The 11th Mumbai Film Festival, which opens on October 29 with American filmmaker Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant and ends on November 5 with Greek director Theo Angelopoulus’s The Dust of Time, is becoming bigger, better and certainly more glamourous. From 65 films representing 23 countries in its inaugural edition in 1997, the festival this year will feature 200 films from 56 countries. According to festival director S Narayanan, what makes the festival different and unique this year is the choice of films. "We have worked hard over the past one year to get the most recent films from around the world. The focus is on movies released in 2008 and 2009."

While the festival will screen some of the best global cinema to cinephiles, filmmakers in various competition categories are up for some really big cash prizes. The winner of the international competition of first feature film by a director will get a cash price of Rs 50 lakh and the first runner-up will get a cash price of Rs 25 lakh. Besides these, MAMI has introduced a Rs 10 lakh cash prize for the film that wins the audience choice award. All films featured in the festival, except retrospective and tributes, will be qualified to compete for this award.

"The festival has kept Rs 1 crore as the total prize money this year," said Narayanan.

The organisers of the festival have, for the first time, brought in a sponsor to the event this year. As a sponsor, Reliance Big Entertainment (RBE), a division of Reliance ADA Group, is spending close to Rs 4 crore. In fact, RBE’s chairman Amit Khanna is one of the trustees of MAMI, the organiser of the festival. "As the capital of India's film industry, we felt that Mumbai should have a festival that will be worthy of its status," said Khanna recently.

With a sponsor on board and a decent budget, the organisers have managed to get a better list of movies. "Earlier, we depended on favours from distributors and producers to lend their films. This year, with more money coming in, acquiring films was easy, said Shyam Benegal, chairman, MAMI. According to him all the sections of the festival carry some of the best films made the world over. "Whether it’s the thematic or the director’s point of view that makes every film so distinctive, our audience will be able to see and experience for themselves. And be enriched," said Benegal.

The festival is divided in five sections, featuring the best and the latest world cinema offering in the last 10 months. These include 13 feature films of first time directors from across the world, which include Rage directed by Sally Potter and Man On Wire directed by James Marsh. Reel Real will be dedicated to feature length documentary films. Above The Cut, an out of competition section, will highlight those debut features that are extraordinary but could not be included in the competition section. It will present 14 first feature films such as Should I really Do It? (Turkey) by Ismail Necmi and Rwanda, The Day God Walked Away (France) by Philippe Van Leeuw. World Cinema section will screen a spectrum of the latest and the best of cinema handpicked from festivals around the globe.

Indian Frame will showcase the best 15 Indian films made during the past year. They include Bengali films such as Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Janala and Rituparno Ghosh’s Abohomaan, Marathi films such as Umesh Kulkarni’s Vihir and Renuka Shahane’s Rita and from Malayalam Madhupal’s Thalappavu (The Crown).

The Indian face in the five-member jury is cinematographer and director Shaji N Karun, whose latest film Kutty Srank: Sailor of Hearts, a RBE-produced Malayalam film, will also be screened at the festival.

The festival will also pay tributes to outstanding cinematic achievements of Hollywood screenwriter Paul Schrader. A jury member, Schrader is known for his screenwriting in Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Last Temptation of Christ.

Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos will receive the international lifetime achievement award, while Indian film actor-producer Shashi Kapoor will be honoured with the Indian lifetime achievement award.

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