The 10th edition of NFDC Film Bazaar promises to be memorable in more ways than one. A veritable milestone in the platform’s journey, this edition has scaled new heights with an overwhelming response across the various segments of the Bazaar; a true celebration of the various aspects of cinema.

This year, we have 100 debuts in the Viewing Room, 50 films in the Producers’ Lab, 40 films in the Industry Screenings, and a special focus on Virtual Reality technology, with a special Sidebar dedicated to it as a part of the Knowledge Series. Rare language films also get a nod with 6 films in the Viewing Room this year.

The 10th Edition of Film Bazaar takes place from 20-24 November 2016 at the Marriott Resort in Goa, India, and these are the segment-wise highlights of Film Bazaar 2016 to keep an eye out for:

INDIAN CELEBRITIES AT FILM BAZAAR

Indian celebrities who will be attending NFDC Film Bazaar 2016 include the likes of Imtiaz Ali, Vishal Bharadwaj, Shoojit Sircar, Anand L Rai, Rohan Sippy, Ramesh Sippy, Prakash Jha, Anubhav Sinha, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Tannishtha Chatterjee and Sudhir Mishra, to name just a few.

INTERNATIONAL/INDIAN BUYERS AT THE BAZAAR

Renowned festival organisers attending the Bazaar this year include Paolo Bertolin, Venice International Film Festival (Italy), Charles Tesson, Semaine De La Critique (France, Cannes Film Festival, Cary Rajinder Sawhney, BFI, London Film Festival (UK), and Kim Young Woo, Busan International Film Festival (South Korea).

Buyers and distributors from around the world are going to be present, including Anjay Nagpal – Focus Features (USA), Marie-Pierre Valle – Wild Bunch (France), Jakub Duszynski – Gutek Film (Poland) and Nasreen Kabir, Huphen Films (UK).

International Producers include Sunmin PARK, Producer, Max Media (Thithi) and Remi BURAH, Producer, Arte France Cinema, France.

Film Funds include Julien EZANNO, Film Fund, Centre National Du Cinema Et De L’Image Animee – CNC, Bas VAN DER REE, Film Commission, Netherlands Film Fund – Film Commission and Monique Ruinen, Film Fund, Netherlands Film Fund.

Important Indian Studios at the Bazaar include Disney India, Saregama India Ltd, Drishyam Films, Cinestaan Film Company, Zee Studios – Excel Vision, Eros International, Phantom Films, Amazon, Hotstar, Viacom 18 (Rishtey Cineplex), Tata Sky and Yupp TV.

VIRTUAL REALITY SIDEBAR OF FILM BAZAAR KNOWLEDGE SERIES 2016

A key highlight of 10thFilm Bazaar is the Virtual Reality Sidebar, which includes 3 Knowledge Series sessions dedicated to Virtual Reality. The sessions will be conducted by independent transmedia writer/producer/director Michel Reilhac, Amsterdam-based Mirjam Vosmeer, and Avinash Changa, who specialises in Digital Concepts and Production Techniques, including Virtual Reality, 3D Animation and Augmented Reality.

With several interactive arenas, an interesting visual experiences inventory, and some very exciting sessions, expositions and demos in the pipeline, the Sidebar follows Shekhar Kapoor and Sudhir Mishra’s 2015 session exploring multiple film narratives developed with VR technology, and how VR lends itself to this unique way of storytelling.

FILM BAZAAR VIRTUAL REALITY LOUNGE POWERED BY SAMSUNG Gear VR

There will be a Film Bazaar Virtual Reality Lounge powered by Samsung GearVR where virtual reality films will be screened. It is managed by Meraki and slot bookings will soon be open on 1018MB, booking partner for Film Bazaar Virtual Reality Lounge powered by Samsung GearVR.

A.R. RAHMAN’S VANDE MATARAM ‘LIVE-IN-VR’ EXPERIENCE TO BE UNVEILED

NFDC India proudly announces the premiere of ‘A. R. Rahman Vande Mataram Live-in-VR Experience’ on Nov 21st, 2016 in Goa at the 10th edition of the Film Bazaar.

