The Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) has announced that the next edition of the Mumbai Film Festival will take place Oct 13-20.

The 2011 dates are one week earlier than last year, which gives the festival a bit more breathing space before the American Film Market (AFM).

The festival has been striving to expand its business platform – introduced in 2009 as the Film Business Centre – and bring in a wider range of international buyers and sellers to connect with the local Indian film industry. This year’s AFM is scheduled to take place Nov 2-9.

Financed by Reliance Big Entertainment, ticket sales and sponsorship, the festival screened 215 films from 58 countries in 2010. It hands out cash awards of around $200,000 in total, including an international competition for first-time directors with cash awards of $150,000.

David Fincher’s Oscar favourite The Social Network opened last year’s edition of the fest, just a few days ahead of also opening the Tokyo International Film Festival. Turkish director Seren Yuce’s Majority won the best first film award, which came with a cash prize of $100,000.

MAMI is a body of film industry veterans founded in 1997 by late filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Current members include filmmakers Shyam Benegal, Yash Chopra, Ashutosh Gowarikar and Karan Johar and actresses Shabana Azmi and Jaya Bachchan.

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