The Palm Springs International Film Festival will have special ‘Focus on India’ in its 30th edition next year. Six films will be screened under the prominent section. These include the Hindi films Manmarziyaan (2018), Namdev Bhau In Search of Silence and Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota. The Bengali film Ek Je Chhilo Raja (2018) and the Urdu language film Hamid will also be featured.
The Last Color, directed by chef-turned-filmmaker Vikas Khanna, will have its world premiere at the California festival. Khanna adapted his own book of the same name about the unlikely friendship between a nine-year-old flower seller Chhoti (Aqsa Siddiqui) and a 70-year-old widow Noor played by Neena Gupta. The film is one of four to debut at Palm Springs.
Besides the Focus on India section, Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding (2001) will be screened in The Palm Springs Canon section, which screens modern classics like Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation (2011).
Anthony Maras’s Hotel Mumbai starring Dev Patel, Anupam Kher and Armie Hammer, will be showcased in the World Cinema Now section alongside films like Stan & Ollie and Bel Canto. Hotel Mumbai will be screened on Netflix next year.
Rima Das’s Village Rockstars and Iram Haq’s What Will People Say as the respective entries from India and Norway vying for the foreign language nomination at the Academy Awards will also be screened at the festival. The festival is showcasing the films to prospective Academy voters who will be attending.
Finally, Michael Winterbottom’s Wedding Guest starring Dev Patel, Radhika Apte, and Jim Sarbh is scheduled to be screened in the Modern Masters along with new films from filmmakers Christian Petzold, Jia Zhangke, and Karyn Kusama.
The Palm Springs International Film Festival will be held from 3 to 14 January 2019.