Deepa Mehta at 15th River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival (#R2RFIFF) / Looking back at Stuttgart’s #IFFSTR15

Deepa Mehta at the 7th Annual Canadian Filmmakers’ Party 2012 (Photo: Canadian Film Centre / Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license)

Announced today: Indo-Canadian film director and screenwriter Deepa Mehta will be the guest of honour at this year’s River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival in beautiful Florence/Italy (from December 5 to 11, 2015) – always my favourite movie fest of the year.

From Deepa Mehta’s Wikipedia entry :

[She is] most known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire (1996), Earth (1998), and Water (2005); among which Earth was sent by India as its official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Water was Canada’s official entry for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, making it only the second non-French-language Canadian film to put forth for consideration in that category (the first being Zacharias Kunuk’s 2001 Inuktitut-language feature, Atanarjuat), and the first to receive an Oscar nomination. She also co-founded Hamilton-Mehta Productions, with her husband, producer David Hamilton in 1996. She was awarded a Genie Award in 2003 for the screenplay of Bollywood/Hollywood. In May 2012, Mehta received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, Canada’s highest honour in the performing arts.

Looking back at River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival 2014 … and some Florence tips

This year, I was only able to enjoy River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival for five days. But it was my tenth time in a row – and I got to see a particularly fascinating special guest (Irrfan Khan – you can watch more videos of his Q&A sessions here).

Irrfan Khan at 14th River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival / Looking back at last year’s #R2RFIFF

Irrfan Khan (Photo: http://www.bollywoodhungama.com / Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license)

Just announced: Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan will be the guest of honour at this year’s River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival in beautiful Florence/Italy – always my favourite festival of the year.

The festival will hold a special tribute to Khan who next appears in Colin Trevorrow’s „Jurassic World“. There will be screenings of his films „Qissa“, „The Namesake“ and „Paan Singh Tomar“, plus seven episodes of the third season of the HBO series „In Treatment“.

According to Wikipedia, Irrfan Khan has appeared in more than 30 Bollywood films (as of 2013). Khan’s English-language mainstream work includes character roles in movies like „New York“, „I Love You“, „A Mighty Heart“, „Slumdog Millionaire“, „The Amazing Spider-Man“, and „Life of Pi“.

13th River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival: From Ganges to Arno … and Tiber! #R2RFIFF

Shabana Azmi (Photo: Bollywood Hungama / License: CC BY 3.0)

My final (and favourite!) film festival of the year always is the lovely River to River. Florence Indian Film Festival in Florence/Italy (flickr photo album). This year (2013), its 13th edition will take place from Friday, November 22, until Thursday, November 28, at beautiful Cinema Odeon on Piazza Strozzi, followed by a weekend in Rome (November 29 to December 1) at Nuovo Cinema Aquila, via L’Aquila 68).

The programme has just been released today.

Following 2012’s special guest Amitabh Bachchan (video below), this year’s guest of honour will be Shabana Azmi (photo). Wikipedia: „(…) She made her film debut in 1974 and soon became one of the leading actresses of Parallel Cinema, an Indian New Wave movement known for its serious content and neo-realism. (…) Azmi has appeared in over 120 Hindi films in both mainstream and independent cinema, and since 1988 she has acted in several foreign projects.“