Short cut to Cannes

Rajit Kapoor and Habib Faisal

The opportunity to screen big ideas awaits aspiring short filmmakers. A three-day workshop will be held at Matterden CFC (previously known as Deepak Cinemas) in the city starting today, where participants have to make short films on assigned genres in 48 hours. The best film will compete with 120-odd shorts culled from different cities for a cash award of US $500. What's better, it will also stand a chance to be screened at the next Cannes Film Festival's Short Film Corner.

Rajit Kapoor and Habib Faisal

Participants will be mentored and their films judged by director Habib Faisal, theatre personality Rajit Kapoor, actor Parvin Dabas and writer Gopi Puthran. Through this annual project, the 2009 Mumbai film, Time Travel, and Hyderabad winner of 2012, Anukokunda, had made it to Cannes.

Motion Picture Distributors Association (MPDA) would back the project making filmmakers aware of the importance of content protection through videos of Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone and Arjun Kapoor talking about the need to stop piracy.

Habib Faisal said, "I am honoured and excited to be invited as a jury member for the 48-hour film project once again - excited as I will get to watch some amazing short films and learn inventive techniques of story telling with economy of time in the challenging format. I appreciate that MPDA is supporting the event this year and in doing so, they continue to promote creativity and content protection."

Rajit Kapoor also sounded equally enthusiastic. "It's a great stimulant for young minds and it will be nice to see what they come up with," he said.