Nawazuddin Siddiqui starrer Manto to be screened at Singapore South Asian International Film Festival

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Actor-filmmaker Nandita Das' "Manto", Afghan director Siddiq Barmak's "Osama" and Rima Das' "Village Rockstars" are among the films to be screened at this year's Singapore South Asian International Film Festival (SGSAIFF).

The second edition of the movie gala represents a diverse mix of feature films, short films and documentaries, which include films from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and Afghanistan. The Competition Section includes Feature Films in Competition and Short Films In Competition. 

Barmak is also part of the jury for the Competition Films at the festival. Filmmakers Girish Kasaravalli, producer Marc Baschet, film consultant Golda Sellam and renowned film critic and author Gautaman Bhaskaran are also on the panel.

Prasad Namjoshi's "Video Parlour", Rakesh Rawat's "Midnight Delhi", Miransha Naik's "Juze", Indrashish Acharya's "Pupa", Sumathy Sivamohan's "Sons And Father", Naresh Kumar KC's "Dying Candle", Ektara Collective's "Turup" and Prashanth Vijay's "Summer of Miracles" (Athisayangalude Venal) are the feature films in Competition section.

The festival will be hosting the world premieres of "Video Parlour", Reunion, Pravin Tarde’s Mulshi Pattern, Rakesh Rawat’s Midnight Delhi and Zaigham Imam’s Nakkash which was launched at Cannes 2018.

"Reunion" lead actors Paramabrata Chatterjee and Raima Sen will attend the opening ceremony on October 5.

The Feature Films sections include Feature Films in Competition, Feature Film Showcase and Special Screenings.

The Feature Film Showcase section includes 10 films - Aparna Sen's "Sonata", Rima Das' "Village Rockstars", Fakhrul Areefen Khan's Bangladeshi film "Bhuvan Majhi", C V Nandeeshwar's "Akkamma's Fate", Murari M Rakshit's "Reunion", Praveen Tarde's "Mulshi Pattern", Kireet Khurana's "T For Tajmahal", Sumit Mishra's "Agam", Zaigham Imam's "Nakkash" and Atanu Ghosh's National Award-winning Bengali film "Mayurakshi".

The Short Films in the Competitive Section include nine films - Mallika Subramanian's "Binodini", Muhammad Belal Imran's "Just A Cup Of Tea", Harish Mohan's "Kalki", Dulanka Devendra's "Children Of White", Umang Vyas' "Majaal Hai", Akash Mihani's "Mum, Athithya Kanagarajan's "Dreams", Vikrant Dhote's Ajay and Syahrul Musa's "Glimpse". 

The Short Film Showcase features three titles - Kabeer Khurana’s “Religion For Dummies”, Aditya Kelgaonkar’s “Sound Proof” and Prabhjit Dhamija’s “Me” (Asmad).

The Documentary Film Showcase section includes Umesh Kulkarni’s “Kumbh”, Manhoor Zaidi’s “Dust To Dust”, Upneet Kaur-Nagpal’s “Singh In The Lion City”, Aparajita Ghosh’s “Dance Of Joy”, Anirban Mitra and Tirtha Dasgupta’s “Ray Of Light” and Prasanna Ramaswamy’s “Writer Ashokmitran”.

“Glimpse” from Malaysia and “In The Lion City” from Singapore are part of special section - Films set in South Asian Diaspora.
Special Screenings section includes two films - “Osama” and OP Srivastava‘s “Life In Metaphors”, which delves into the world of master filmmaker Girish Kasaravalli

A panel ‘Rethinking Cinema Beyond Storytelling In The Netflix Age’ will be conducted in collaboration with Puttnam School of Film, LaSalle College Singapore. It will include Kasaravalli, Barmak (Osama), producers Marc Baschet, film consultant Golda Sellam and will be moderated by Amit Agarwal - Artistic Director SGSAIFF.

Two workshops will be held during the course of the festival - Acting Workshop For Adults And Children and Filmmaking Workshop For Children that focuses on making films using smartphones.

Talking about this year’s edition and lineup of the Singapore South Asian International Film Festival, Abhayanand Singh - Chairperson of SGSAIFF said, “We are extremely proud of the line up of films this year and hope that patrons appreciate content driven cinema which we bring to them. 

“Uniquely, we are launching the only Film market outside South Asia dedicated to South Asian Films and hope that filmmakers and cinephile find a platform to partner in some of the projects.”

The SGSAIFF runs October 5-14 at Carnival Cinema in Singapore.

(With IANS Inputs)