The upcoming edition of the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival is bookended by two top winners at the Cannes Film Festival 2024. The festival opens with the screening of the Grand Prix-winner 'All We Imagine as Light', which is the first feature film of Mumbai-based director-writer Payal Kapadia. The closing film is Sean Baker-directed Anora, the winner of Palme d’Or 2024. While Anora described it as "a searing critique on wealth, privilege and the American dream", All We Imagine As Light' is a poetic account of three working women struggling to stay afloat in Mumbai as they deal with their relationships and emotions. The festival, scheduled to be held from October 19 to 24 October, will showcase over 110 films, including features and non-features across all genres, in over 50 languages. Even though this edition will screen some of the best international and South Asian films, the number of festival venues has reduced to two - the art deco single screen Regal Cinema in Colaba and Juhu's PVR, which has five auditoriums. After the success of last year’s inaugural 'South Asia Competition', the festival puts the spotlight on the independent filmmakers from South Asia and its diaspora again with 11 features, including four Indian features. The line-up with a mix of fiction, documentary and animation, features Agent of Happiness by Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó (Nepali, Dzongkha, English), Girls Will Be Girls by Shuchi Talati (English, Hindi), Kiss Wagon by Midhun Murali (Malayalam), Nocturnes by Anirban Dutta, Anupama Srinivasan (English, Hindi, Bugun), Santosh by Sandhya Suri (Hindi), Shambhala by Min Bahadur Bham (Tibetan, Nepali) and Village Rockstars 2 by Rima Das (Assamese). The Asia premiere of Little Jaffna by Lawrence Valin (French, Tamil), Pooja, Sir by Deepak Rauniyar (Hindi, Maithili, Nepali) and The Fable by Raam Reddy (English, Hindi) will be held under this section. Amit Dutta's Rhythm of a Flower (Phool Ka Chand) will have its world premiere. The Focus South Asia, a non-competitive section, will screen films of all lengths as well as non-features that offer a diverse array of narratives. The lineup, comprising 10 features and 13 non-features, includes A Fly on the Wall by Nilesh Maniyar, Shonali Bose (English | India, USA), Angammal by Vipin Radhakrishnan (Tamil | India), Boong by Lakshmipriya Devi (Manipuri), In Retreat (Be-qayaam) by Maisam Ali (Hindi, Ladakhi) and The Shameless by Konstantin Bojanov (Hindi), whose lead actor Anasuya Sengupta won the Un Certain Regard Prize for Best Actress. Some of the most celebrated films of the year will be screened under the World Cinema section. Among the big-ticket titles are The Room Next Door by Pedro Almodóvar, Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard, The Substance by Coralie Fargeat, A Different Man by Aaron Schimberg, Cloud by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Harvest by Athina Rachel Tsangari, Suspended Time by Olivier Assayas, Rumours by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson & Galen Johnson, April by Dea Kulumbegashvili, and Universal Language by Matthew Rankin. The festival will also host 'Gala' premieres of Despatch by Kanu Behl (starring Manoj Bajpayee, Shahana Goswami), Ghamasaan by Tigmanshu Dhulia (starring Arshad Warsi, Pratik Gandhi), Go Noni Go by Sonal Dabral (starring Dimple Kapadia, Manav Kaul), the anthology My Melbourne directed by Kabir Khan, Imtiaz Ali, Onir, Rima Das, and The Ancient (Puratawn) by Suman Ghosh (starring Sharmila Tagore, Rituparna Sengupta and Indraneil Sengupta).
