The Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) unveiled its new and vibrant brand identity for the 17th Mumbai Film Festival with its sponsor partners — Title Sponsor Partner, Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) and Associate Sponsor Partner, STAR India.

MAMI’s 17th Mumbai Film Festival — the gateway to world cinema and the gateway to Indian cinema for the world — will be held in Mumbai from October 29 – November 5, 2015.

“We are delighted to announce that the Mumbai Film Festival has found its patrons, Reliance Jio and Star Network who see the rightful potential of MAMI and have joined hands with us to take the festival to the next level,” said Kiran Rao, Chairperson, MAMI. “Films are a celebration of life – they add to life joy and colour; they educate us, provoke us and make us think; they make us laugh.

Films influence our own lives in many ways. Jio is Reliance’s next generation business and also a celebration of life. It is ushering in the digital age and is bringing fast internet services to all of India,” said Nita M. Ambani, Founder & Chairperson, Reliance Foundation.

Unveiling the new brand identity for the 17th Mumbai Film Festival and speaking about the importance of the Mumbai Film Festival to the city, Anupama Chopra, Festival Director, MAMI, said, “Eighteen years ago, stalwarts of Indian cinema including Hrishikesh Mukherji and Shyam Benegal, created a film festival for Mumbai. It gives me great pride and joy to carry forward the MAMI baton. It’s an enormous responsibility but we have enormous support. We hope to create an event that the city can be proud of.”

“STAR India is proud to be associated with MAMI for the 17th Mumbai Film Festival. We believe it is our responsibility to leverage the power of our network to build India as a leading destination for a world class film festival. This association reflects STAR India’s vision of ‘Inspiring a Billion Imaginations’ and we hope that our endeavour will establish MAMI as a platform for excellence in cinema,” said Star India COO Sanjay Gupta. “MAMI is India’s leading film festival and I am proud to be on its board. It’s a wonderful space to discover and nurture fresh talent, build audiences and interact with other talent from across the world,” said Deepika Padukone, Member, Board of Trustees, MAMI.

Last month, MAMI announced and issued its Call for Entries through a specially produced film that brought together four of the industry’s leading production houses. The film was produced by Equinox and Vinod Chopra Films and is supported by Dharma Productions and Phantom Films. Leading stars – Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt as well as some of the most recognised directors, Karan Johar, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Raju Hirani, along with Festival Director – Anupama Chopra and Chaitanya Tamhane, Winner of Best Film in the International Competition, MAMI 2014 were seen in the film. The Festival has already received quite a few submissions from across India and the world.

Additionally, the MAMI team has received an overwhelming show of support from members of the Indian Film fraternity who have come together to commit their time and resources to make the 17th Mumbai Film Festival a showcase of the best creative talent from India and around the world.

The recently appointed MAMI team members are bringing together their expertise and experience to give Mumbai and India a bigger, better and even more exciting 17th edition of the Mumbai Film Festival. Along with Chairperson, Kiran Rao and Festival Director, Anupama Chopra, the members of the new Board of Trustees of MAMI are Filmmakers Anurag Kashyap, Farhan Akhtar, Karan Johar, Vikramaditya Motwane, Actor Riteish Deshmukh, Actress Deepika Padukone, Mr. Anand Mahindra, Chairman & MD, Mahindra Group, Mr. Ajay Bijli, Chairman and MD, PVR Pvt. and Mr. Siddharth Roy Kapur, MD, Disney. Earlier this year in February 2015, the MAMI team invited Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director, TIFF and Natalie Lue, Vice-President, Production and Visitor Experience of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) to conduct a series of workshops. They visited Mumbai to share their experiences, learnings and insights over the years from TIFF with the MAMI team. TIFF is recognised as one of the most successful Film Festivals around the world. Traditionally, many Best Picture Oscar winners come out of the Toronto Film Festival.