‘Sanjay’s Super Team’ On Oscar Shortlist
Sanjay Patel whose much awaited short feature ‘Sanjay’s Super Team’ will be played across theaters in India with Disney-Pixar’s ‘The Good Dinosaur’ releasing on 4th Dec, 2015 has bagged a place on the coveted Oscar shortlist for short films. Sanjay’s Super Team has been shortlisted with 9 other titles out of a total 60 films to advance in the voting process for the 88th Academy Awards. As tradition goes, there is always a short film attached to every PIXAR film upon its release, eagerly anticipated by fans, this is the 1st time an Indian animator’s film will be attached & played with a PIXAR film in theaters. Also this is the 1st time 2 PIXAR movies are releasing in 1 year, ‘Inside Out’ and now, ‘The Good Dinosaur’. Sanjay Patel has been with Pixar for almost 20 years. ‘The Good Dinosaur’ has also been shortlisted in the animation category.
Stockholm Film Festival Win For Leena Yadav’s ‘Parched’
Director Leena Yadav’s Ajay Devgn produced film ‘Parched’ has won the inaugural Impact Award at the prestigious Stockholm International Film Festival, also becoming the 1st Indian film to do so. What’s more, the very 1st Impact Awards introduced this year at the acclaimed film festival also boasts of the biggest cash prize for a film in the world. After a tremendous response at its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year, ‘Parched’ wowed the jury at the Stockholm Film Festival to add yet another laurel to the film starring Tannishtha Chatterjee, Radhika Apte, Surveen Chawla & Adil Hussain. The prize was announced by noted Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who presided over the Impact jury comprising renowned names – Swedish theatre director Linus Tunstrom & Iranian film director Ida Panahandeh (‘Nahid’). Interestingly the film was also screened at the Camerimage Festival in Poland, which is the only festival that celebrates Cinematography. With this another honour was added to the film as only very few Indian films have played at the Camerimage ever.
Osianama’s Rare Movie Metropolis Memorabilia On Display
Believed to be one of the few in existence, not long ago, the rare German Metropolis movie poster was auctioned for $850,000 in US. The rare Fritz Lang’ silent masterpiece Metropolis designed by German graphic artist Heinz Sehulzneudamm fetched a record of $850,000. The same design minus the German writing with the clean lines & delicate shading was purchased for $690,000 by actor Leonardo Di Caprio. The French version of the Metropolis poster designed by Boris Bilinsky standing 94 inches tall & 126 inches wide is one of the sought after and the first Metropolis poster to be displayed in India. Interestingly, in 1927, Bilinsky, a prolific cinema poster artist was commissioned by the French Distribution Company L’Allaince Cinematographique Europeenne (ACE) to design posters and publicity material for the French release of Metropolis. This major commission resulted in 4 one of its kind posters for the film. The current poster is from the said collection. According to the award-winning Bilinsky’s grandson, it is impossible to know the number of posters designed by him in his career spanning two and a half decades. The artist died at a young age of 47. Bilinsky’s grandson has now discovered over 50 posters of the artist in existence and that makes the current Metropolis poster all the more an unmisseable view. Along with the coveted Metropolis poster is the collection of Robern Wiene’s 1920 silent German film Cabinet of Dr.Caligari. The design by Hermann Warm Walter Reimann & Walter Rohrig is in a fantastic graphic style. This film also marks the real origins of Peguin who has now become a cult character with Batman!
‘Pyaasa’ Was The Opening film In The “Indian Classics” Section At The 46th International Film Festival Of India
‘Pyaasa’ a 1957 cult classic of Indian cinema opened in the “ Indian Classics” section in the 46th International Film Festival of India 2015,Goa. The “Indian Classic section” in IFFI had 8 more films that were screened in this segment in the “Open Air Screening” format. The other films screened in this division were Jait re Jait, Manthan, Bhavani Bhavai, Is Raat ki Subaah Nahi, Uttarayanam, Ek Din Achanak, Ajantrik & Do Bigha Zameen. Recently Pyaasa became the 1st Indian film restored by an Indian company for a world premiere in the competition section at the 72nd Venice Film Festival. It competed with 20 other prestigious restored films from all over the world and received a spectacular response from the audiences. Pyaasa was also screened in the “restored classics” section in the recently concluded “17th Jio MAMI Mumbai” Film Festival. Ultra also will be re – releasing the film theatrically worldwide after this festival. The “Indian Classics” section is dedicated to film makers who have had a distinctive & unique style of filmmaking and whose films had an original yet a universal theme to appeal across all demographics. All the films in this section were shown in the “Open air screening” segment in the Azad Maidan venue throughout the festival tenure.
Farah Khan Honoured
Farah Khan was conferred with ‘Faten Hamama Excellence Award’ (for excellence in Indian cinema) at the on-going 37th Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF). As a special tribute, this year’s coveted 10-day film festival honours the works of late Egyptian icons Faten Hamama, Nourel-Sheriff and Omar Sharif – all of whom passed away in the past year. It’s going to be a double whammy for Farah who’s eagerly looking forward to attend the film festival. Besides being felicitated at the CIFF, the organizers have also planned a big premiere of one of her most successful films – Om Shanti Om (OSO) to be attended by the who’s who of the Egyptian film industry. In addition to that, there will be performances of Farah’s songs to welcome her on stage. The opening night of the festival had a huge screen playing the montage of OSO.
