Mumbai Women's International Film Festival (MWIFF) is an annual

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

featuring films made by women directors and women technicians, and is one of the significant film festivals in Asia. It is organised by Oculus Creations (A division of Dolphins Interactive Sciences Pvt.Ltd) which is run by a group of young media professionals and

entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

, it also organised the Mumbai International Short Film Festival (MISFF) 2012.

History

The first edition of MWIFF was held in

from 8 to 14 October 2013. In its first edition the festival received around 450 films from which around 250 films were screened at different theatres in Mumbai. The festival had 7 categories namely Short Films,

Documentary Films A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

, PSA (Public Service Announcement),

Feature Films A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

, World Cinebuster, World Panorama and

World Premiere A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition. A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its firs ...

to exhibit the works of the creative minds and give them a platform. The festival had launched the first ‘Fatma Begum’ Award in the name of the first women director of India. It also introduced the ‘Pink Carpet’ ceremony instead of the regular

Red Carpet A red carpet is traditionally used to mark the route taken by heads of state on ceremonial and formal occasions, and has in recent decades been extended to use by VIPs and celebrities at formal events. History The earliest known reference ...

ceremony. MWIFF 2013 had screened the films of top-notch Bollywood female directors which included ‘

English Vinglish ''English Vinglish'' is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language comedy-drama film written and directed by Gauri Shinde. The film stars Sridevi as Shashi Godbole, a small entrepreneur who makes snacks. Shashi enrolls in an English-speaking course to sto ...

’ by

Gauri Shinde Gauri Shinde (born 6 July 1974) is an Indian film director and screenwriter. Shinde made her directional debut with the highly acclaimed ''English Vinglish'' (2012), which marked the comeback of actress Sridevi. Shinde featured in the ''Financ ...

; ‘You Don’t Get Life a Second Time’ by ''

Zoya Akhtar Zoya Akhtar (born 14 October 1972) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema. After completing a diploma in filmmaking from NYU, she assisted directors such as Mira Nair, Tony Gerber and Dev Benegal, before becomin ...

''; ''

Om Shanti Om ''Om Shanti Om'' (transl. ''Peace Be With You'') is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language fantasy romance film written and directed by Farah Khan, co-written by Mayur Puri and Mushtaq Shiekh, and produced by Gauri Khan under the banner of Red Chillies ...

'' by ''

Farah Khan Farah Khan Kunder (born 9 January 1965) is an Indian film director, film producer, actress, dancer and choreographer who works predominantly in Hindi films. Khan has choreographed dance routines for more than a hundred songs in over 80 films, w ...

''; '' Dhobighat'' by

Kiran Rao Kiran Rao (born 7 November 1973) is an Indian film producer, screenwriter, and director who works in Hindi cinema. In 2016, Rao co-founded Paani Foundation, a non-profit organisation working towards the mission of fighting drought in Maharasht ...

; '' Talaash'' by

Reema Kagti Reema Kagti (real name: Reema Kakati) is an Indian film director and screenwriter, who works in Bollywood. She made her debut as a director in the critically acclaimed ''Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd.'' (2007), which was followed by the neo-noir, ...

and ''

Firaaq ''Firaaq'' (English: ''Separation'') is a 2008 Hindi political thriller film set one month after the 2002 violence in Gujarat, India and looks at the aftermath in its effects on the lives of everyday people. It claims to be based on "a thousand ...

'' by

Nandita Das Nandita Das (born 7 November 1969) is an Indian actress and director. She has acted in over 40 feature films in ten different languages. Das appeared in the films ''Fire'' (1996), ''Earth'' (1998), '' Bawandar'' (2000), '' Kannathil Muthamittal' ...

.Since its inception the festival received a lot of appreciation for its initiatives. It was considered to be the biggest women's film festival in

. The festival honoured

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

, choreographer

Saroj Khan Saroj Khan (born Nirmala Nagpal; 22 November 1948 – 3 July 2020) was an Indian dance choreographer in Hindi cinema. She was born in Bombay State (present day Maharashtra), India. She was best known for the dance form mujra and the firs ...

, singer

Shibani Kashyap Shibani Kashyap is an Indian singer who works in the Bollywood film industry. She has judged the reality singing show '' Bathroom Singer''. Kashyap achieved fame by singing the signature tune of the AIR FM channel of All India Radio and Amul I ...

, director

and Shaban Azmi. The festival had also conducted Masterclass and interactive session by industry professionals like writer Kamlesh Pandey, actor

Nawazuddin Siddiqui Nawazuddin Siddiqui (; born 19 May 1974) is an Indian actor known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is an alumnus of the National School of Drama. Siddiqui's feature film debut was alongside director Prashant Bhargava in ''Patang'' (2012). He ga ...

, writer and actor

Piyush Mishra Piyush Mishra (born as Priyakant Sharma; 13 January 1963) is an Indian actor, lyricist, playwright, musician and screenwriter. Mishra grew up in Gwalior, and graduated from National School of Drama, Delhi in 1986. Thereafter, he started his ca ...

, Director Alankrita Srivastava and director Barnali Ray Shukla on various topics of cinema. The second Mumbai Women's International Film Festival (MWIFF) was held from 6 to 13 December 2014 in

at the 67-year-old historical venue,

Liberty Cinema Liberty Cinema is an Art Deco 1200 seater single screen Movie theatre in Mumbai, India. Since the cinema was built in 1947, the year of Indian Independence, its founder ''Habib Hoosein'' decided to name it "Liberty". Liberty screens Bollywood Hin ...

Highlights

Open Air Screening, film conference, networking parties, seminars and interactive sessions on important topics of cinema are held at the festival. The festival focuses mainly on women in filmmaking. MWIFF in its first edition had a film category – ‘PSA’ completely for women that had films based on theme – ‘social cause of women’. The festival has this year introduced a Social campaign and film category – ‘City for Women’ to showcase films that depicts the bond between women and the city – ‘Mumbai’

References

* *

External links

* Festivals in Mumbai Women's film festivals Film festivals in Maharashtra Film festivals established in 2013 Film industry in Mumbai Women in India {{film-festival-stub

History

Highlights

See also

References

External links