Shopping for films in Goa, virtually: NFDC ‘Film Bazaar’ virtual from Saturday

Over the last 13 years, NFDC Film Bazaar, held annually in Goa, parallel with the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), has become a kumbh mela of sorts for independent cinema, a platform for non-mainstream filmmakers to showcase their work to the national and international film fraternity and a support for debut filmmakers in the country.

In the light of the ongoing global pandemic, for the first time since its inception in 2007, South Asia’s largest film market, organised by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) will be held as a virtual event from January 16-21.

But there’ll be more to it than just logging in to the event online through a website. A oneof-a-kind virtual 3D interface has been created from the scratch to make the screenings, pitching sessions, networking events and video meetings and stalls as real as possible with distinct virtual areas allotted for the same.

The focus is on discovering, supporting and showcasing South Asian content and talent. Lunch Box, Margarita with A Straw, Chauthi Koot, Qissa, Court, Anhey Ghorey Da Daan, Dum Laga Ke Haisha, Liar’s Dice, Village Rockstars, Balekempa and Aamis are just a few of the recent celebrated titles that have made it to the marquee and to prestigious film festivals via various verticals at the Film Bazaar.

This year’s edition of the NFDC Film Bazaar, the 14th, will continue with its usual programmes. The Knowledge Series will feature panel discussions, webinars and masterclasses. There will also be virtual stalls from various state tourism offices to provide production guidelines for shooting locations and from exhibitors for promotional purposes.

Viewing Room will provide a glimpse into the new films on the horizon. VR is a platform where independent filmmakers can show their films (complete or still in progress) to potential investors, buyers, world sales agents and festival programmers and curators.

This year 195 films will be available in the Viewing Room Library of which 129 are feature films and 66 are short films. Film Bazaar Recommends (FBR) curated list highlights 20 feature films. Newton, Lathe Joshi, S. Durga have been some of the films featured previously in FBR.

In the prestigious Workin-Progress (WIP) lab, filmmakers are mentored by internationally-renowned producers, writers, editors and film festival heads to fine-tune their ongoing projects. This year it includes films made in five Indian languages and four of these are debut features. The titles chosen are Aiz Maka Falea Tuka (Konkani, Today me Tomorrow you) by Sreejith Karanavar; Ghaath (Marathi, Ambush) by Chhatrapal Ninawe; PAKA - The River of Blood by Nithin Lukose (Malayalam); Powai by Kuldip Patel (Hindi) and Sikaisal (in Tiwa language) by Dr. Bobby Sarma Baruah.

The director and editor of the selected film showcase their rough cuts to the panel of mentors and receive an in-depth one-on-one feedback. The international editor assigned to the film guides the director and editor of the selected film through two sessions of the editing lab. The aim is to help the filmmaker achieve an accomplished final cut of the film.

Since its inception in 2008, the Work-in-Progress Lab has shaped films which have gone on to premiere at top international film festivals and received critical acclaim. Some of the past projects include Laila Aur Satt Geet (The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs), Fire in the Mountains, Eeb Allay Ooo!, Aise Hee, Nimtoh, Soni, Moothon, Bombay Rose, The Gold-Laden Sheep and The Sacred Mountain, Lipstick Under My Burkha, Thithi, Titli, Killa, Miss Lovely and Ship of Theseus.

This year’s selection for the other significant vertical—Co-Production Market—includes 21 projects from India, Bangladesh, Canada, China, France, Nepal, Netherlands and Sri Lanka and in languages as varied as Hindi, English, Tamil, Bengali, Kannada, Khasi, Kumaoni, Kashmiri, Gujarati, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nagamese, Pahadi, Sinhala, Urdu and Nepali.

International collaborations featured this year include Onir’s We Are, co-produced by India’s Anticlock Films and Canada’s Fae Pictures. There is the India-Netherlands collaboration Dengue, directed by Prantik Basu and produced by Jan van der Zanden. Paromita Dhar’s Last Time On Earth is produced by France’s Yohann Cornu and Pradip Kurbah’s The Elysian Field by China’s JS Studio.

Other notable titles include Franklin Jacob’s Writer produced by Aditi Anand’s Little Red Car Films, My Home Is in The Hills by Arun Fulara, Shanawaz Nizamudeen’s Queen Doll (produced by Pa Ranjith’s Neelam Productions; Haobam Paban Kumar’s Water, Anjali Menon’s Rasa and Assam-based filmmaker Bhaskar Hazarika’s production with Shyam Bora—Subhadra Mahajan’s Second Chance.

Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni’s Arbhaat Films & Samir Sarkar’s Magic Hour Films bring Gourab Kumar Mullick’s Starfruits and Suchhanda Chatterjee & Shubha Shetty’s Quest Films are the producers for Ananth Mahadevan’s The Storyteller.