The Jio MAMI 19th Mumbai Film Festival with Star announced its much-awaited line up today. Continuing  its legacy to bring the best of cinema from India and across the world, the festival will showcase over 220 films from 49 countries in 51 languages. The festival that will run from October 12 – 18 2017, across 7 prominent venues in Mumbai, will also host a number of Masterclasses and Conversations with standout film talent.

The Hungry, Anurag Kashyap’s Mukkabaaz (The Brawler) & Omerta will have their Asia Premiere at the festival. Mukkabaaz, which revolves around the struggles of a boxer from a lower-caste will open the festival at the iconic Liberty cinema.

Kashyap who is also on the Board of Trustees of MAMI was ecstatic at the announcement. “I am not only excited but elated that Mukkabaaz has been chosen to open at Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival with Star. I think MAMI is a great platform for filmmakers across the city and the country. MAMI has really transformed a lot of fortunes, especially for the regional first time Indian filmmakers. MAMI has such an incredible list of movies world over and most importantly it gives people a chance to discover these amazing films at MAMI. With so much talent and cinema that comes down to India, MAMI becomes that one place where everyone can catch up on their film binge watching of international and Indian cinema.”

Anurag Kashyap’s Mukkabaaz

Talking about the 19th edition of the festival, Jio MAMI with Star, Festival Co-chairperson, Ms. Kiran Rao said, “This year our attempt has been to go deeper, to strengthen and consolidate our programming that we have created over the last two years rather than spread ourselves horizontally. Our endeavor is to change and shape the cinema around us, in the city and to do that we have to engage more deeply in order to that we have started an year round programme which really has been a great success, we have had 24 events since the year began and all of them have been well attended. The masterclasses, workshops, in-depth conversations with filmmakers have added a great deal to peoples’ engagement with cinema through the year and also it helped the academy become not just once a year presence but a continuing sustained conversation with our audiences.”

One of the aims of the festival is to get as many voices out there from diverse cinema cultures as possible and therefore countries that have had a rare presence at MAMI like Uganda, Kyrgyzstan, Slovenia, Senegal and Iceland have films playing at the festival this year. Jio MAMI 19th Mumbai Film Festival with Star received over 850 entries for the movies. The programmers, curators, selection committee members picked a diverse slate of films.

Jio MAMI with Star, Creative Director, Smriti Kiran said, “The idea behind the academy and the festival is to create value and not just tick boxes. To fill chasms and build bridges where currently there are none. We want to revive the culture of conversation by offering the audience the opportunity to engage with an array of filmmakers while highlighting different aspects of filmmaking. This year, we have deepened the engagement and strengthened our verticals through the Year Round Programme. I’m really excited and I am convinced that it’s going to be really fun and accessible to every movie-lover and I urge each and everyone to visit the festival and immerse themselves in the movie-mania.”

The competitive categories – India Gold and International Competition boast of an array of interesting films. The India Gold category will screen the best of Indian films in languages like Konkani, Nepali, Chokri. Some of the titles in the India Gold category are Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s Sexy Durga, Rima Das’ Village Rockstars, Shlok Sharma’s Zoo among others.

The International Competition will bring 12 debut feature films from Colombia, Georgia, Spain, South Africa, Iceland, Turkey, France and the UK.The esteemed jury for the International Competition segment will be headed by Oscar winning Director John Madden and will include Cinematographer Alexis Zabe, Hong Kong-American Actress-Singer-Songwriter Celina Jade, Actress and Director Konkana Sensharma and Argentine Director and Screenwriter Santiago Mitre.

Daniel Kokotajlo’s Apostasy, Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not A Witch, Jonathan Olshefski’s Quest and Ana Asensio’s Most Beautiful Island are some of the titles to watch out for in the International Competition segment.

International Competition

This year the festival also brings films in rare languages from across the world. Some of these languages are Sami, Kikuyu, Bembe, Nyanja, Tonga, Xhosa, Samoan and Lingala.

The India Story (Out of Competition) segment will screen titles like Praveen Morchhale’s Ladakhi film Walking With The Wind, Jiju Antony’s Marathi film Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani, Vaishali Sinha’s Ask The Sexpert among others.

In World Cinema, one can experience the work of several noted filmmakers like Abbas Kiarostami’s 24 Frames), Hong Sang-soo who has three films this year –The Day After, Claire’s Camera and On The Beach At Night Alone, Aki Kaurismaki’s refugee comedy The Other Side of Hope and much more.

Commenting on Jio MAMI with Star, Festival Director, Ms. Anupama Chopra said, “It’s been an honour to be a part of this Festival. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the wonderful partners for their unparalleled support without which we wouldn’t have been able to put up such an amazing line-up all through the year. I strongly believe that good films make us into better people and I am confident that the Festival will bridge gaps between cultures and communities world over.”