We present the list of winners of the 21st Mumbai Film Festival which will take place from October 17th – 24th in Mumbai, India.

About the festival:
The Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival with Star is an inclusive movie feast. We showcase the latest cutting-edge, independent cinema – art house fare alongside genre movies from Bollywood and Hollywood and cult international movies. They offer the best of world cinema to the people of Mumbai and we offer the best of Indian cinema to the world. The festival is run by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image popularly known as MAMI. Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival With Star is a space where Aamir Khan, Quentin Tarantino, Zhang Yimou and Rajinikanth would all feel equally at home.

India Gold Section
Golden Gateway

Eeb Allay Ooo! by Prateek Vats – India | 2019 – 98 minutes

A young migrant battles hordes of monkeys in the heart of New Delhi as a contractual monkey repeller – a newly created government job to tackle the monkeys who have been further emboldened by the recent ban on the use of captive langurs – their natural enemy.

Silver Gateway

Bombay Rose by Gitanjali Rao – India, UK, France, Qatar | 2019 – 93 minutes

Escaping from child marriage, a flower seller living on the streets of Bombay also dances, reluctantly, in a club. She must choose between fending for her family and finding true love. Painted frame by frame and woven delicately through music, a red rose brings together three tales of impossible love. Love between two flower sellers. Love between two women. Love of an entire city for its Bollywood stars. Based on true events, the film explores the ruthlessness of a society where the love and life that reign on the big screen can crush you in its mean streets.

Trailer:

Grand Jury Prize

Rai for Nimtoh – India | 2019 – 85 minutes

Ten-year-old Tashi and his ageing grandma live as tenants to a wealthy family, In a remote mountain village in Darjeeling. Their job is to look after the family’s cardamom orchard and guard it at night from wild animals. An approaching wedding at their patron’s house excites Tashi. But will they invite him?

Special Jury Mention – Best Actress

Mohini Sharma for her role in Just like that (Aise Hi) by Kislay – India | 2019 – 109 minutes

Mrs. Sharma is the wife of a respected, small-time government employee in small-town Allahabad. When her husband dies, she is expected to move in with her son and grandchildren. But the woman wants to live by herself. She stops going to the temple, buys herself things without worrying about the expense, makes friends with a girl half her age and chooses to spend more time with her new friend than with her family. When Mrs. Sharma decides to learn doll-making with a Muslim tailor called Ali, the entire locality, including her own family, slowly turn against her. In a climate of increasing tensions, Ali begins to fear for his life, and Mrs. Sharma must face the consequences.

International Competition Section
Golden Gateway

Honeyland by Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska – Macedonia| 2019 – 85 minutes

In a Macedonian village, Hatidze – a 50-something woman tends to her hives and her bedridden mother, occasionally heading to the capital to market her wares. One day, an itinerant family installs itself next door, and Hatidze’s peaceful kingdom gives way to roaring engines, seven shrieking children, and 150 cows. Hussein, the itinerant family’s patriarch, makes a series of decisions that could destroy her way of life forever.

Trailer:

Silver Gateway

Buoyancy by Rodd Rathjen – Australia | 2019 – 92 minutes

Chakra, a 14-year-old Cambodian boy, secretly leaves home in search of a better life, but is sold to a Thai broker and enslaved on a fishing trawler. As fellow slaves are tortured and murdered around him, he decides his only hope of freedom is to become as violent as his captors.

Trailer:

Grand Jury Prize

Talking About Trees by Suhaib Gasmelbari – France, Sudan, Germany, Chad, Qatar | 2019 – 93 minutes

Ibrahim, Suleiman, Manar and Eltayeb have been friends for over 45 years. They left their motherland in the 1960s and 70s to study film abroad and founded the Sudanese Film Group in 1989. After years of distance and exile, they reunite, hoping to finally make their old dream come true: to bring cinema to Sudan. They are determined to leave something behind and ignite a love for cinema. Throughout the images they created, the ones they lost and the ones they had hoped to make, the beautiful and horrific faces of their country appear.

