Film lovers across Australia have enthusiastically embraces this year’s online presentation of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne – IIFM that ends this Friday the 30th of October.
IFFM announced the Malayalam language film MOOTHON (The Elder One) as the closing night film which will be available to stream online for its registered delegates from 6pm till midnight of 30th October.
MOOTHON is directed by writer-director Geetu Mohandas and had its World Premiere at the 2019 Toronto Film Festival. The film is a complex, multi layered portrait of Mumbai told through the story of a young boy Mulla (Sanjana Dipu) who comes to Mumbai from Lakshadweep to find his missing elder brother. The other cast includes Nivin Pauly, Shashank Arora, Sobhita Dhulipala, Melissa Raju Thomas and Roshan Mathew.
IFFM Festival’s Director is Mitu Bhowmick Lange, who is also the Founder of Mind Blowing Films, and Director of Mind Blowing World, an independent film distribution company that specialises in the distribution of quality local content to Australian, New Zealand and Fiji audiences.
Mitu produced the multi award-winning documentary, Raising the Bar which was directed by renowned Indian filmmaker, Onir. The film depicts the trials, tribulations and joys of six individuals from Australia and India with Down Syndrome who meet the World Down Syndrome Conference in Chennai, India.
Bidyut Dumra is Festival’s Co Director who has an experience beginning from Television Production to full-feature films and then working on productions like ‘Salaam Namaste’, ‘Chak De India’ and ‘Bachna Aye Haseeno’.
Uma da Cunha is the IFFM Festival Curator. She began her career in 1974 with the Directorate of Film Festivals, Govt. of India. and then onwards set out on her own, organizing film festivals and related events in India and abroad, writing for leading newspapers and publications, casting for films such as Deepa Mehta’s ‘Water’, Mira Nair’s ‘Kamasutra’, Jane Campion’s ‘Holy Smoke’, Dev Benegal’s ‘English, August’ and Ashutosh Gowariker’s ‘Lagaan’. She has assisted major festivals such as those at Cannes, Berlin and Venice and more recently at Toronto and Busan.
