Italy’s Luca Guadagnino and India’s Mani Ratnam will receive the Excellence in Cinema awards at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2023.
Ratnam will receive the Excellence in Cinema (South Asia) award and Guadagnino will receive the Excellence in Cinema (International) award. The awards will be presented at the festival’s opening ceremony on 27 October. Both filmmakers will be in attendance and will give masterclasses during the festival.
The festival will screen Guadagnino’s Oscar and BAFTA-nominated “I Am Love” (2009) and both parts of Ratnam’s magnum opus “Ponniyin Selvan” (2022, 2023).
Guadagnino’s films include “A Bigger Splash” (2015), the Oscar-winning “Call Me By Your Name” (2017), “Suspiria” (2018) and the documentary “Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams” (2020). “Bones and All” (2022) won Guadagnino the Silver Lion for best director in Venice. He made his television debut with the HBO drama series “We Are Who We Are” (2020). His film “Challengers”, starring Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor, is due out in April 2024, and he is currently in post-production on his next feature film, based on William S. Burroughs’ novel “Queer”.
Ratnam’s highlights include Mouna Ragam (1986), Nayakan (1987), Roja (1992), Bombay (1995), Iruvar (1997), Alaipayuthey (2000), Kannathil Muthamittal (2002) and Guru (2007). His next film will reunite him with his Nayakan star Kamal Haasan.
Anupama Chopra, Festival Director, Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival said, “It is a privilege to honour these formidable artists. They have redefined and expanded our notions of what cinema can be. We look forward to hosting them at Jio MAMI. One of the key highlights of this year’s Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival will be the masterclasses by these two veterans. India loves their work and they are an inspiration to both established and budding filmmakers across the world.”
The Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival will take place from 27 October to 5 November.
