On festival sidelines, India to see plenty of action in Cannes Film Market

India, the country of honour at the 2022 Marche du Film (Cannes Film Market), marks 75th year as an independent nation with a six-film package to be screened in the market

The curtains are all set to go up on Tuesday evening on the 75th Cannes Film Festival, the first full-fledged in-person edition of the event in three years, with the screening of Michel Hazanivicius's movie-themed French zombie comedy "Final Cut".

India, the country of honour at the 2022 Marche du Film (Cannes Film Market), marks 75th year as an independent nation with a six-film package to be screened in the market. It includes actor R. Madhavan’s directorial debut, "Rocketry: The Nambi Effect", scheduled for release in early July.

The five other films cherry-picked by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting are Nikhil Mahajan’s Marathi-language "Godavari", Shankar Srikumar’s "Alpha Beta Gamma", Biswajeet Bora’s "Boomba Ride", Achal Mishra’s "Dhuin" and Jayaraj’s "Tree Full of Parrots". All these will be showcased on a screen in the Marche du Film.   I

n the festival proper, however, India’s presence is at best fringe. Shaunak Sen’s Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary film "All That Breathes", Pratham Khurana’s short film in Le Cinef (a competition for film schools) and juror Deepika Padukone are the only ‘official’ participants this year in the world’s premier film festival.

On the sidelines of the festival, however, a clutch of new Indian film projects will look for global breakthroughs via pitching and mentoring sessions organised as part of either the Cannes Film Festival or Marche du Film.

Leading this pack is FTII student Gourab Kumar Mullick’s "Starfruits", produced by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni’s Arbhaat Films, Samir Sarkar’s Magic Hour Films and fellow-FTII alumnus Yudhajit Basu. It is among nine fiction films and one documentary shortlisted for La Fabrique les cinemas du monde, a programme hosted by Institute Francais as part of the Cannes Film Festival.

In the director’s own words, "Starfruits" seeks to present a “contrast to the archetypal image of the ‘gangster’ fighting the system through a unique love story”.   The 10 La Fabrique 2022 filmmakers will be mentored by Midi Z, a Myanmar-born Taiwanese director whose credits include the features "Ice Poison", "The Road to Mandalay" and "Nina Wu".