Shimla Film Festival

Vijyender Sharma

Shimla ----- Cinema and Shimla have had a long association; a live tradition of theatre has been around for even a longer period. No matter what synergies the location and films have had, somehow a healthy tradition of inculcating the craft of filmmaking or appreciating the finer points of presenting a story on celluloid has not come to stay.

Where technological advances have made it possible for even amateurs to take to filmmaking aggressively and even school education boards like CBSE have introduced filmmaking as a school subject, yet the wide gap in both quality and quantity between Himachal Filmmakers and those in rest of India or global filmmakers is very wide.

Talking to reporters Mr Ravinder Makhaik, Director of the Film Festival said that The two day Shimla Film Festival – 2014, (which we aspire to make an event on the yearly calendar of the city), is a humble attempt to bridge that gap. 

By holding SFF -2014, on April 12 & 13, we seek to present the wide ambit films and filmmaking have at a time when Himachal Pradesh is to celebrate its Foundation Day on April 15, . 

We are also using the occasion to make a healthy connect between local filmmakers with global and global filmmakers with local ones. Shimla Film Festival has been marked into two sections, one for Himachal Filmmakers and the other for national / international filmmakers, says Makhaik.

The competitive section is only for Himachal Filmmakers, where the entries have been invited in six categories; feature film, short film, documentary, music video, spots and corporate or promotional film.

Two awards per category will be selected by an independent jury. We have a panel of three eminent people; filmmaker Vivek Mohan, journalist Rakesh Lohumi and photographer Sanjay Austa as the jury for the film festival. Governor Himachal Pradesh Urmila Singh will be the Chief Guest for the award ceremony on April 13 evening.

In the open section category, filmmakers will not compete for any awards but the best films entered will get a commendation and will be screened during the film festival. Response to the SFF-2014, so far has been very positive from both Himachal Filmmakers and from Open category filmmakers.

Jury Profile - Shimla Film Festival 2014

Vivek Mohan

Vivek Mohan is a National Award winning Director and Script Writer who has an over two decade of experience in Documentary Filmmaking. Born, brought up & educated in Shimla, Vivek gave vent to his creative talent by joining Lintas, one of India’s best advertising agency, in Mumbai. Working with top-notch professional, he was part of a select team that worked on many prestigious advertisements, corporate films, audio-visual film projects. After breaking out as an independent filmmaker, his debut documentary film “In Search of Malana” went onto win the coveted President’s National Award. Other documentaries made by him include ‘For Whom The Jingle Bells Toll’ and ‘Spot The Difference’. He has also been on the jury of several film festivals, which include SCRIPT 2012, a film festival held in Cochin and International Film Festival of India 2011 at Goa. He lives in Mumbai and Shimla

Rakesh Lohumi

Rakesh Lohumi is an award winning senior journalist, a film buff, has a fine ear for good music and at one point was a member of Hijackers Band that included famous playback singer Mohit Chauhan. His diverse interests range from music, performing arts, to philosophy and astrology. In a journalistic career spanning over three decades, for The Tribune, he has reported on practically every aspect within the geography of Himachal Pradesh. For his story on illegal and reckless mining of slates in Dhauladhar ranges, he was conferred the State Award for Developmental Journalism in 1987. He is also the recipient of the 1988-89 Himotkarsh Award. By qualification, Rakesh Lohumi had intended to be a scientist and was pursuing a PhD in Physics before a chance accident had him set out on a career in journalism. He lives in Shimla.

Sanjay Austa

Sanjay Austa is an award winning photo journalist. His very first assignment was a two month long affair documenting the Indian Army’s expedition to scale Mt Kanchenjunga. His photo essays such as Life in the Arctic, Deserts in the Middle East, Wild in the African Savannas and lives of ordinary Americans in US have been published in Indian and International Media, which include Wall Street Journal, National Geographic Traveller, The Sunday Guardian, Outlook Traveller and Mumbai Mirror. His photo-feature on 1984 anti-Sikh Delhi riots was exhibited in California (2009) and in UK (2010). Sanjay Austa is a guest faculty at various photography and journalism institutes which includes the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi and St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. For his photo essays, he was conferred with the Karamveer Puraskar Award in 2010. He lives in Delhi and Shimla.