MIFF 2026 kicks off with a song of ice and fire
· Scroll
The 19th edition of the Mumbai International Film Festival kicked off on Monday with a song of ice and fire. Among the opening films was Sara Dosa’s visually sumptuous Time and Water, which examines the threat to Iceland’s glaciers from rampaging climate change and overheated oceans.
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The other titles reflected the Mumbai festival’s three-pronged focus on documentaries, short films and animation. In addition to Time And Water, the opening films were the short fiction Agapito by Arvin Belarmino and Kyla Danelle Romero (Philippines) and the animated short Good Luck to You All by Cordell Barker (Canada).
On until June 21, the biannual MIFF is organised by the National Film Development Corporation. The number of awards and attractive prize money in the competitive sections makes MIFF attractive for filmmakers despite the baggage carried by the government-run event. The festival pays Rs 45 lakh for 18 prizes across international and national competition categories.
MIFF was handled by Films Division until its merger with NFDC in 2020. Even before the merger, the festival was wracked by censorship and bureaucratic bloat. Over the years, MIFF’s interest in giving independent, politically oriented filmmakers a fair platform has steadily dwindled.
The inaugural ceremony on Monday comprised a punishingly long series of felicitations, speeches and a reality show-style dance performance. The event...