Italian auteur Luca Guadagnino and Indian filmmakers Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti‘s Tiger Baby will lay the ground for future collaborations at a Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival event.
The event, designed as a celebration of Guadagnino, will honor his work. “Tiger Baby’s celebration of Luca Guadagnino’s contributions to world cinema marks a significant step toward fostering international collaboration and sharing diverse stories with a global audience. This event aims to bridge the gap between Indian filmmakers, emerging talents and international cinephiles. The event will provide a platform for creative content production, cultural exchange and international collaboration in the world of cinema,” the festival said.
Prior to the event, Guadagnino will deliver a masterclass at the festival. The filmmaker was accorded the festival’s Excellence in Cinema (International) award by chair Priyanka Chopra Jonas at the opening ceremony on Oct. 27. The festival is screening Guadagnino’s Oscar and BAFTA nominated “I Am Love” (2009).
Guadagnino’s films include “A Bigger Splash” (2015), the Oscar-winning film “Call Me By Your Name” (2017), “Suspiria” (2018) and feature documentary “Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams” (2020). “Bones and All” (2022) won Guadagnino the Silver Lion for best director at Venice. He made his TV 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 in April 2024, and he is currently in post-production for his next feature based on William S. Burroughs’ novel “Queer.”
Festival director Anupama Chopra said: “Luca Guadagnino’s oeuvre is extraordinary. As we felicitate him with Jio MAMI Excellence in Cinema Award this year, we’re delighted to host a celebration along with Tiger Baby in his honor. The gathering is a chance for the South Asian talent to engage with him.”
Tiger Baby’s “Gully Boy,” directed by Akhtar and written by her, Kagti and Vijay Maurya, was a Berlinale selection in 2019. This year’s Berlinale Series featured India’s debut on the platform, Kagti and Akhtar’s Prime Video series “Dahaad.” Season 2 of their Prime Video series “Made in Heaven,” is a hit for the service.
Next up for the duo is Netflix film “The Archies,” based on the popular comic books, written by them and directed by Akhtar, which streams from Dec. 7. They are also producing Namrata Rao’s “Angry Young Men,” a documentary on famed Bollywood screenwriters Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, who created Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘angry young man’ persona in the 1970s; and Arjun Varain Singh’s friendship saga film “Kho Gaye Hum Kahan,” starring Adarsh Gourav (“The White Tiger”), Ananya Pandey (“Dream Girl 2”) and Siddhant Chaturvedi (“Gully Boy”).
The Tiger Baby team said: “We are so delighted to celebrate Luca Guadagnino. We are huge fans of his work and we aren’t the only ones. There are many filmmakers like us in the industry who will get a now have the opportunity to interact with him and let him know that he will always welcomed at Jio MAMI and in India.”
Guadagnino’s masterclass and the event will take place on Oct. 29 at Mumbai’s National Media Centre located at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre. The festival runs through November 5.