MAMI Mumbai Film Festival announces the 2024 Official Film Selections

MUMBAI: The MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, one of Asia's most prestigious cinematic events, returns for its 2024 edition (19-24 October). This six-day celebration of global cinema, creativity, community, and culture will showcase 110+ films from over 45 countries—spanning 50+ languages, lengths and genres—as part of the Official Selection.

Building on the success of last year’s inaugural South Asia Competition, the Main Competition section continues to highlight the strongest voices among independent filmmakers from South Asia and its diaspora. The expanded vision of the erstwhile ‘India Gold’, already very popular among independent filmmakers in the country, continues to successfully attract some of the best talent from across the region to compete with their feature films. This year’s competition comprises 11 features with a wonderful representation of seven South Asian and diaspora films, alongside four Indian features. The line-up has a mix of fiction, documentary and animation as well as internationally co-produced films and independent sole productions. Five of the competing directors are women, and most of the films are South Asian Premieres, with a line-up that includes World, Asia, and India Premieres. Two of the competing films are official Oscar submissions from their respective countries.

The Focus South Asia section includes films of all lengths, with the non-features grouped into packages. The non-competitive feature films in this section offer a diverse and dynamic array of storytelling, including two films on South Asian themes by non-South Asian directors. The eclectic selection explores a broad spectrum of unique and demanding experiences, from a deeply personal narrative to a postmodern take on superstardom, making this section a rich exploration of the South Asian experience.

The World Cinema section will showcase some of the most celebrated films of the year. Among the big-ticket films 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 open screens across the city to thousands of cinema lovers, offering a selection of some of the best films from around the world. The lineup includes winners of prestigious international awards, such as the Caméra d'Or and Jury Prize winners from the Cannes Film Festival, the Silver Bear winners from the Berlin International Film Festival, the Audience Award winner from the Sundance Film Festival, the Golden Lion and Jury Prize winners from the Venice International Film Festival.

MAMI will also screen the official submissions to the 2024 Academy Awards (aka the Oscars) from countries like Argentina, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, Japan, Nepal, Norway and the United Kingdom.

Stay tuned for more films and announcements.