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Dubai: The Great Indian Film Festival to take place at Expo 2020

Over 50 films will be showcased during the three-day event

Founded by award winning producer Vevek Paul, The Great Indian Film Festival (TGIFF) is set to come to Expo 2020 Dubai. The three-day festival will have its opening ceremony on March 7.

As a touring film festival, it aims to bring global filmmakers and cultures of the world together on a single platform with the purpose of making art and cinema accessible to all. TGIFF greatly supports young talents and the innovative, shorter medium of storytelling. Through this festival, it showcases Indian talent to the rest of the world.

The first edition of TGIFF was held in PVR cinemas, New Delhi. It showcased more than 65 movies from across the world. Interestingly, there were more than 100 entries for the competition in 2020. Apart from India, short filmmakers from across 18 countries, including Russia, US, Taiwan, Iran, Singapore, Canada, Tehran, Czech Republic and Italy, submitted their films to TGIFF.

This year’s festival will open with Bittu, a short film which was India’s Oscar entry last year. The festival will also host ambassadors, actors, directors, and academicians. During the three-day event, over 50 films will be showcased at the Indian pavilion as well as the Terra auditorium in the Sustainability pavilion.

The jury for this year comprises Indian actors Gajraj Rao, Gulshan Grover and Jaaved Jaaferi, French producer Bruno Smadja, Dr. Rebecca, and Richard Trombly who has worked for The Hollywood Reporter.

“We feel festivals are a great way of bringing great talents together on a common platform for exchange of ideas as well as international exposure which adds to the growth of a filmmaker,” says Vevek.

In 2019, during the first nationwide lockdown, Paul also started a concept around lockdown films, especially for school students.

TGIFF encourages students to use technology and their mobile phones to tell their stories. This small endeavour has now turned into Rising Stars Mobile film festival which showcases short films made by children twice a year on TGIFF’s YouTube channel.