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National, May 23, 2017
Smt. Nita Ambani, Founder and Chairperson, Reliance Foundation and the co-chair of the Jio MAMI Film Festival today announced the addition of a new category of Award, to be introduced from this year.
The Award for Excellence in Digital Content has been created to provide a platform for young talent to showcase their storytelling abilities via short films, using the digital medium. The first set of Awards in this category, will be given at this year’s edition of the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.
A one of its kind Award, it will take its participants from script to screen; from facilitating mentorship in script development, to finance and finally, also provide a platform for exhibition and distribution. The only criteria for this Award is that applicants must be between the ages of 21-35 years.
Announcing the new Award, Smt. Ambani said, “Last year, Jio dedicated to the nation, one of the world’s most comprehensive and powerful digital networks. Today, I am privileged to introduce ‘The Jio MAMI Reliance Foundation Award for Excellence in Digital Content’. We hope that this Award will encourage young talent to break the boundaries of their creative prowess and take Indian cinema to new and greater heights, especially in the digital space. With the Award, we’re giving our young talent tangible encouragement and support to showcase their showcase their talent.”
Twenty-five participants will be shortlisted and mentored by celebrated Indian filmmakers over two days at an all-expenses paid residential Masterclass in Mumbai to guide them towards their final cut. From these, the top ten will receive a prize money of Rs. 2,50,000 each, upon completion of their short films. In addition, to promote the talent digitally and provide these youngsters with a wide platform, all ten films will be premiered on Jio. This will give millions of Jio viewers a chance to savour the creativity of the young film-makers.
These 10 finalists will also get an opportunity to showcase their short films at this year’s edition of the JioMAMI Festival. The two best films will receive the JioMAMI– Reliance Foundation Gold and Silver trophies at the Jio MAMI 2017 closing gala.
A special website, www.jiomamistudios.com has been created for the registration of entries. All participants, who submit their entries by June 20, 2017 in the form of a synopsis and a one-liner script, will be eligible to attend an online Masterclass (webinar).
The digital media segment in India has seen meteoric growth over the past few years, with new forms of content being created across genres and formats. This space has also seen much disruption, which in turn has led to amplified growth. Given the rising numbers of consumers for this content, this growth is expected to continue.
A large and instrumental role in the shift beyond traditional media, has been the smartphone penetration along with the increased speed and cost-effective connectivity across India, of which Jio has played an important role.
The Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival with Star, is an inclusive movie feast that showcases the latest cutting-edge, independent cinema - art house fare alongside genre movies from Bollywood and Hollywood and some cult international cinema as well. The festival offers the best of world cinema to the people of Mumbai and offers the best of Indian cinema to the world. The festival is run by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image popularly known as MAMI
For further information please contact:
Mansi Mehta
Email: mehta.mansi20@gmail.com