UK director Gillies MacKinnon and French-Afghan filmmaker Atiq Rahimi are among the 26 filmmakers who have had projects selected for the co-production market of this year’s Film Bazaar in Goa, India.
MacKinnon’s project Quiver is being produced by London-based Anshu Bahanda, while Rahimi’s Kabuliwala, based on a short story by Rabindranath Tagore, is being produced by Mumbai-based Sunil Doshi. Rahimi’s The Patience Stone recently won best actress for Golshifteh Farahani’s performance at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.
The Film Bazaar selection also includes projects from Indian and South Asian newcomers and well-known filmmakers such as Partho Sen Gupta, Umesh Kulkarni, Ashvin Kumar, Gurvinder Singh and Paris-based Pan Nalin. Shivajee Chandrabhushan, who drew attention for his debut Frozen, will present Untold Tale, which took part in Cinefondation Atelier at this year’s Cannes.
Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa S. Farooki, whose latest feature Television closed this year’s Busan International Film Festival, will present Biscuit Race, while Amit Kumar, currently in post-production on Monsoon Shootout, is bringing Give Me Blood, which has the Netherlands’ Pardesi Films on board as co-producer. Both Television and Monsoon Shootout took part in previous editions of Film Bazaar.
Other Film Bazaar alumni to feature on the international film festival circuit this year include Ashim Ahluwalia’s Miss Lovely, which played in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, while Anand Gandhi’s Ship Of Theseus, Dibakar Banerjee’s Shanghai and Manjeet Singh’s Mumbai Cha Raja played in Toronto.
Organised by India’s National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), Film Bazaar will be held Nov 21-24 at the Goa Marriott Resort and also feature a Work-in-Progress Lab, Screenwriters Lab and the Primexchange workshop for Indo-European projects.