Dev Benegal in short film judges panel at Mumbai film fest

New Delhi, Oct 8 (IANS) Dev Benegal of 'English August' fame has been roped in to judge the entries in the short film section of the 12th Mumbai Film Festival (MFF), starting Oct 21.

Aimed at the youth (of Mumbai) under 25, the new section called Dimensions Mumbai includes films on the maximum city by aspiring directors. Besides Benegal, it will also be judged by Bishaka Dutta, Brahmanand S. Singh, Ashim Ahuluwalia and Manish Acharya.

Organised by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI), the festival is a Reliance Big Entertainment Ltd (RBEL) initiative which is the flagship media and entertainment arm of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.

Benegal is a Mumbai-based writer-editor-director; Datta is a journalist; Singh is known for making a National Award-winning documentary on legendary composer R.D. Burman called 'Pancham Unmixed: Mujhe Chalte Jaana Hai'; Ahluwalia is a screenwriter-filmmaker with credits like 'John & Jane' and upcoming Hindi film 'Miss Lovely'; and Acharya is known for his comedy 'Loins of Punjab Presents'.

The five experts will select top 20 films from the received entries that will be screened at the gala. Apart from short fiction, the competition is also open to documentary and animation films.

The winner and the runner-up in the Dimensions Mumbai section will receive Silver Gateway trophies and cash prizes of Rs.100,000 and Rs.50,000, respectively.