Out Of Time
Delphine Montagne
France. 2020. 9 min

This time, Felix is risking a lot. The director summoned his mother and threatened to deny him the access to the establishment. But what could Felix have done? And what kind of establishment is it exactly?

DELPHINE MONTAGNE

Born in Lyons. Trained in drama arts in Nice and Paris, France. Delphine Montaigne has been a comedian since age 13.
Commercials, documentaries, she has spoken a thousand voices and has incarnated just as many characters. She enjoys the subtle reassurance and tranquillity of backstage and dubbing studios.
She switches universes, from stages, to sets, to mikes, and has always done so. She never stopped working, in other words, never stopped playing.
Encounters and opportunities have progressively drawn new projects. One of which was all about exploring human beings’ relationships dynamics. An obvious focus for an artist.
Her growing interest for strange and fascinating reactions of her peers led to another venture in her life. In 2016 directing movies just happened, or so it seemed.
Since then the actress directed two films many times selected and awarded in international festivals.

POSTER

CONTACT

delphinemontaigne@icloud.com

Like a Midnight Dream
Sharan Venugopal
India. 2020. 37 min

Sudha, an entrepreneur and a mother of a college girl, finds her world turned upside down when a doctor suspects that she might have cancer. Her worries deepen even further when one day she goes through her daughter’s laptop and accidentally finds a nude video of the daughter hidden in it.

SHARAN VENUGOPAL

Sharan Venugopal is a national award winning filmmaker based in Kerala, India. He is an alumnus of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata. His short film ‘Sopanam’ has been screened in various international film festivals around the globe and had garnered positive reviews. His diploma film ‘Oru Paathiraa Swapnam Pole’ (Like a Midnight Dream) recieved the national film award for best film on family values. The film was premiered at the 51st International Film Festival of India, Goa, 2021.

CONTACT

sharanvmenon@gmail.com

Two Sides
Mon Pal
India. 2020. 29 min

Neel is a selfish and lazy lout leeching off of his younger brother who has quietly worked away the past few years for the benefit of their dysfunctional family. Neel’s unfriendly but predictable world however begins to crack when Lal wakes up one morning determined never to get up from his bed again.

MON PAL

Hailing from the prestigious Satyajit Ray Film School, Kolkata, Mon has channelled his passions into Filmmaking. He is a writer, director, editor and script advisor for DigitalClay Animation Studios, Mumbai. When he’s not busy making stuff up as a professional, he teaches filmmaking and video editing at St. Paul’s Institute of Communication Education, Mumbai. His films have been screened in MIFF, Kolkata People’s Film Festival, KIFF, MAMI and his documentary ‘Rain Song’ was selected for CILECT. He was a finalist for Cinerise 2016 Script Lab and awarded the Best Young Film Critic at the 13th Mumbai Film Festival.

CONTACT

fro.srfti@gmail.com

Caged Birds
Oliver Rihs
Switzerland, Germany. 2019. 118 min

For sure a notorious criminal, but also a Robin Hood-like figure, and a Swiss counter-culture icon: Walter Stürm. The man was the king of prison-breaks in the country, managing no less than 8 times to flee Swiss prison between 1974 and 1995, while – strangely enough – maintaining a sense of anarchic humour throughout. One time, fleeing the prison around Easter in 1981, he left a note saying: „Searching for easter eggs, Stürm”.

The prize he paid for his not-to-typical-swiss catch-me-if-you-can-personality were years of solitaire confinement, drawing the attention of the left-wing political scene in Switzerland and Germany. An idealistic lawyer, Barbara Hug, sees her chance to use his popularity to reform a Swiss penal system. In their common fate this drama finds its core.

OLIVER RIHS

Oliver Rihs grew up near Lake Zurich in Switzerland, and worked for several years as an advertising graphic designer, care assistant for the elderly and punk rock singer, until he discovered the medium of film for himself. This followed to experimental video art works, documentary TV reports for Swiss television (SF1), music clips and first short films.

Since 1999, Rihs has been living in Berlin, realizing mainly cinema movies as a director. Parallel he founded the Berlin Film Production Company Port-au-Prince Film & Kultur Produktion GmbH in 2007, and accompanied feature film projects as a creative producer and co-writer.

The introduction of the successful cult comedy SCHWARZE SCHAFE (BLACK SHEEP) in Germany, has given Rihs the reputation of one of the most gifted comedy directors in the country.

In Switzerland, he is known primarily through his hit movie ACHTUNG, FERTIG, WK! (ATTENTION, READY, OMMM!)

