MUMBAI: The Pune International Film Festival, to be held from 6 to 13 January, will open with the Russian film Silent Souls ( Ovsyanki).
While Chashme Buddoor will be screened as a tribute to the late Ravi Baswani, Bandit Queen will be presented as a tribute to Nirmal Pandey.
Dashavatharam will be screened in retrospective of Kamal Hassan.
The Government of Maharashtra has decided to present the Prabhat Best International Film award comprising $20,000 and Prabhat Best International Film Director $10,000.
The other awards to be given away at the festival are: Government of Maharashtra’s Sant Tukaram best international Marathi film (Rs 5 lakh); Akhil Bhartiya Chitrapat Maha Mandal’s award to the best Marathi film director (Rs.25,000); Akhil Bhartiya Chitrapat Maha Mandal’s award to the best Marathi film actor( Rs.25,000); and Akhil Bhartiya Chitrapat Maha Mandal’s best screenplay award of Rs.25,000.
Life Time Achievement Awards will also be presented for outstanding contribution to Indian cinema.
For the Whistling Woods International Student Competition, the awards are: Best Film ($ 2000), best director ($ 1000) and best screenplay (US $ 1000). There is a special award for student cinematographers: the ARRI Promising Indian Student Cinematographer Award, instituted by Whistling Woods International in association with ARRI.
The winning student cinematographer will be awarded free use of an ARRI highly advanced High Definition Motion Picture Camera for a period of 150 days. This award is open to students of Indian nationality or those studying in a Film Institute in India only.
The festival will honour Whistling Woods chairman and founder, Subhash Ghai with a ‘Special Achievement Award’ in recognition of his setting up a world-class film and multimedia institute in Mumbai along with his remarkable career as a writer, director and producer that made he being referred as the ‘The Showman’.
There is also an award for best animation film of $ 1000.
Japan is the country in focus in the ninth edition of the festival that was launchedin 2002.
