NFDC’s Film Bazaar opens on the sidelines of Iffi-Goa, 2009
	18:58 IST

National Film Development Corporation (NFDC)’s film bazaar opened on the sidelines of the 40th International Film Festival of India at the Goa Marriott Resort today. NFDC is a Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India’s Public Sector Unit. This year the Hong Kong Trade Development Corporation, distributors from Europa Cinemas and American Film Institute are participating in the Bazaar to expand their global film network. The UK Film Council and Primexchange, an initiative funded by European Commission are also participating. Gold Crest Films, Videovision Entertainment, Rapid Eyes Movies, BBC Films, The Match Factory, Insomnia World Sales are some of the participating companies. Workshops, Co-production Projects, Work in Progress lab and discussions under the theme ‘Knowledge Series’ are the various facets of the Film Bazaar 2009. The Film Bazaar aims at creating opportunities for networking and business for producers, filmmakers and distributors from across the world. The Co-production Projects at Film Bazaar present to the world feature-length (75 mins or more) projects that are based on Indian stories. At Film Bazaar these selected projects receive the opportunity to be pitched by their representatives to potential collaborators for finance, distribution, and artistic support through one-to-one meetings. Feature Projects 2009 include Ceylon by Santosh Sivan; I Am by Onirban; Inside-Out by Ketan Mehta; Keep off the Grass by Ben Rekhi; LSD by Dibakar Banerjee; Manjunath by Sandeep Varma; Obsession by Suman Ghosh; The Return of the Tiger by Mike Pandey; The Virgin Goddess by K.N.T. Sastry and Twosome by Siddharth Sinha The Work in Progress lab is held at Film Bazaar for feature films at a rough cut stage, whose makers are seeking feedback from experienced film professionals from the international community to better understand how their work will be received by the international market. The Mentors for this section of Film Bazaar are seasoned film professionals and include film editors, film festival directors, film critics, and international sales agents. This year’s ‘Knowledge Series’ will have presentations on Digital Distribution for web and mobile; De-coding India’s Co-production treaties with UK, Germany, Brazil and Italy; International Film Financing as also a discussion with film maker Mani Ratnam on his body of work. The three-day Film Bazaar will continue till November 26, 2009. SBS/AS