Clip:

Special Jury Mention

You will die at twenty by Amjad Abu Alala – Sudan | 2019 – 105 minutes

Sudan, province of Aljazira. When Muzamil is born, the holy man of the village predicts that he will die when he is 20 years old. Muzamil’s father cannot stand the doom and travels away from home. Sakina, as a single mother, is overprotective as she raises her son. One day, Muzamil turns 19…

Trailer:

Solé by Carlo Sironi – Italy, Poland | 2019 – 100 minutes

Ermanno and Lena are strangers. Lena has come from Poland to sell her baby. Ermanno has to pretend to be the father so that he can entrust the newborn to his uncle Fabio. As Lena rejects her motherly desire, Ermanno starts to behave as if he were the actual father of Sole, the baby girl. Unexpectedly, they experience family life together.

Trailer:

Special Award for Discovering India

The Illegal by Danish Renzu – USA, India | 2019 – 86 minutes

Indian student Hassan moves to Los Angeles to attend college and pursue his filmmaking dreams. Because of circumstances beyond his control, he is forced to drop out of school and get a job, becoming an undocumented worker.

Dimensions Mumbai Section
Golden Gateway

Batti by Akshay Sarjerao Danavale – India | 2019 – 5 minutes

A day in the life of Batti, a 10-year-old boy, involves him cleaning parked cars and selling books on Mumbai’s local trains to make a living. While he desires a normal childhood, the city of dreams demands a price.

Silver Gateway

Attention by Shubham Sanap – India | 2019 – 5 minutes

A peon’s actions are misinterpreted by the people around him because of their ideas, beliefs, and preconceived notions.

Special Jury Mention

Apna Apna Andaz by Avishkar Bharadwaj – India | 2019 – 5 minutes

Mumbai. Mid ’90s. A teenage boy escapes from a hospital to watch a movie, only to find out that his ticket has been stolen by pickpockets. Determined to find the thieves and still hoping to watch the film on time, the boy seeks the help of policemen. Inspired by a true story.

Unsaid by Deeksha Mhaskar – India | 2019 – 5 minutes

A small-town man migrates to Mumbai with the hope of leading a better life. But the lack of family support compels him to put his morals aside to survive. When he comes across another man in a similar situation, he decides to write to him.

Film Critics Guild Award
Best Film

Just like that (Aise Hi) by Kislay – India | 2019 – 109 minutes

Special Jury Mention

Shut Up Sona by Deepti Gupta – India | 2019 – 84 minutes

A legal notice arrives one day at singer and popstar Sona’s doorstep, accusing her of blasphemy. Her fault? Singing an 800-year-old song that has devotional lyrics while being dressed ‘obscenely’. Used to being questioned every single day, this is just one fight of many, as she fights for equal space in a culture ridden with misogyny.

Manish Acharya Award for New Voices in Indian Cinema

Bombay Roseby Gitanjali Rao – India, UK, France, Qatar | 2019 – 93 minutes

Gamak Ghar by Achal Mishra – India | 2019 – 91 minutes

In a north Indian village, a family reunites at their ancestral home to celebrate a new birth in the family. It’s a joyous, carefree occasion. Over the next two decades, through festivals and feasts, births and deaths, the film observes one house as it ages and falls to neglect.

Young Critics Choice Awrad

Eeb Allay Ooo! by Prateek Vats – India | 2019 – 98 minutes

Half Ticket Section
Golden Gateway (Age Category 13- 17)

Girl in the hallway by Valerie Barnhart – Canada | 2019 – 11 minutes

A man who bore witness to the circumstances surrounding a child’s disappearance struggles with the weight of his silence and inaction.

Trailer:

Golden Gateway (Age Category 5-12)

Aïlo’s Journey by Guillaume Maidatchevsky – France, Finland | 2018 – 86 minutes

Follow a young reindeer’s first year at close range, filled with moments of puzzlement, wonder, struggle, and delight as Aïlo, guided by his mother, must navigate an icy world. Sharing the terrain with Aïlo are a wily, ever-wiggly stoat, an endlessly curious redeared squirrel, and sharp-eyed wolves.

Trailer:

Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Film Awards
Indian Circus by Nikhil Rao – India | 2019 – 25 minutes
A circus going through really bad times tries its luck with a new act. A very true insight into the current situation of circuses.

Screen To Word MAMI
Mukesh Manjunath – Harper Collins Imprint Grant

The Best Young Critic
Best Critic
Shachita Shetty

Special Mention
Sanjana Bhagway & Siddhant Chawla