Shashi Kapoor to be honoured at Mumbai Film Festival

Noted film actor-director Shashi Kapoor will be honoured with the 'Life Time Achievement Award' at the 11th Mumbai Film Festival (MFF) scheduled to take place from October 29 to November 5 here.

The Reliance Big Entertainment initiative organised by Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI), the festival will have a five member international jury including celebrated Hollywood scriptwriter, director and Martin Scorsese's long term collaborator Paul Schrader and eminent Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi.

Kapoor will receive the 'Indian Lifetime Achievement Award' at the inaugural function of the festival and Greek film-maker Theodorous Angelopoulos, considered one of the greatest living directors by critics, will be presented the 'International Lifetime Achievement Award' during the closing ceremony.

"The 11th MFF will showcase the best in contemporary Indian cinema even while it takes a look back at cinema down the ages," said renowned film-maker Shyam Benegal, the chair-person of MAMI in a press statement.

"Our audience will be treated to the works of Shashi Kapoor and Angeloupolous, two film-makers to be honoured with life-time achievement awards. Both have traversed a long path and made a distinctive niche for themselves in world cinema," he added.

The festival will also offer a retrospective of both the auteurs' films. The 11th MFF will also organize an exhibition and screening to commemorate and celebrate 60 years of Dev Anand's Navketan Films.

Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI), a body comprising Indian film industry stalwarts was founded in 1997 by late filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Noted filmmaker Shyam Benegal heads the body that comprises film directors Yash Chopra, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Karan Johar, renowned actresses Shabana Azmi and Jaya Bachchan, actor-director Amol Palekar and Farhan Akhtar among others.