Pics: Rons Bantwal
Daijiworld Media Network – Mumbai (SP)

Mumbai, Nov 10: The Mumbai International Children’s Film Festival – 2009, being held as part of the annual children film festivals organized by the Ryan Group of International Educational Institutions, was inaugurated at the Tata Theatre of National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) at Nariman Point here, on the evening of Friday November 6. The festival is being organized to provide an opportunity for the children of the metro with a unique opportunity to experience outstanding world cinema and with the purpose of developing cultural bridges, both internationally and within the country.

Managing director of the Ryan Group, Grace Pinto, welcomed the guests and the gathering, besides delivering the introductory address.

Dr S Jagathrakshakan, minister of state in the union ministry of information and broadcasting, participated as chief guest at the inaugural function. He inaugurated the festival by lighting the lamp. Other chief guests, academy award winners Megan Mylan, Robert Reece, Amole Gupte and Pritish Nandy, joined the minister in lighting the lamp.

After Dr S Jagathrakshakan delivered the opening address, the other chief guests also addressed the gathering.

Ace Bollywood comedian, Johny Lever, former Sheriffs of Mumbai, Dr Jagannath Hegde, K Shantaram, entrepreneurs Sucharita Sadanand Shetty, Rohit Gupta, V T Kamat, Utkarsh etc., were present.

As part of the festival, exclusive animation and film-making workshops for the children are also being held, apart from exhibiting children’s feature films, animation films, films produced by children, Indian and Iranian retrospectives and holding interactive sessions with the film-makers.