MUMBAI: Coinciding with the Ficci Frames 2011, scheduled to be held in Mumbai from 23 to 25 March, a five-day Australian Film Festival of India (AFFI) has also been planned in the city.

The film festival is an effort by a few Australian film professionals who wish to promote Australian films and distribution networks in emerging and traditional markets of India, Middle East and South America among others.
 
Averred Ficci Entertainment‘s director Leena Jaisani, "We are delighted and welcome the collaboration with An Australian Film Initiative‘s Australian Film Festival in India. Australia and India, with Frames in particular, have shared warm and increasingly beneficial relations in the area of films and media with many Australian speakers and delegates participating in Frames since it began in 2000. With AFFI and the knowledge series, Frames hopes to further strengthen the association with Australian film and media industries and welcome many more professional delegates."

The key highlights of the festival would include a premiere of a latest Australian film, retrospective of internationally-acclaimed Australian director Bill Bennett, knowledge series and master classes by Australian film professionals and a financial grant for development of an Indo-Australian screen project.

"AFFI is a brilliant and much needed initiative and I am enormously thrilled to be a part of it. A Bill Bennett retrospective for our inaugural event is a fantastic way of introducing the essence of Australian cinema to the Indian production industry and the broader Indian audience," said AFFI co-director and veteran Australian film critic Peter Castaldi in a statement.

While the film screenings will be held on 26 and 27 March, the knowledge series has been integrated with the Ficci-Frames 2011.
THE AFFI is soon set to become an annual affair.