Eighth Ajanta Ellora Film Festival to be held from Jan 11-15 in Aurangabad

The eighth Ajanta Ellora Film Festival will be held between January 11 and 15 in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad city during which 55 films will screened.

It will be inaugurated by renowned film director Nagraj Manjule, whose Sairaat is among the most feted films in Marathi, in the presence of personalities like actor Kishor Kadam, directors Sameer Patil and Girish Mohite etc, Festival Director Ashok Rane said.

The aim is to take culturally-rich Aurangabad to the global stage as a venue for film shoots. Moreover, people from here will get the chance to interact with international crews. A total of 55 films will be screened over five days, organising committee member Nilesh Raut told PTI.

The five member panel to decide the awards will be headed by Canadian filmmaker Judy Gladstone, while members of the International Federation of Film Critics India (Fiprisci) will also judge some movies, Raut informed.

Director and film scholar Arun Khopkar will be conferred the Padmapani Lifetime Achievement Award during the festival, he said.

Madhur Bhandarkar, Nagraj Manjule, Sai Tamhankar, Shweta Basu Prasad, Sonali Kulkarni, Jitendra Joshi are scheduled to interact with students and those from the film fraternity during the festival, Rane said.