The film was shot on 4K Stereoscopic and chronicles A. R. Rahman’s tribute concert to Bharat Ratna M. S. Subbulakshmi performed at the United Nations in New York, USA, on August 15th earlier this year. With the Vande Mataram Live-in-VR Experience, he now moves into the complete 360º Immersive Experiences space.

The experience of having the opportunity of viewing the VR tribute will be further enriched as A R Rahman shares his experiences in making the VR film in the conversation with the acclaimed documentary filmmaker/author Nasreen Munni Kabir.

The session will focus on the Meeting of Technology and Art and will take place on November 23rd evening at the Knowledge Series. This experience is produced by YM Movies, Chennai, India.

KNOWLEDGE SERIES

Apart from the Virtual Reality Sidebar, Open Pitches, the other interesting sessions that are a part of Knowledge Series this year are as following:

  1. Imtiaz Ali will be conversation with the London based film author Nasreen Munni Kabir in the session ‘Makeover of the Bollywood Love Story’

  1. A Master Class with Philip Lee (producer of Cloud Atlas, The Dark Knight, The Revenant, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) on Mounting and Positioning the Epic across Cultures.

  1. Stories that are being told in Regional and Small Town India

Panelists: Nagraj Manjule, Filmmaker, (Sairat, Fandry) Bhaskar Hazarika, Filmmaker, (Kothanodi), Raam Reddy, Filmmaker, (Thithi).

  1. Women Protagonists in Indian FilmScape  – Changing Dynamics
    Panelists: Shoojit Sircar, Filmmaker, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Actor, Vani Tripathi Tikoo, Actor, Theatre Artist

  1. Expanding Scope of the Short Film

Panelists: Shlok Sharma, Filmmaker, Nishant Roy Bombarde, Filmmmaker, Sameer Mody, Founder, CEO, Pocket Films, Chintan Ruparel, Founder, Terribly Tiny Talkies.

8.  VOD as the key distribution platform for Indies

Presentation by:Orly Ravid, Founder, The Film Collaborative 
Suri Gopalan, CEO and Vista Indi

9. Unique Distribution Models – Reaching out the Indie

Panelists: Sandeep Mohan, Filmmaker, Sudevan Peringode, Filmmaker, Vivek Paul, Co-founder, CEO, Reel Monk

Tech sessions at Knowledge Series:

  • Google YouTube – Building Communities and Icons
    In Conversation with Satya Raghavan, Head of Content Operations, YouTube India

  • Facebook – Marketing the Indie Film and Building Communities. Presentation by Saurabh Doshi, Head, Media Partnerships, Facebook

INVESTOR PITCH

Film Bazaar 2016 has introduced the concept of Video Pitch for Co Production Market projects. This will enable filmmakers to offer a glimpse into the world of their projects.

INDUSTRY SCREENINGS

Around 40+ films will have a screening at the Industry Screenings including A Far Afternoon, Arunoday, Sairat, Nimmo, Mantostaan and Kaagaz Ki Kashti.

VIEWING ROOM & FILM BAZAAR RECOMMENDS

Film Bazaar 2016 has received whopping 202 films in 19 languages and 6 rare languages in the Viewing Room this year, the highest so far which includes 164-feature length films (131 fiction features and 33 documentaries) and 38 short films.

32 FBR films will pitch their trailers in the ‘Investor Pitch’ held on 22nd and 23rd November.

Some of the FBR films include two Drishyam Films, Amit V Masurkar’s Newton, and Rukh (Unknown Faces) by Atanu Mukherjee, along with Idgah starring Shabana Azmi, Rinku Kalsy’s docu-feature Wayfare to the Night and Lathe Joshi by Mangesh Joshi.

WORK-IN-PROGRESS LAB

Interestingly, 5 out of the 7 projects in WIP Lab 2016 are by debutant directors. Gitanjali Rao’s animation feature Bombay Rose is the first animation film to be selected in WIP Lab.

Other projects selected at WIP Lab include The Bioscopewala starring Danny Denzongpa (Hindi/Bengali/English/Dari), Manoj Bajypyee-starrer In The Shadows (Hindi/English) and Pratibhasam/The Tetrahedron (Malayalam) among the selected projects.

