be held from 29th October- 5th November 2015, do visit our MAMI Website, Twitter handle, Facebook Page, Instagram and YouTube as follows:
#MAMI2015
Twitter:/mumbaifilmfest
Facebook: /mumbaifilmfestival
Instagram: /mumbaifilmfestival
YouTube: Mumbai Film Festival
