JIFF – UdaipurBlog

Udaipur’s film gets nominated at Asia’s Top Film Festival- JIFF

A feature-length documentary film, ‘The 14th February & Beyond‘ directed by Udaipur-based filmmaker Utpal Kalal has been nominated for the 12th Jaipur International Film Festival, one of Asia’s top and world’s reputed film festival.

This is the first time that a director from Udaipur has made it to Jaipur International Film Festival. Utpal Kalal is a filmmaker based out of Udaipur, who has directed several music videos, short documentaries and commercials. ‘The 14th February & Beyond‘ is Utpal’s first feature-length documentary film.

A doctor by profession who went on to pursue his passion for cinema, Utpal Kalal got the inspiration to do this film from his curiosity to understand the hype and negative situation arising on 14th February, popularly known as Valentine’s day. As an adolescent, he never had any pleasant thought about this day in his tender mind.

Utpal’s film talks about the same thought about this day. It brings in front, the bizarre shades of this global lovefest and its negative effects on the society. ‘The 14th February & Beyond’ is trying to explore the ground facts regarding Valentine’s Day while sharing some experts’ views around the topic into the form of a documentary film.

Utpal has made this film with the hope that it ignites a conversation about this issue that has been overlooked so far.

U-turn Rajasthan in JIFF bestowing 3 new awards and cash prize

Press Note from : Jaipur International Film Festival

Film entries are being sent from different parts of the world for the fifth Jaipur International Film Festival. With the festival this year, we are trying to support the talented filmmakers from the state of Rajasthan economically with three cash prices. The films received by us from the state of Rajasthan are included in the special called ‘U-turn Rajasthan’ panorama. The best film will be selected by the panel of jury members for the award considerations out of the nominated entries.

All the three best films will be selected by a jury. In this, the films securing the first, second and the third prize will be awarded with the cash prize of Rs. 21,000, Rs. 11,000 and Rs. 5,000 respectively.

It is worth mentioning that the numbers of films participating from the state of Rajasthan every year in the festival are increasing at a constant basis. The figures of the participating films in the festival in the past 4 years were as follows- JIFF 2009- 14 films, 2010- 21 films, 2011- 27 films and 2012- 35 films.

The regular deadline for sending the film entries to the festival is October 15^th,2012 and the late deadline for the proceedings will be October 30^th, 2012. For the entries of the feature films in the festival, the deadlines are October 30^th and November 15^th, 2012.

The great news for the filmmakers from the state of Rajasthan is that they can submit their films in the festival without paying any sort of fee.

The festival will be organized from 27^th to 31^st of January, 2013.