Fifth Asian Film Festival to start tomorrow

Mumbai, Oct 11 (UNI) 'The Third Eye' Asian Film Festival's fifth edition will begin here tomorrow, in which over 90 films from different Asian countries will be showcased.

The eight-day event will be inagurated by Cultural Affairs Minister Ashok Chavan in the Ravindra Natya Mandir at Prabhadevi in Central Mumbai.

The fest, organised by Asian Film Foundation will be held at Y B Chavan Centre, Plaza Cinema, Fun Republic and Metro Adlabs.

Foundation President Kiran Shantaram told UNI that the festival will commemorate the 50th year of Guru Dutt's classic film 'Pyaasa', whose screening will be held during the festival.

The highlight of the inaugural ceremony will be a song and dance presentation to pay tribute to noted music director late Naushad and the presentation will also attempt to recapture the magic of V Shantaram's classic 'Do Aankhen Barah Haath', the only Hindi film to win the coveted Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.

The fest will be opened with a Chinese film 'Electric Shadows', directed by Xiao Jiang, which had won the Best Picture award at the ist Singapore Film Festival in December last year.

Professor Satish Bahadur would be presented with Satyajit Ray Memorial award, for creating awareness and promoting cinema.

Asian Film Culture award will be presented this year to noted Iranian director Majid Majidi during the closing ceremony on October 19 for his contribution towards enriching the Asian cinema.

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