Film set in India in run for top award
British director Michael Winterbottom’s latest film Trishna, which is reimagining of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Ubervilles and is set in Rajasthan and Mumbai, has been shortlisted along with eight other films for the best film award at the London Film Festival.
Winterbottom, who had earlier adapted Thomas Hardy’s Jude The Obscure and The Mayor of Casterbridge into films, has set Trishna in India and it stars Slumdog Millionaire actress Freida Pinto and British actor Riz Ahmed in the lead roles.
Trishna is expected to be successful after the dream box office run by Slumdog Millionaire.
“It is a British film, made in India, based in India like Slumdog. Who knows, it might become a big hit like Slumdog too,” says Cary Rajinder Sawhney, who is programme adviser for South Asia for the London Film Festival and chooses the films for the festival from the region. The jury for the best film award includes British director of Indian descent Asif Kapadia.
The jury also comprises of director John Madden, American actress Gillian Anderson, producer Tracey Seaward, writer Andrew O’Hagan and British filmmaker and artist Sam Taylor Wood.
Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg and British actor Ralph Fiennes will be honoured this year with the BFI Fellowship, the highest accolade that the British Film Institute bestows, during the London Film Festival in October. The festival, this year, will start from October 12 and continue till October 27. Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle was given this accolade last year.
Fiennes, who has acted in films like The End of the Affair, The English Patient, The Constant Gardener and Schindler’s List, is debuting as a film director with Coriolanus, which is screening at the film festival.
“This is a monumental, in fact overwhelming, honour, and my being the first Canadian to receive it makes it all the sweeter. British cinema has been a potent inspiration for me, and to be associated with this particular group of filmmakers is tremendously exhilarating,” Cronenberg, who has made films like The Fly, Crash and A History of Violence, said. British writer-director of Indian origin Nirpal Bhogal has been shortlisted for Best British newcomer award for his film Sket, which is a story about girl gangs in Britain.
Bengali filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh’s Nouka Dubi (Boat Wreck); Nobel Chor (The Nobel Thief), directed by Suman Ghosh; Gandu (Asshole), directed by Kaushik Mukherjee; Gurvinder Singh’s Anhey Ghorey Da Daan (Alms of the Blind Horse); and Adaminte Makan Abu (Abu, Son of Adam), by debutant director Salim Ahamed are the film selections from India being shown at the festival this year.
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