“For the Sake of Peace” screened at the Cannes Film Festival

Festival de Cannes: US actor Forest Whitaker smiles with the trophy after he was awarded with an Honorary Palm D’Or during the Opening Ceremony of the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France.

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Pic Courtesy: AFP

After receiving the honour Mr. Whitaker stated that "I am so happy to have “For the Sake of Peace” screened at the Cannes Film Festival this year. My personal thanks to all of you who made the film possible – in South Sudan, the US and France!

Pic Courtesy: AFP

He takes it to his Twitter and mentions 'Thank you so much Cannes! Receiving the 2022 Palme d’or d'honneur is a grace beyond words! My gratitude goes to Pierre Lescure and Thierry Frémaux for granting me this award, and for their commitment to cinema as a universal art'.

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Will take all measures to speed up Co- Production Collaborations from the world: Anurag Thakur

Mumbai [India], May 19: Government policies to help media and entertainment ecosystem to generate USD 53 billion annually by 2025

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“है प्रीत जहां की रीत सदा, मैं गीत वहां के गाता हूं, भारत का रहने वाला हूं, भारत की बात सुनाता हूं “, carrying the tales of Bharat, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Shri Anurag Thakur today addressed the India Forum at the famous Palais des Festivals in Cannes. Representing a 6000 year old culture and 1.3 billion people the Minister delivered his keynote address in front of audience comprising foreign and Indian filmmakers, journalists and delegates.

The session moderated by Ms Vani Tripathi had on the panel Shri Apurva Chandra, Secretary, Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, Shri Prasoon Joshi, Writer, Poet, and Chairman, Central Board of Film Certification, Shri R Madhavan, Indian actor, writer, director, and producer, Shri Shekhar Kapur, Indian filmmaker, actor, television presenter and entrepreneur and Chairman, Film and Television Institute of India, Mr. Scott Roxborough, Editor, Hollywood Reporter, Mr. Philip Avril, Producer.

This year marks the 75th year celebration of both Cannes Film Festival and of establishment of India-France diplomatic relations. Speaking on the importance of Cannes, the Minister said that over the years, ‘Festival de Cannes’ has played a significant role in strengthening Indo-French relations. The Minister noted the historic highs of Indian cinema and said that Indian content has been ruling the hearts and minds of the global audience and the stepping stone was laid by bestowing the Palme d’Or to the prolific Indian filmmaker Chetan Anand’s film Neecha Nagar in 1946 and a decade later in 1956, Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali won the Palme d’Or. Today the recognition of our cinematic excellence the world over is set to manifest the country into the ‘content hub of the world’, the Minister added.

Speaking on India’s current presence in Cannes the Minister said “India intends to give you - the global audience, a flavour of the country’s cinematic excellence, technological prowess, rich culture and illustrious heritage of storytelling”. “India’s red carpet presence captured the diversity of our cinematic excellence not only in terms of representation of actors and film makers from various languages and regions, but also OTT platforms, with a strong presence of music composers and a folk artist who have enthralled audiences both young and old”, the Minister further added.

The Minister informed the audience about the presence of Indian startups in Cannes and said the startups from media and entertainment sector will showcase their technological prowess and pitch to the best from the world of AVGC along with a strong delegation of animation professionals from the sector.

The Minister informed the audience of the various measures by both Union and State governments and said while Center has envisioned major initiatives over the last 8 years to boost co-productions, film shoots and film facilitations in India, States like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have formulated their own film facilitation policies and provided co-production opportunities. He stated that these efforts are aimed at boosting India’s media and entertainment ecosystem, which is expected to generate USD 53 billion annually by 2025.

In one such measure, “Government of India officially designated audiovisual services as one of 12 'champion service sectors’ and recently set up an AVGC task force comprising of industry leaders to prepare a policy roadmap for India to take a quantum leap in this sector and position us as the preferred ‘post production hub of the world’ “.

Shri Anurag Thakur painted a bright future for M&E sector in India saying that on one hand artificial intelligence, virtual reality, immersive technologies such as the Metaverse, present immense possibilities to India’s IT skilled workforce, the OTT market in India is predicted to grow at 21% annually to nearly 2 Billion Dollars by 2024 on the other.

The Minister promised that the Government will take all necessary measures to transform India into a Global Content Sub Continent and use the skills of our youth to make India the preferred Post Production Hub for AVGC sector and to that end Government will speed up co-production collaborations from around the world and also offer the best locations in India for Film Shoots. These steps, Shri Thakur envisioned, will in the next 5 years, catapult Bharat into the league of leading quality content producing nations across the globe.

Shri Thakur concluded his statement by extending a warm invitation to foreign film makers to shoot in India, bask in its hospitality and relish its breathtaking landscape.

Shri Shekhar Kapur spoke about the effect of access to cheap broadband and mobile devices having a disruptive effect on movie industry and said that India is about to become the world’s biggest ‘influencer economy’ and that cinema will soon be redefined by the young film makers.

India is a pool of restless dreams, dreams that are restless to make it big, of looking forward, added Shri Prasoon Joshi to the comment of Shri Shekhar Kapur.

Mr. Scott Roxborough, the style of Indian storytelling needs a lot more to become appealing to world market.

Shri Apurva Chandra contested the notion by Mr. Scott Roxborough by citing movies like Lunchbox, Mr and Mrs Iyer and Rocketry that are typically Indian in their story but have resonated with audience across the world. He further reiterated the incentives announced by the Government of India yesterday for film makers from across the world.

Shri R. Madhavan commented on how India has so much to tell the world in the field of science and technology and the cinema world must explore this idea. From Aryabhatta to Sundar Pichai India has extraordinary stories which are aspirations of youngsters around the world.

The Speech of I & B Minister Shri Anurag Thakur from the Cannes Campus | PIB | AFP

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I & B minister Anurag Thakur meets Shivani Pandya, Red International Film Festival MD, at Cannes

Festival de Cannes: Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, who is leading the Indian delegation at Cannes Film Festival, on Wednesday met Shivani Pandya, Managing Director at the Red Sea International Film Festival, Saudi Arabia.

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Anurag Thakur and Shivani Pandya, Red International Film Festival MD, at Cannes 2022/ AFP

The Information and Broadcasting Minister has a packed schedule on the second day of Cannes Film Festival. The minister is also scheduled to meet Jerome Paillard and Guillaume Esmiol, Executive Directors of The Marche Du Film, to explore further business partnerships with India.

The minister on Tuesday led the largest-ever Indian official delegation of eleven celebrities walking together on the inaugural event at Cannes Film Festival.

Mame Khan became the first ever folk artist to open a Red Carpet for Indian contingent. The festival is special this year for its celebration of Indian cinema's prowess as India is the first-ever official Country of Honour at Marche du Film. India is also a 'Country of Honour' at the Cannes Next, under which five new startups would be given an opportunity to pitch to the audio-visual Industry.

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