Oscar winning filmmaker, Marc Baschet, will be heading the jury at the first edition of Navi Mumbai International Film Festival (NMIFF) to be held at the DY Patil Auditorium in Nerul in Mumbai, from Jan 31 to Feb 2, 2014.  The French filmmaker won the academy awards for No Man’s Land and Heaven, Before the Rain, Rain of Life are some of his other acclaimed films.

Other jury members are Imtiaz Hussain, a writer of National Award winning films like Astitva and Parinda and Rohini Hattangadi, the only Indian actress to win the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance as Kasturba Gandhi in Gandhi.

A line-up of around 40 films from across the world, which was unveiled at the curtain raiser press conference in Mumbai, will be screened at NMIFF 2014.

The films have been segregated into three categories, which are Students Short Films, Professional Short Films and Feature Films, the genre of which can vary from documentaries, animations, social awareness and music.

Suraya Gurung’s The Professor, Vishal Naik’s Gurudakshina, Nikolay Kotyash’s Lost House, Sandip Pandurang Mane’s Prism, Graham Gunner’s The Money Shot among other are to be screened in the Student Shorts category, while Abhishek Pande’s Jhumki, Mark Pressdee’s Titanic Love, Balasaheb Gore & Arun Newaskar’s P.M. Postmortem, Olga Korotko’s Dove on the Roof, Jos Man’s The Only Man, Ram Marne’s Behind Closed Door are some of the films selected for the Professional Shorts category.

Raju Parsekar’s Satnaagat, Sanjay Talreja’s Surkhaab, Demetrio Casile’s Melina, Deepka Kadam’s Wakya, Gajendra Ahire’s Touring Talkies, Kumar Raj’s Tara are the films shortlisted to be screened in the Feature Films category. You can see the entire list of shortlisted films here at http://www.nmiff.in/selected_films.php

The prize money for Best Student Short Film is Rs. 20,000 while for the Best Professional Short Film will be awarded Rs. 40,000 and the maker of the Best Feature Film will walk away with a cash prize of Rs. 1,00,000.

Navi Mumbai International Film Festival (NMIFF) has been founded with the idea to showcase the talent & creativity of filmmakers, giving global exposure to the budding filmmakers.