10th Osian Cinefan film festival

Osian's-Cinefan is one of the world's largest festivals of Contemporary Asian and Arab Cinema today, with a deep commitment to the energy and spirit of the creative minds. It takes cinema to the masses with an aim to bring all art forms together under one umbrella. The festival has been screening best of Asian films along with successfully curating art exhibitions, discussions on various aspects of filmmaking. With the growing matturity of the festival, it aims to expand its horizon furthean festival. Cinema being its main focus, the festival brings all trends including that of 'parallel' cinema into the mainstream consciousness.

Established in 1999 in New Delhi and known as July fever, the Festival enjoys an international reputation for the quality of films screened over nine days. With support from the Delhi Government and the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC), Osian's Cinefan brought a clutch of 27 Asian films to audiences in Delhi in its very first edition. Apart from paying tributes to legends, it present a Lifetime Achievement Award for distinguished contribution to writing on cinema – the only Festival in the world that recognises the role of the scriptwriter and the critic in the creation and the promotion of films.

In fact Cinefan was the first one to pay tribute to Smita Patil in 2000 by showcasing nine films of the substantial actress. Tributes were also paid to Akira Kurosawa in 2002, Guru Dutt, Wong Kar-wai and the Makhmalbaf Family in 2004, Satyajit Ray and Hou Hsiao-hsien in 2005, Stanley Kwan, Ritwik Ghatak and New Theatres in 2007 and Kenji Mizoguchi in 2007.

Osian's-Cinefan festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary during 10-20 July this year with over 150 films from Asia and the Arab world, including three films from the Islamic Republic of Iran on premere. Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit inaugurated the 10-day festival. The Festival collectively has six critics as jury comprising twenty-two distinguished individuals from the global film community, each of whom rings a unique perspective from every sphere of film making.

This year for the first time, the festival is providing young filmmakers a platform to showcase their talent by adding a section on short films. The fest will showcase about 200 films and out of them 42 are short films. The short films were hand picked by the curator Monika Bhasin.

The festival also pays a tribute to well-known playwright Vijay Tendulkar, who died in May this year, by screening his critically acclaimed film 'Aakrosh'.

Johnnie To's 'Sparrows' was the opening film, the closing movie would be an Indian anthology directed by 11 directors called 'Mumbai Cutting'. The film has been directed by Sudhir Mishra, Jahnu Barua, Rahul Dholakia, Rituparno Ghosh, Shashank Ghosh, Manish Jha, Anurag Kashyap, Ruchi Narayan, Ayush Rainam, Ravthi and Kundan Shah. All the film directors will be present for the screening except Rituparno Ghosh. This year, the Life Time Achievement Award would be given to renowned Indian filmmaker Mrinal Sen. The Writer's award will be given to Jose'Pete' F Lacaba from the Philippines.