A new film industry market has taken its first steps in India over the past week, running alongside the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival (October 27-November 5).
The Brand and Film Marketplace is hosted at Mumbai’s Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC), a newly constructed cultural and exhibition space that opened at the end of March, which is also the new hub for the festival.
Exhibitors with stands include Paris-based sales agents Alpha Violet and Memento International; Saudi Arabia’s Neom and Film AlUla; Athens-based production and sales firm Heretic; and New York-based sales outfit Cinetic Media. Space has also been taken by Germany’s Goethe-Institut, showcasing 15 virtual reality projects.
The market is part of a fresh focus by the festival to spotlight what Mumbai and South Asia has to offer the international film market.
“The festival has always hosted workshops and panel discussions but there has never been a dedicated market,” says Mumbai festival director Anupama Chopra. “It wasn’t focused in the way it is this year.”
The festival has returned in-person for the first time since 2019 and this time provided the opportunity to consider new directions, which includes a focus on South Asia aimed to “build an ecosystem for new cinematic voices from South Asia and the South Asian Diaspora”.
The festival’s artistic director, Deepti DCunha, says: “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.”
“It’s very difficult to bring sales agents to India, because they’re used to markets at Cannes, Berlin, and Toronto, and we usually travel there to acquire films for the country,” adds Dcunha. “We we are trying to get them here to help them to understand the potential that Mumbai offers. It’s houses a very large a film industry, which has a lot of international potential. So we are going to get the sales agents to meet the distributors and theatre owners from our country, in a space where they can meet.”
International symposium
The festival also staged a one-day conference titled The Industry Connect Symposium: theatrical distribution and sales for independent and arthouse films from India, South Asia and the world.
Held at the Sofitel Mumbai BKC, a short walk from the NMACC, the sessions included a keynote speech from former Disney India head and leading producer Siddharth Roy Kapur; a panel discussion with UK producer Adam Dawtrey and Jeremy Chua, the Singaporean producer of Cannes Camera d’Or winner Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell; and a panel on theatrical distribution and sales for independent film in India, South Asia and overseas.
“When traveling to the likes of Berlin and Cannes, we realised that the information on how India distributes its films is simply not there,” says DCunha. “There is a disconnect when it comes to the actual knowledge so we want to have international film professionals meet our industry professionals here to discuss.”
While still a fledging industry offering, especially in comparison to the likes of Film Bazaar – South Asia’s largest film market that will take place in Goa later this month – Mumbai has grand ambitions.
“We hope the things are we trying this year are well received, which will encourage us to build on them in future,” says festival co-director Maitreyee Dasgupta.
“Hopefully, we can host a larger filmmakers program, a larger film market and more conversations around technology, distribution, sales or syndication. It would be great to scale-up everything that we’re trying and build on it in the coming years.”
DCunha adds: “We are just sowing the seeds and are going to see which ones sprout.”
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