FILMOGRAPHY

1999 FREMDE DA DRAUSSEN (short fiction)

2000 RICCARD (Drama / GAFF Productions)

2001 LILIEN (short fiction / arsen film)

2002 BROMBEERCHEN (Feature Film / Fama Film AG)

2006 BLACK SHEEP (Feature Film / OliwoodProductions / Koboi film)

2010 DATING LANZELOT (8-part comedy webisode for the German Telekom)

2011 DATING LANZELOT (feature film version of the webisode for Pro7)

2013 READY, STEADY, OMMM! (Feature Film / 92 Minutes / Zodiac Pictures AG)

AWARDS

• Award for Best Swiss advertising film director EDI (Spot LOVE / Zurich Film Foundation)
• Best Short Film Locarno International Film Festival (LILIEN)
• MDR Director’s Award (SCHWARZE SCHAFE)
• New German Cinema Price Filmfestival Hof (SCHWARZE SCHAFE)
• Studio Babelsberg producer price (SCHWARZE SCHAFE)
• The most successful Swiss Film Prize 2013 Succes Zurich (ACHTUNG, FERTIG, WK!)

CONTACT

rsehr@arri.de

Separation of Lovers
Ashokan Moorthy
India. 2020. 23 min

In a fishing village of southern India, a cyclone devastates the men at sea, claiming hundreds of lives. While the rest of the village mourns their demise, a young woman goes against all odds in belief that her loved one is on his way back to her.

ASHOKAN MOORTHY

Ashokan Moorthy is a filmmaker who studied direction and screenplay writing at Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata and currently working on his feature film.

CONTACT

fro.srfti@gmail.com

Bulbul
Binod Paudel
Nepal. 2019. 120 min

Ranakala is sustaining her life as a tempo driver based in Kathmandu. She has hidden unfulfilled desires of love and lust within her. It has been six years since her husband went to a gulf country and not sending money and didn’t return back too. This leaves Ranakala the responsibility of her old and paralyzed father-in-law and their daughter.

In the midst of her disappointing life, Chopendra, 29 makes an entry. With time, he gets closer to her by helping her get passengers and making her laugh through his typical dialect and wit. Initially, she refrains herself. However, he makes continuous efforts to win her. Eventually love bubbles from the corner of her heart and they are in a relationship.
However, does Ranakala and Chopendra’s dreams turn out into reality? Will they start a new life together? These secrets, twists, and turns in the story make ‘Bulbul’ unique and engaging.

BINOD PAUDEL

Binod Paudel was born on 1978 in Kapilbastu,Nepal. He is Nepal based film maker and one of the pioneer of presenting Academic studies in film making in Nepal. He runs a film school as CEO/PRINCIPAL , which is only film college of Nepal that offers bachelor degree in film studies affiliated with Tribhuvan University. The students of this college are creating new wave in Nepal. He has done his Bachelor degree in Film studies from same college and got Master degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the Trinitity saint David University, UK.

He is writer of very critically acclaimed movie ‘SAANGHURO’ that received numerous awards such as National Award/Critics Award and SAARC Film festival best fiction from jury. SAANGHURO was the only movie, broadcasted in UK’s most popular channel – CHANNAL 4. He is honored with best writer of the year by Nepal president – Ram Baran Yadav in 2013 National Award and Critics society of Nepal from the same film.

His first feature film ‘BULBUL’ as a writer and Director released on Feb 15, 2019 in all over Nepal. It collected best responses from audience and Media so far. It is regarded as ‘Top film of the year’ (Nepali year 2077) by many National publications. Many film critics and film scholars regarded ‘BULBUL’ as poetic realism that tells the psychology of present society through intense characters.

POSTER

CONTACT

awakenfilmfactory@gmail.com

Bridge
Kripal Kalita
India. 2020. 87 min

The Bridge is a colorful canvas of an unusual struggle and empowerment of a teenage girl residing at the bank of a tributary of the river Brahmaputra.
The mighty river Brahmaputra of India and it’s tributaries every year floods out many villages and ruins their cultivation. Still the people love the river and it’s green valley. Without a small bridge over its tributary how troublesome and hard their lives become only they can feel & understand.
Every year after floods they start a new life again with a great ray of hope and expectations. Through this film an attempt has been made to draw the attention towards the agony of the people losing everything every year & the daily troubles and hindrances faced in the development of the helpless, poor, honest and simple people residing in the interior parts of the green valley.

KRIPAL KALITA

Kripal Kalita is a film Director, started his career with video production Agnibristi. He has directed 12 Short films and 15 television Serials. He has earned several awards for his films like Red to Black, Megh The Cloud and JAAPI The roof of Assam. Recently Kripal Kalita won Special Mention Award at lnternational Film Festival Of lndia,lFFI-2020. Bridge is his first feature film. He is a graded actor in AIR and a stage director-actor.

