Mumbai Film Festival preview

We pore over programs. We make notes. We scarf overpriced sandwiches and tea during breaks. Then we dash like crazy people to another theater across town, arriving just in time to catch another 'must-see' screening.

Yes, we're Mumbai Film Festival (MFF) junkies and this is our favorite time of year.

Now in its eleventh year, the 2009 MFF will feature 200 unedited and subtitled films from 56 countries, all screened from October 29 to November 5 at venues across the city.

Though not as well attended as the Goa and Delhi cinema showcases, the Mumbai Film Festival has its own unique vibe. This year with the backing of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Big Entertainment (a Bollywood and Hollywood film production and distribution house), it's expected to attract more local film stars and technicians than ever. The relocation to Andheri’s Fun Republic multiplex is aimed at attracting the usually MIA Bollywood lot. Screens have also been allotted at Metro BIG Cinemas in Marine Lines and BIG Cinemas R City at Ghatkopar, outside of the high-brow center of South Mumbai.

In addition to wooing Bollywood mainstays, the MFF is also reaching out to budding filmmakers. The ‘Mumbai Young Critics’ platform consists of 20 local college students who will form a separate jury to select the Mumbai Young Critics Award and the Silver Gateway of India Trophy.

By publishing these college critics in its daily bulletin, the festival hopes to encourage “responsible film criticism."

Mumbai Film Festival 2009 highlights

• "The Informant," from Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh, opens the fest

• “The Dust of Time,” from Greek master Theo Angelopoulos, closes the fest

• Lifetime achievement awards for Indian actor-producer Shashi Kapoor and Angelopoulos

• Tribute to the late filmmaker B R Chopra and a celebration of Amitabh Bachchan’s 40 years in the film industry

• A showcase of the works of screenwriter/director and MFF jury member Paul Schrader, whose credits include “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull” and “American Gigolo”

• Documentaries “Capitalism: A Love Story” by Michael Moore and “Man On Wire,” an Oscar-winning work by James Marsh

• "Kinatay,” the Cannes 2009 Best Director winner from Brillante Mendoza of the Philippines

• Tribute to New York City, “New York, I Love You,” with vignettes by Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Shekhar Kapur, Mira Nair, Brett Ratner and others

• Laxmikant Shetgaonkar’s “The Man Beyond the Bridge,” a Toronto Film Festival award winner from India

• "Road to Sangam," based on the 1997 real-life discovery of an urn containing Gandhi’s ashes in a bank vault

• ”Antichrist,” Lars von Trier’s (Denmark) controversial and graphic horror film