2023 Jio MAMI festival reveals line-up, over 250 films in 70 languages

Festival director Anupama Chopra along with board members Siddharth Roy Kapur, Zoya Akhtar, Vikramaditya Motwane, Rohan Sippy, Rana Daggubati, Farhan Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar and Ajay Bijli announced the line-up of features, shorts and documentaries

The Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival is returning with a physical edition after a gap of four years. The official line-up of the festival was announced at a press conference in Mumbai on Monday.

The latest edition of MAMI is screening over 250 film in over 70 languages with a focus on ‘contemporary films and new cinematic voices from South Asia’. Festival director Anupama Chopra along with board members Farhan Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar, Rana Daggubati, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Vikramaditya Motwane, Rohan Sippy, and Ajay Bijli announced the line-up of features, shorts and documentaries. With its current iteration, the festival aims to become a hub for South Asian cinema and talent.

The main competition at the festival this year, the South Asia Competition, will comprise 14 films from across India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal as well as diaspora filmmakers from the UK and Germany. 

Some of the highlights in the section include Agra by Kanu Behl (India), Barir Naam Shahana (A House Named Shahana) by Leesa Gazi (Bangladesh), Guras by Saurav Rai (Nepal, India), The Red Suitcase by Fidel Devkota (Nepal, Sri Lanka), Mithya by Sumanth Bhat (India) and others. There are also 46 films (22 features, 24 non-features) screening under the non-competitive Focus South Asia. All India Rank by Varun Grover and Pushtaini by Vinod Rawat are some India highlights in this section.

Additionally, the festival has a robust line-up of films in its World Cinema selection, including the India premieres of Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or-winning Anatomy of a Fall, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s newest Japanese-language feature Monster, Pedro Almodóvar’s comic western Strange Way of Life, Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves, Ken Loach’s The Old Oak and others.

Also Read: Justine Triet wins Palme d’Or at Cannes for ‘Anatomy of a Fall’

Anurag Kashyap’s Kennedy, Tahira Kashyap Khurrana’s Sharmajee Ki Beti, Devashish Makhija’s Joram and other anticipated Indian titles are having out-of-competition gala premieres at the festival.

Anand Patwardhan’s new documentary, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, and Vikramaditya Motwane’s three-part docu-series, Indi(r) a’s Emergency, are part of the Icons South Asia section, along with Paradise by Prasanna Vithanage, Something Like an Autobiography by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki.

There are also curated films in the After Dark, Marathi Talkies, Restored Classics and Retrospective sections. The festival has two competitive short film sidebars this year, namely Dimensions Mumbai and Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films.

The 2023 Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival will be held at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in BKC, Mumbai. There will be screenings at other venues and multiplexes across the city. The festival is scheduled to take place from October 27 to November 5.

The opening and closing films of the fest are yet to be announced.

Deepti DCunha, Artistic Director, Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, said in a statement, “We are very proud that we have managed to achieve such a diverse curation in our South Asia section within the first year of us expanding our vision to be a festival that is focused on building an ecosystem for new cinematic voices from South Asia and the South Asian Diaspora. This commitment extends beyond film screenings, aiming to facilitate the exchange of ideas, collaborations, and business opportunities while bringing the best of world cinema to Mumbai.”

See the full line-up here.