CO-PRODUCTION MARKET

The Co Production Market has introduced video pitching in Open Pitch. This will enable filmmakers to offer a glimpse into the world of their project.

18 projects have been selected to participate in the Co production Market 2016 including 2 animation projects – Soumitra Ranade’s animation film, Kabuliwala (Man From Kabul) and Ravi Shankar’s animation film in Sanskrit, Punyakoti – as well as a Persian, Manipuri, Sanskrit, Nepali, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi and English language project.

SCREENWRITERS’ LAB

The Screenwriters’ lab this year includes 2 labs –Screenwriters’ Lab (SWL) and Children’s Screenwriters Lab (CSWL) with 6 projects selected in each lab.

CHILDREN’S SCREENWRITERS’ LAB

NFDC India’s Children’s Screenwriters’ Lab 2016 has collaborated with Cinekid for Professionals in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the market of largest international film, TV festival for kids in Europe.

The 6 Selected CSWL scripts are Chuskit (Hindi, Ladaki), Malli (Tamil), A Girl and an Autorickshaw(Marathi), Little Thomas (Hindi, English), Beej (Hindi) and Krikus (Hindi).

PRODUCER’S LAB

This year, 50 participants from different countries will participate in PL, which includes 19 film students from Whistling Woods International and 1 student from Udaipur Rajasthan. A new addition is the 50% Student Discount at the Producers Lab.

FILM OFFICES  

  • Gujarat Tourism has collaborated with the 10th edition of NFDC’s Film Bazaar as a state partner to promote itself as a film-friendly destination. The state, which received the national award for ‘Most Film-Friendly State’ last year, participated in the Film Bazaar for the first time in 2012, and took up a film office in 2015 to promote Gujarat as filming destination.

  • Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari, popularly known as Film City, Mumbai, is collaborating with Film Bazaar, and showcasing ten Marathi films (Sairat, Natsamrat, Half Ticket, Double Seat, Halal, Katyar Kaljat Ghusali, Bernie, Saha Gun, Daagdi Chaawl and Koti) in the sections ‘Viewing Room’ and ‘Industry Screenings’.

  • This year, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,  Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari (Film City – Maharashtra), Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,  Jharkhand and Telangana will be setting up Film Offices at the Film Bazaar to promote film tourism in their states.

FILM FACILITATION OFFICE WORKSHOP

The FFO plans to organize a One-Day Workshop at the forthcoming Film Bazaar with Nodal Officers appointed by various State Governments and Central Government Ministries / Departments / Agencies to act as the one-point contact for easing the process of filming in their respective jurisdiction.

The Proposed One-day Workshop will aim to hold focused interactive sessions conducted by International Producers who have had an interest in filming in India or have previously shot in India and are going to be a part of Film Bazaar.

Decade Special

CULT FILMS BY DEBUTANT DIRECTORS IN FILM BAZAAR

Titles include Lunch Box by Ritesh Batra, Thithi by Raam Reddy, Court by Chaitanya Tamhane, Miss Lovely by Ashim Ahluwalia, Killa by Avinash Arun, Ship of Theseus by Anand Gandhi, Island City by Ruchika Oberoi, Nil Battey Sannata by Ashwini Tiwary Iyer, Chauranga by Bikas Mishra and Deool by Umesh Kulkarni.

LANGUAGE FILMS AT FILM BAZAAR 2016

Regional films get special attention this year, with 39 Bengali films of all segments, 4 Konkani Films in Viewing Room, 35 South Indian films (Kannada, Tulu, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam) of all segments, and 42 Marathi Films of all segments.

Rare Language Films in Film Bazaar 2016 also get a special focus with 6 titles featured this year in the Viewing Room including The Bioscopewala by Deb Medhkar (Dari), The Gold-Laden Sheep & the Sacred Mountain by Ridham Janve (Pahadi) Sonar Baran Pakhi by Bobby Sarma Baruah (Rajbanshi), Dongar Dei Paribi Naahin by Kavita Bahl, Nandan Saxena (Kui), Kho Ki Pa Lu by Anushka Meenakshi, Iswar Srikumar (Chokri) and River Song by Sange Dorjee Thangdok (Shertukpen).