'Seven Winters in Tehran,' 'Jaki' Wins Inaugural Cineature Festival

Steffi Niederzoll's Berlin, CPH: DOX and El Gouna-winning documentary “Seven Winters in Tehran” added another award to its collection with the Best International Film Award at India's inaugural Cinevesture International Festival (CIFF).

Anmol Sidhu's Asia Pacific Screen Awards-nominated “Jakki” was named Best Indian Film and Elham Ehsas' BAFTA and Clermont-Ferrand-nominated “Yellow” was named Best Short Film.

The festival took place from March 27-31 in Chandigarh, North India. A three-day phone filmmaking workshop organized by Chitkara International School, produced by Cineveture, saw students from five schools participate and win an award with Ritisha Sinha's film “Unveiled” from Mount Carmel School.

Former Cannes Film Market director Jerome Bailard, Indian actor and producer Rana Daggubati („Baahubali”) and former Sundance Film Festival co-director Nicole Guillemette and Indian filmmaker Ajitpal Singh (Sundance title „Fire in the Mountains”) on the festival advisory board.

The festival featured an affiliate market with 20 projects from established and emerging South Asian voices. The market component began with a day-long workshop that provided investors with an overview of the film industry, its risks and benefits, the laws of the film business, conversations with established producers and a case study of successful entrepreneurs.

Masterclasses and panels moderated by several celebrities including filmmaker Shekhar Kapur (“What's Love Got To Do With It?”) and Karan Johar (“Raki Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani”) performed during the ceremony. The cast includes Jaideep Ahlawat (“Patal Lok”), Roshan Mathew (“Paradise”), Swinder Vicky (“Kohra”), Rajshree Deshpande (“Trial by Fire”), Boman Irani (“Dungi”), Rasika Duggal. . (“Mirzapur”), Abhay Deol (“Trial by Fire”), actor-producers Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal (“Girls Will Be Girls”), filmmakers Honey Trehan (“Punjab 95”), Tahira Kashyap (“Sharmaji Ki Peti”). ”), Sudhir Mishra (“Dhanav”), Ajitpal Singh (“Thapar”), Anurag Singh (“Kesri”), Saukata Mukherjee, head of content at streamer Sonylive and musician Kaveri Kapoor.

Nina Lath, Founder and CEO, CineVeture said: „We are grateful for the incredible support and trust this pilot edition of CIFF has received from the film community, the welcome and acceptance of the beautiful people of Chandigarh and the trust placed in us by our partners and collaborators. Without all of this, the event would have been 10 We thank them all and look forward to further building these relationships in the coming years.

Festival Director, VS Gundu added: The master classes and panel discussions were lively and meaningful. The Film Market at CIFF built a solid foundation as an intimate yet professional networking and mentoring platform. We are grateful to our guests and the people of Chandigarh for making it a grand success and we promise to return with a bigger and better edition of CIFF next year.

Artistic Director Bina Paul said: CIFF's Film Market is emerging as a platform for producers and filmmakers across the country to network, develop skills and do business. The Film Festival offers the people of Chandigarh an opportunity to watch the best films from around the world. This integration creates a new culture and business.