The 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival:
Director Ava DuVernay to Head the International Competition Jury
Mumbai, October 5, 2015 — Ava DuVernay will head the International Competition jury at the upcoming 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival to be held in Mumbai from October 29th to November 5th, 2015.
Ava DuVernay is the filmmaker behind SELMA, which chronicles Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s leadership in the historic 1965 voting rights campaign. The critically acclaimed American director, screenwriter, film marketer, and film distributor was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, for the film.
DuVernay previously wrote, produced and directed the dramatic feature, MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, which earned her the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Best Director Award.
Jio MAMI Festival Director, Anupama Chopra said, “Ava DuVernay is one of the most exciting talents working in cinema today. I watched Selma at a theatre in LA. At the end, the audience broke into applause. I still remember the goose-bumps and tears. Ava’s presence will inspire our filmmakers and energise our festival.”
Ava DuVernay said, “I’m thrilled to have been invited to head the international jury for MAMI and look forward to celebrating the work of a diverse array of filmmakers with energetic, engaged audiences in the dynamic city of Mumbai.”
In 2010, DuVernay wrote, financed, produced and directed her first narrative feature, I WILL FOLLOW. The family drama was hailed by critic Roger Ebert as “one of the best films I’ve seen about coming to terms with the death of loved one.”
DuVernay made her directorial debut with the critically-acclaimed 2008 hip hop documentary, THIS IS THE LIFE. She has since directed several network documentaries, including VENUS Vs. for ESPN. In 2013, she directed an episode of ABC’s top-rated SCANDAL, as well as acclaimed fashion and beauty films for Fashion Fair and Prada.
Prior to filmmaking, DuVernay worked as a marketer and publicist for 14 years. Her award-winning firm provided strategy and execution for more than 120 films and television campaigns for acclaimed directors such as Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, Michael Mann and Bill Condon.
A graduate of UCLA, DuVernay is the founder of ARRAY, a community-based distribution collective dedicated to the amplification of films by people of color and women filmmakers. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as well as the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. She sits on the board of both Film Independent and the Sundance Institute. DuVernay is based in Los Angeles.
The 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival will be held in Mumbai from October 29thto November 5th 2015. The film screenings will take place at PVR Versova, PVR Citi Mall, Andheri, PVR LP, Phoenix Mills and Regal – Colaba. To register for the festival, viewers can register online at http://in.bookmyshow.com/mami/ or at registration counters at the festival venues listed above.
Along with Chairperson, Kiran Rao and Festival Director, Anupama Chopra, the members of the new Board of Trustees of MAMI are Filmmakers 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 Ltd, Mr. Siddharth Roy Kapur, MD, Disney and Mr. Manish Mundra, Founder and CEO, Drishyam Films. These eminent personalities, outstanding achievers in their respective fields, are bringing together their expertise and experience to give Mumbai and India a bigger, better and even more exciting 17th edition of the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.
Jio MAMI VISION 2015
The Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival is an inclusive movie feast. We showcase the latest cutting-edge, independent cinema – art house fare alongside genre movies from Bollywood and Hollywood and cult international movies. We offer the best of world cinema to the people of Mumbai and we offer the best of Indian cinema to the world. The festival is run by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image popularly known as MAMI. This is a space where we revel in the sheer pleasure of cinema, the joy it gives us and how much it enhances our lives. The goal is to nurture and ignite a passion for movies. We want Jio MAMI to be shorthand for excellence in cinema.
Mumbai – the financial capital of India is also the epicentre of the Indian film industry. The city plays such a major role in production and dissemination of Indian films and television programs that it is widely known by its acronym ‘Bollywood’. In 1997, a group of film industry stalwarts headed by late Hrishikesh Mukherjee founded the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) as a not-for-profit Trust. Their main objective was to organize an annual International Film Festival which the film industry and the country could be proud of. MAMI has been organizing the festival for the last 16 years and aims to foster a climate of good cinema. MAMI engages people from all walks of life across the city and country who enjoy and love good cinema. It is Mumbai’s only film festival that is entirely created and run by film professionals and a group of members from corporate India. Appreciation of good cinema, stripped off all the limiting labels of art and commercial, can only come about through exposure to the best of films the world has to offer. The Festival is the first step in that direction.
In their Mission Statement in 1997, the MAMI Board of Trustees said, “We feel it is the need of the hour to disseminate and inculcate good cinema among Indian audiences. The only way to achieve this is to celebrate cinema by hosting an International Film Festival in Mumbai, India’s film and entertainment capital. MAMI (Mumbai Academy of Moving Image) is committed to start Mumbai’s first independent international film festival organised by practicing film makers.”
For more information on the 17th Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival scheduled to be held from 29th October- 5th November 2015, do visit our Website, Twitter handle, Facebook Page, Instagram and YouTube.
Website: www.mumbaifilmfestival.com
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