The year back - 2009

The Pune International Film Festival concluded this year marking the successful completion of seven years of Celebrating Cinema. Set in the cosmopolitan city of Pune, the festival saw a turnout of nearly 4000 delegates over a period of eight exciting and eventful days. The festival also played host to a large representation from the International Film Community who attended the festival either as part of the International Jury or representing their film at the Festival. Noteworthy among them were Alain Corneau(France), Roland Reber (Germany), Uberto Pasolini(Italy), Hüseyin Karabey(Turkey), Pini Eden (Israel) and Richard Pena(USA).

A vivid feast of nearly 150 International films were shown as part of the festival sections. World Competition, World Showcase, Spotlight , Indian Showcase, Retrospective and the Tribute section provide a variety of films for our audience to sample and enjoy . This year, our films ranged from Burkina Faso to Venezuela. Some films highlighted the condition of migrant workers in Italy; others celebrated women’s empowerment in Lebanon. Whatever the story, all expressed a unique cinematic vision of the world. The festival awarded the prestigious Best International film, Best International Director, Best International Actor (male and female) to a wide selection of films and artists.

In addition to this, once again, the Pune International Film Festival provided a unique platform for Marathi Film makers. An international panel of jury members judges the Marathi Competition section. It is thus a source of great pride that Gabhricha Paus by Satish Manwar, which had its World premiere at PIFF ’09 and went on to win the Best international Marathi Film award is now showing at some of the most prestigious film festivals across the world like the Rotterdam Film Festival ’09. The audience of PIFF was the first to recognize Manwar’s talent and the universal appeal of his touching film about farmer suicides.

We also screened popular Marathi Films as part of Marathi Cinema Today. The Marathi film industry has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years and this section revealed its popular resurrection.

The festival also offers budding filmmakers a chance to show their best work- PIFF’s Student Competition Award for Best Live Action and Best Animation Student Short Film. In association with Whistling Woods International, this section attracted films from International Film schools of France, Chile and Indian Film schools like Film and Television Institute, Pune, Satyajit Ray Film and TV institute, Kolkata and Whistling Woods International.

The Retrospective Section, which showcases the best work of a film director, focused among others on two luminaries- Alain Resnais, the legendary French Director and Doron Eran, the Producer/Director from Israel. The Film Festival audience was also presented with a unique selection of films of India’s most loved and admired Actor/Director Raj Kapoor.

In addition to this, the festival also paid homage to Youssef Chahine, Paul Newman, Vijay Tendulkar, H Sridhar, Jayashree Gadkar and BR Chopra, all of whom died in the year 2008. Some of their best lifework was screened for our audience in the Tribute section during the eight days.

Our partner, National Film Archive of India hosted ‘Gems of NFAI’. The focus of this section was on films that highlight Childhood thus providing a unique insight into how films across time and continents have found cinematic expression on this topic. FTII, our other partner shared some of their students’ films, both past and present. An interesting outcome of this section was that the past student work of some of our contemporary film makers were seen alongside the best films of the current students.

The Vijay Tendulkar scriptwriting workshop was also organized for the benefit of Marathi scriptwriters. This gave them an opportunity to share ideas and views with international writers and directors who were present for the Film Festival.

The Festival also felicitated three stalwarts of the Indian Film Industry. The Pune International Film Festival presented Sulochana Devi, Shashi Kapoor and Hema Malini with the Life Time achievement Award for their contribution to Indian Cinema.

The festival showed at the best screening facilities across the city. INOX, ESQUARE, CITY PRIDE and NFAI offered us a combined strength of 8 state of the art screening facilities.

The Festival got a tremendous response from the media and festival news captured the imagination of readers through national and local dailies. A daily bulletin published by the festival kept the delegates abreast with the day-to-day schedule as well as noteworthy interviews and press conferences.

After seven successful years, PIFF looks forward to the future with confidence and determination. The Pune International Film festival would like to be the leader in bringing the best films of the world to India and South Asia. We would not only like to screen films but also be the conduit for discussions, film events and workshops. We would like to provide the platform for creative exchange of ideas and forge collaboration with other entities across the world. With it’s worthy partners and innovative initiatives in place, the Pune International Film Festival can be India’s window to the world.