The IFP Season 12 Festival opened gateways to creativity on October 8 and 9 at Mumbai’s Filmistan Studio. The festival had several years worth of creative exposure packaged into just two days.
The first day of the festival was kicked off with sessions by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Richie Mehta, the illustrious Javed Akhtar, politician Shashi Tharoor, prolific writer Amish Tripathi, and talented music director Sneha Khanwalkar to name a few. The sessions ranged from discussions on religion in the 21st century to a discourse on cinema vs content, making of the classic film Dead Poets Society, to writing Indian mythologies in a compelling way among many others.
The first day also included live performances by Kanishk Seth (Trio) and Raghav Meattle. Along with all the fun and frolic heated and intellectual debates ensued at the debate rings where topics like liberalism vs fascism, whether RRR should’ve been sent to the Oscars or not, are Reels art or not, and many more. People also got to interact with their favourite speakers at the Fan Zones. Filmmaker-writer Anand Gandhi, spoke to attendees personally even after his time had concluded, due to the overwhelming fanfare. The perfect first day had a perfect ending with the screening of the critically acclaimed film The Worst Person In The World. Some of the other highlights also included an artist creating an iconic scene from The Lion King with just Rubik’s cube, and art installations featuring India Gate made out of bamboo, among three other art installations.
The second day of the festival began with an overwhelming gusto, with a session by internet’s favorite Yashraj Mukhate, followed by the versatile Vijay Varma, veteran director R Balki, photographer extraordinaire Prashant Godbole, the talented Prajakta Koli to name a few. The sessions on this day ranged from making music for the digital age to a panel on making Chup: Revenge of the Artist and Mismatched: Season 2, a roundtable of debutant directors who made commendable films this year to a session on how to not write a bad script by Jaideep session among many others.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
It was also replete with performances by IFP’s previous storytelling and music winners. Also, there were performances from nominees of the inaugural Seven-day Standup Challenge, from which the presiding juries decided the winners.
It also had live performances from indie artists Hanita Bhambri and Rahgir. The day and the festival ended with the much awaited 50 Hour Filmmaking Challenge Award Ceremony. The winning films were premiered at the award ceremony also.
Thousands of creators, thousands of ideas... all culminated into a creative experience that was the IFP Season 12 Festival.
.jpg)
