Third Eye 5th Asian Film Festival from October 12 to 19

Mumbai, Oct 6 (UNI) The Third Eye 5th Asian Film Festival, which was started in 2002 to enable a cultural exchange of films among Asian countries, will be held at four venues across Mumbai during October 12-19.

The festival, organised under the ageis of Asian Film foundation, is headed by film producer and former Sherff of Mumbai Kiran Shantaram. This year the venues will be Y B Chavan Centre, Plaza Cinema, Fun Republic and the new Metro Adlabs. Each venue will have five daily screenings for festival delegates.

This year's Asian Film Festival will be inagurated by Minister of Cultural Affairs Mr Ashok Chavan on October 12 at the Ravindra Natya Mandir, Prabhadevi. Kumar Ketkar, Editor of Loksatta and Rakyesh Om Prakash Mehra, Director of 'Rang De Basanti' will be the Guest of Honour.

This year over 90 films will be unspooled during the seven day festival in 35mm as well as digital formats. Keeping with the theme of celebrating the glorious past of Indian cinema, the festival will commemorate the 50th year of Guru Dutt's classic 'Pyaasa' by screening the film as a centrepiece and revive the memory of the golden decade of Hindi cinema.

Speaking on the occasion today, Kiran Shantaram said,''It took Asian cinema nearly 50 years to make its mark on the global map.

Initially gaining appreciation for its distinct asthetics, Asian films had started bagging top prizes at Europeon International film festivals in the 90's.'' ''Inspite of the recognition received from the West, Asian cineastes continued to remain unaware of the strengths of their cinema as most Asian films were not screened beyond the country of origin,''he said.

The highlight of the inagural ceremony will be a song and dance presentation to pay tribute to music Director late Naushad. The presentation will also attempt to recapture the magic of V Shantaram's classic ''Do Aankhen Barah Haath'' to celebrate the films 50th year. The Shantaram classic remains the only Hindi film so far to have won the coveted Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

The opening ceremony will conclude with a special screening of the Chinese film ''Electric Shadows'' directed bt Xiao Jiang. It won the Best Picture award at the Singapore 1st Film Festival in December 2005.

The other two awards this year are the Satyajit Ray Memorial award for promoting cinema as an art to recognise and honour the people who have dedicated their life to propagation of cinema as an art form. The other major award at the festival, the Asian Film Culture award will be presented this year to Iranian director Majid Majidi on the closing night of the festival on October 19. The award is given each year to filmmakers who have enriched Asian cinema.

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