Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, one the most immersive and comprehensive program, celebrating the diverse cinematic voices of our country has been cancelled indefinitely.
The 2021 edition of the festival was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic, and was meant to be held in March in 2022, but is now cancelled.
The festival is organized by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI), which was conceived and created with an aim to engage film lovers from all walks of life. The cancellation has directly affected independent filmmakers, for whom film festivals are very important and many a times the only platform to premiere their work.
In communication sent to participating filmmakers on Friday, event organiser cited logistical and financial challenges among many other reasons. They wrote that due to the continuing pandemic, logistical and financial challenges, it has become untenable for them to hold the festival in March.
According to an official statement issued by the festival organisers on Saturday, they will continue to screen films on their digital screening platform(Shift72) and also hopefully be able to do an on-ground component before the year ends.
The Mumbai Film Festival’s 2020 edition was scrapped because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2021 edition was pushed to March 2022 because of the emergence of coronavirus variants.
Jio, the telecom giant from Mukesh Ambani’s group, is the title sponsor. Nita Ambani is co-chair of the MAMI’s board of trustees. Her daughter, Isha Ambani, is a trustee alongside Mahindra Group head Anand Mahindra, PVR Cinemas chairperson Ajay Bijli and a host of filmmakers, including Zoya Akhtar, Vikramaditya Motwane and Siddharth Roy Kapur. In August 2021, Priyanka Chopra Jonas replaced Deepika Padukone as MAMI chairperson.
