Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Thursday inaugurated the seventh edition of the Asian Film Festival. Chinese film Tuya's Marriage, directed by Wang Quan'an, was screened as the opening film.
During the inaugural function, Korean director Park Kwang Su was honoured with the Asian Film Culture Award and P.K. Nair, former director of National Film Archives, received the Satyajit Ray Memorial Award. Aamir Khan and Madhur Bhandarkar, who were to be felicitated for their contribution to cinema, were not present at the opening ceremony.
The week-long festival, organized by Asian Film Foundation in collaboration with Aashay Film club, will showcase around 80 films from 20 countries at the venues: Plaza cinema in Dadar, Chavan Centre in south Mumbai and Run Republic in suburban Andheri. Films from Korea, Palestine, Egypt, Mongolia which have never premiered in India are the highlights of the festival.
The festival has two competition sections -- the best debutant directors and the best fiction films -- which will be judged by a panel comprising national and international filmmakers like Dan Wolman (Israel), Manju Borah (India), Somaratne Dissanayake (Sri Lanka), Meeta Vasisth (India), Philip Cheah (Singapore) and Marjan Riahi (Iran).
