The twelfth
edition of the NFDC Film Bazaar, which started on November 20, 2018 will be on till
November 24 at the Goa Marriott Resort & Spa. From panel discussions with
India’s leading filmmakers and film industry participants to pitching sessions
for independent filmmakers to workshops for young producers to sessions by the
Film Facilitation Offices of various states of India, the four-day event has
the venue turning into a thriving hub of activity centred around ideating on
and producing and distributing the best of South Asian cinema to the world.
HIGHLIGHTS OF NFDC
FILM BAZAAR 2018
The Co-Production
Market
The Co-Production
Market is a platform for filmmakers to pitch their films to a selected audience
of industry professionals including national and international producers,
distributors, sales agents and financiers.
This year’s Co-Production Market presents 19 projects with South
Asian themes from India, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Germany, Sri
Lanka, and USA. The Co-Production Market this year has films in languages like
Garo, Bhojpuri, Konkani, Dzongkha and Nepali alongside those in Hindi, Tamil,
Malayalam and English.
The Work-In-Progress
Lab
The Work-In-Progress
Lab is a chance for films already in production to pitch themselves to industry
participants for finishing funds and sales and distribution support. This year,
there are 5 films in the Lab that include two films in Hindi, and one each in
Nepali, Assamese and Malayalam. Four of these films are also part of the FBR.
Interestingly, all the 5 films in the WIP Lab this year are debut films.
The films include ‘Ajeeb Budhee Aurat’ (Strange Old Lady),
directed by Kislay; ‘Eeb Alle Ooo’, directed by Prateek Vats; ‘Nimtoh’,
directed by Saurav Rai; ‘Rukuni Koina’, Jadab Mahanta and ‘Run Kalyani’,
directed by Geetha J.
The Knowledge Series
The Knowledge Series
is a series of specially curated presentations, panel discussions and lectures
by filmmakers, producers, top executives of film organisations involved in
content production, aggregation and distribution.
There are interesting
panels on ‘decoding block chain for films’ which will be focused figuring out
how IPR can be secured for those involved in the process of filmmaking. The
panel will see Orlando Pedregosa (Co-Founder, Babeika) and Simran Mulchandani
(Co-Founder and CEO, Mach One) in a conversation moderated by filmmaker Rohan
Sippy.
While filmmakers
Ramesh Sippy, Vishal Bhardwaj and Abhishek Chaubey will talk about crafting
films that focus on the hinterland and their journeys from directing to
producing and mentoring films, producer Siddharth Roy Kapur will talk about
‘crafting a brave new world’ of content for the future. Sriram Raghavan will
take the audience through his foray into the world of pulp and noir in another
session that is sure to have the crowds lining up at the gate.
The ongoing evolution
of the OTT game will be discussed threadbare in a panel involving leading
participants from the industry including those from ZEE5, Arre, Film
Collaborative and Vista India. This panel will also include actor Rasika Dugal,
currently in news for her performance in the Amazon series ‘Mirzapur’.
The other panels will
see Jeff Gomez (Founder and CEO, Starlight Runner Entertainment) and Steele
Filipek (Executive Editor, Starlight Runner Entertainment) speak about creating
‘fantasy worlds across platforms’, top festival programmers and film critics
discuss the emergence of South Asian cinema and international film executives
share their insights on ‘how films can help bridge cultures’.
Film Bazaar
Recommends
Film Bazaar
Recommends is a specially curated section of films recommended by the Film
Bazaar from amongst the films submitted for the Viewing Room. The filmmakers of
these 24 FBR films are showing their trailers and pitching to investors at
10:30 am today.
This year, the Film
Bazaar Recommends presents 24 films (including 22 fiction features and 2
documentaries) out of the entire slate of 153-feature length films which
includes films in 14 languages including those like Gondi, Khasi and Marwari.
Industry Screenings
Industry screenings
provides an opportunity to filmmakers to book one of the three digital theatres
at the market venue to showcase their films to a select audience of festival
programmers, sales agents, distributors and producers.
This year, there are
34 pure industry screenings in this section alongside screenings of projects in
Work-in-Progress Lab. Some of the industry screenings are of films like
‘Mahanati’, directed Nag Ashwin; ‘Ashok Vatika’, directed Rahul Mallick; ‘No
Father in Kashmir’, directed by Ashvin Kumar and ‘The Last Audience’, directed
by Adi Pocha.
Filmmakers’ Pitch
The Filmmakers’ Pitch
is a new initiative designed to increase visibility of films which are present
at the Bazaar. It is a non-curated section and is open to the first 20 films
from amongst those in the Viewing Room and Industry Screenings which book their
slot and complete the payment process. These 20 films will get a chance to
pitch themselves to a room full of buyers, distributors, content aggregators,
film programmers, producers, financiers and other registered delegates
attending the market.
This year, Film
Bazaar is introducing a new platform in order to increase visibility of films
playing at the Viewing Room and Industry Screening sections. This is the Film
Clips segment on the Film Bazaar website. This segment will showcase trailers/
film clips of films which are part of the Viewing Room this year.
The Viewing Room
The Viewing Room is
designed to present films seeking finishing funds, world sales, distribution
partners and film festivals to film programmers, distributors, world sales
agents and investors. Those interested can view the film on individual computer
screens in segregated booths. They can also access detailed information about
projects they are interested in as well as contact the relevant filmmakers
through this software.
NFDC Film Bazaar 2018
has a whopping 217 films in the Viewing Room this year, the highest so far
which includes 153-feature length films (135 fiction features and 18
documentaries) and 64 short films.
There are films in 35
languages including in languages like Gondi, Muria, Shertukpen, Nagamese and
Armenian and a record 160 World Premieres in the Viewing Room this year.
There are 108 debut
films in this section, which indicates the value of the Bazaar as a platform
for young, independent filmmakers.
The Producers’
Workshop
The Producers’
Workshop is designed to help emerging producers cultivate a sense of vision to
maintain a fine balance between the creative and financial aspects of filmmaking
while providing an overview of the challenges as well as the opportunities that
the ‘Producing’ landscape offers to those foraying into the business of cinema
in both mainstream as well as Indie spaces. This year the focus is on the ‘The
Good Pitch’.
Spread
over five days, the Workshop will involve multiple sessions on the different
facets of producing films, conducted by key industry experts and professionals
– some of the best from across the world. While leading film producer Siddharth
Roy Kapur (producer and Founder, Roy Kapur Films) will talk about ‘the elements
of a good pitch’, another panel headlined by executives from Facebook and
Instagram will explain how the digital platforms can be leveraged for
distributing movies.
