PickUrFlick Indie Film Festival 2017 kickstarts with 13 Asian Premieres and 4 Indian Premieres

by Shrutee K/DNS

New Delhi : The 1st edition of PickUrFlick Indie Film Festival founded by Abhishek Sinha commenced today with 13 Asian Premieres and 4 Indian Premieres at Instituto Cervantes, New Delhi. The opening ceremony was inaugurated by Mr. Carlos Varona Narvion, Director, Instituto Cervantes.

The spotlight country for this edition is Spain, as special focus is on Spanish/Latin American films. The students studying at Instituto Cervantes attended the festival in huge numbers, as this edition has over 23 Spanish Films. 

Out of the 29 films screened on Day 1, opening film AYNY-My Second Eye', Golden Oscar winner, and silent film Otto, have been nominated in the best animation category, Abdul Rashid Bhat’s The Bitter Truth has been nominated in the best documentary category, he has also been nominated for best director in the documentary category, short film Chingcha-Sawan (Ferris wheel) directed by Phuttiphong Aroonpheng has been nominated in the best editing and best short film category, and the director has also been nominated for best director in the short films category. 

Abdul Rashid Bhat’s documentary on Dal Lake, The Bitter Truth engaged the full house audience, whereas Raja Dwivedi's Beauty Return, a hindi short film on acid attack received mixed reactions.

Delighted with the audience response on Day 1,  Abhishek Sinha, Founder, PickUrFlick.com says “A great start to the festival as we showcased a lot of Spanish content today. We had some eminent filmmakers amongst us like Abdul Rashid Bhatt, whose documentary was very well received by the audience. We have an amazing line up on the weekend and I am hoping that people come and enjoy the movies".

Talking about PIFF bringing in large array of independent cinema, Abdul Rashid Bhat, director, The Bitter Truth (Documentary) says "This festival is a diverse collection of films and is helping everyone to discover global cinema, be it the filmmakers or the audience".

The 3 day film festival is being held from 19-21 May, 2017 at Instituto Cervantes, New Delhi. This edition is screening 70 films over 4 categories in more than 10 languages. 52 shorts, 7 features, 8 Animations and 3 documentaries spread over 23 Spanish films, 14 Silent Films, 7 Hindi Films, 4 Bengali Films, Golden Oscar winning Arabic film , National Award winning Assamese film and Nepali, Persian, German, French, Russian and Kurdish film. The Spotlight country for this edition is Spain as special focus is on Spanish/Latin American films. 30+ films from Spain/Latin America will be screened at the festival.

The festival will also witness 2 World Premieres,  35 Asian Premieres and 6 Indian Premieres, amongst which much awaited thriller , Dealer by Brandon Mckinney will be making its World Premiere on the last day of the festival.

Among other highlights, Jaicheng Jai Dohutia’s Handuk (The Hidden Corner) -Assamese film which won 64th National Film Awards for Best Feature, Iranian short film Label, winner of Best Experimental Film at Venezuela Film Festival & New York Academy of Film & Music 2017, highly acclaimed Myanmar film My Life I Don't Want  and WWII German feature, Hore Die Stille (Hear The Silence) will be screened in this edition.

PIFF will also felicitate the filmmakers with awards like best director, best short film, best feature film, best documentary, best animation, best cinematography, best editing, best screenplay , viewers’ choice award and emerging talent award on 21st May, 2017. These selected movies will also be available online on their website after a month of the festival for the wider audience.

The Bangalore edition of the festival was held from 31^st March - 2^nd April 2017 where 50 films were screened with 20 premieres. More than thousand people attended the screenings and it was very widely appreciated & acknowledged. The jury members who selected the films at both the venues were Anusha Rizvi (Peepli Live), Bhaskar Hazarika (Kothanodi),Mahendra Jakhar (Swastika Killer),, Sanal Kumar Sasidharan (Sexy Durga) and Rao Narendra Yadav (Founder-Director, Woodpecker International Film Festival). 

About PickUrFlick Indie Film Festival : Pickurflick Indie Film Festival-PIFF 2017 is India’s first multi-city offline+online indie film festival for independent film makers from around the globe. Their vision is to promote good independent cinema and support the indie film fraternity. This year’s inaugural edition of the festival received more than 550+ films from 50 countries, out of which around 100+ films were screened across Bangalore and will be screened in Delhi. 100+ films are being screened in Delhi & Bangalore combined.

About the Founder (Abhishek Sinha): Abhishek quit his corporate life after 11 years to pursue his passion for movies and to do what he likes to do the best that is watch movies! He has been keenly following the entertainment industry trends for over more than a decade and had a business idea around movies right from his college days which evolved with the changing times and shaped up to become Pickurflick as it is today. An avid follower of cinema around the world, Abhishek, in a very short span of time has successfully created a platform for independent film makers and is now creating India’s first of its kind Indie film festival.