~ Festival opens with a gala opening ceremony and 2015 French film ‘Standing Tall’ ~

~ The opening day saw presence of personalities like R Madhavan, Ranveer Shorey, Kunal Kapoor, Dibakar Banerjee and many more ~

Mumbai, September 28, 2015: It is Mumbai’s turn to roll out a red carpet welcome to the country’s biggest travelling film extravaganza, the Jagran Film Festival in its sixth edition. On Day 1, the buzz at Fun Cinema auditorium was infectious as the film lovers from in and around Mumbai gathered to witness a star-studded opening ceremony. With a stellar film line-up from all corners of the world, the Mumbai edition is shaping up to be a grand affair not to be missed.

Emmanuelle Bercot’s film ‘Standing Tall’ drew celebrities and cinephiles alike to witness a magnanimous screening. This low-key French drama which has also been the opening film at Cannes chronicles the life of an at-risk adolescent dabbling with violence, punishment and the idea of rehabilitation. The screening turned into a star-studded evening in the presence of film luminaries such as R Madhavan, Ranveer Shorey, Kunal Kapoor, Dibakar Banerjee, among others from the entertainment industry.

On the very first day, JFF also showcased some offbeat shades of Arabic cinema with films such as an Israeli-Palestinian Joint Venture ‘Sport’ and a series of recent short films including Matan Gur’s ‘Jisr Boys’, Lily SheffyRize’s ‘Just a Man’, Tal Oved’s ‘Ziva and Amal’ and Ahmad Barghouthi’s ‘Blue Eagles’ and ‘WOUROD’.

Hindi film lovers grabbed the opportunity to walk down the cinema lane with Hiren Nag’s 1984 romantic classic ‘Abodh’, Phani Majumdar’s 1962 romantic drama ‘Aarti’, Govind Mooni’s 1982 family love triangle ‘Nadiya Ke Paar’, K Balachander’s epic love story of the 1980s ‘Ek Duje Ke Liye’ and Mahesh Bhatt’s 1991 romantic thriller ‘Sadak’, that paid a homage to the late actor Sadashiv Amrapurkar.

Film enthusiasts were seen juggling between the big screens and auditoriums to catch the cinema of their choice. In days to come, the much anticipated Mumbai edition is studded with a noteworthy collection of Jagran Shorts, Hindi classics, World premieres as well as a handpicked selection of International cinema. And since its Jagran keeping up the promise of making the 6th edition bigger in every possible way, there are master classes and workshops on Screen Writing, Reviewing Cinema and Animation along with panel discussions on Casting, Film Direction, Making Advertising Films, Editing adding to the charm.

Talking forward the theme of the year, ‘Happiness’, the Mumbai editions is set to showcase iconic films such as the Hindi cinematic delight ‘Mera Naam Joker’, much loved 1942 American classics ‘Gone With the Wind’ and ‘Casablanca’, 2006 American biographical drama ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’, 1997 Italian tragic-comedy drama ‘Life is Beautiful’ and the rare and ravishing 1965 Hindi drama ‘Guide’ among others.

Promising to present some of the finest works of cinematic geniuses, India’s only travelling film festival, ‘Jagran’, features a delectable mix of movies, master-classes and memorable experiences for avid cinema lovers based in and around Mumbai. Showcasing a good number of feature and short films this year, Jagran Film Festival in its 6th edition is slated to be an eyeful treat for one and all.

The 2015 edition of Jagran Film Festival after traversing rom Delhi to the Indian hinterlands of Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Agra, Meerut, Dehradun, Hisar, Ludhiana, Patna, Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Raipur, Indore, and Bhopal is culminating in Mumbai. In close collaboration with festival partners such as Whistling Woods International (WWI), Film Federation of India (FFI) and Motion Picture Dist Association (India) Pvt Ltd, Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA), the 2015 edition is all set to surpass its own last benchmarks of presenting over 16 cinema appreciation workshops, 400 screenings in 17 cities, that were witnessed by a direct audience of more than 50000 film aficionados and a media reach-out to nearly 50 million people in India in 2014.

 

The 6th edition of the Jagran Film Festival, Mumbai 2015 is scheduled from 28th September – 4h October, 2015 at the Fun Cinemas, Mumbai.

•  For more details and festival registration, please visit: http://www.jff.co.in/

About Jagran Film Festival:

 Jagran Film Festival (JFF) is an initiative by the Jagran Group towards  creating a culture of cinema appreciation. JFF is an honest and sincere  attempt by Jagran to spread this culture, and create a platform that connects  great content with audiences across the country. The festival screens films  across genres, documentaries and world classics apart from student films and  ad films.

A unique feature of JFF is that the cast and crew of a few select films are  invited to a discussion with the audience on various elements of the film. An  important aspect of the festival is to generate a discussion on the various  aspects of Cinema and its impact on society and popular culture. A series of  Panel Discussions will be held with deliberations by eminent personalities  from the film industry.