DIRECTOR,S NOTE

Bridge shows the struggles faced by a young girl who never gives up on life despite her poverty stricken condition & the annual disastrous floods ruining everything.

PRESS REVIEW

CONTACT

kripalkalita1976@gmail.com

Pilibhit (The Yellow Wall)
Ashutosh Chaturvedi, Pankaj Mavchi
India. 2020. 23 min

Inspired from true stories, Siraj, a righteous, impoverished flute maker, resides at the edge of the forests of Pilibhit, North India, where man eating tigers thrive. His mounting livelihood pressures and tragedies corner him to take a drastic measure that threatens to tear down his values and a loved one.

ASHUTOSH CHATURVEDI / PANKAJ MAVCHI

Ashutosh Chaturvedi completed his Masters in Mass Communication in 2001 from Pune, India. He has worked in various creative capacities in television productions and pursued Hindi theatre. He later joined Sony Entertainment Network India.

Having grown up in different parts of India, Pankaj Mavchi finished his MBA and pursued a corporate job at Sony Entertainment Network India.

To pursue their passion for film making both quit their jobs and co-founded their production company, The House of Story. They have written Hindi daily soaps for television. They have written, produced and directed their first short film Pilibhit and recently finished writing their first feature film which they look forward to direct in the coming year.

DIRECTOR,S NOTE

At what point does one give up? Consu med in our life, when we came across the stories of man – animal conflict along with economic hardships faced by the people in the region of Pilibhit, it did shock us. But gradually it compelled us to examine what nudges the people into a corner until they crumble under its weight. How a person’s downward spiraling circumstances triggers helplessness, loss of control and eventually drains out his dignity, humanity, and will to fightback. What he ends up sacrificing to survive is much deeper than what’s apparent on surface. Even though the film is set in a region far away from our city life, it made us realize how eerily similar our own responses to hardships are.

POSTER

CONTACT

ashutosh@thehouseofstory.in

Café by The Highway
Xiaofan Shi
China. 2021. 108 min

Three years ago, a girl named Yuanfang Han left home because of her father’s slap in the face. She found a job as a barista in Shanghai. Three years later, heartbroken, she returns to her hometown Baima and becomes a highway toll station collector. But the monotonous life in her hometown contrasts with Yuanfang’s desire for adventure. Yuanfang begins to miss the good old days when she made coffee in the city. One day, she and her colleague Da Li find an abandoned space capsule by the highway. They make coffee in the wild space capsule, dreaming of life in a big city in the distance.

SHI XIAOFAN

Shi Xiaofan is currently one of China’s top visual artist. He has worked as an exclusive photographer and short film director for luxury fashion clients such as Vogue, Dior and Louis Vuitton. He has directed numerous TV commercials and personal video art pieces for museums and galleries. His photography work is part of the collection at Beijing UCCA, European House of Photography and various museums in the United States and France. His first short film A PARISIAN MOVIE released in 2011 receives high praises from the audience. CAFÉ BY THE HIGHWAY is his first full-length feature film.

DIRECTOR,S NOTE

I have driven to West China for a long trip many times. Every night, when passing by the toll station, I would meet those collectors who were waiting by themselves. And they would look at me, the stranger, carefully, listening to the music in my car, then have a polite wave goodbye. They are the loneliest persons I have ever seen. They are forgotten and they imagine their own journey. But they fascinated me. If movies can make a dream, I want to give them a miracle, just in one night, because I want to help them escape reality.

POSTER

CONTACT

jie.zhang@moovei.com

House of Cards
Sudipto Roy
India. 2020. 46 min

House of Cards revolves around the life of Sujata, a simple housewife stuck with her husband during the lockdown. This is the story of her world her home and her search, for her “self”. Will she be able to find what she is looking for?

SUDIPTO ROY

Writer, Journalist, and independent filmmaker, Sudipto Roy developed a keen passion for filmmaking that is hard to leave. He aspires to profess and practice visual storytelling with an amicable blend of fiction, non-fiction, mainstream, and arthouse content.

Roy’s debut feature film, Kia and Cosmos was released in 2019 in India, the USA, GCC countries and later released on Netflix. The film garnered prominent international acclaim from festivals in Cannes, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Glasgow, New York and got featured in national as well as international cine magazines.

Roy’s recent works include the web film The Cabin Guard, streaming on Hoichoi, MX Player, Airtel Digital, and Vodafone Play. Other featurettes such as Tasher Ghawr and a part of an anthology, Paanchphoron Season 2, and named as Afternoon Audition are also streaming on Hoichoi, MX Player, Airtel Digital, Vodafone Play.

POSTER

CONTACT

kialistens@gmail.com