Mumbai film fest honours Dharmendra, Rishi Kapoor

Mumbai, March 13 (IANS) Dharmendra and Rishi Kapoor, two of Bollywood's most popular stars of yesteryears, were conferred the Lifetime Achievement Awards at the closing ceremony of the 10th International Film Festival, Mumbai, Thursday evening.

The two actors were honoured for 'their significant contributions to cinema over the last 25 years' at the closing function of the eight-day event.

Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura received the Global Lifetime Award, introduced from this year by the Mumbai Academy of Movies Images (MAMI), the organiser of the festival.

The Cannes Award winning movie 'Mourning Forest,' a Franco-Japanese co-production directed by Naomi Kawase, was the closing movie of the festival.

Bollywood's respected lyricist Gulzar and veteran audiographer Hitendra Ghosh were also honoured at the closing ceremony attended by the Bollywood glitterati and film aficionados.

The festival this year reached out to 45 countries and received 140 entries.

The festival organizers introduced from this year a new section called 'Dimensions:Mumbai'. Though 84 entries were received for this section, only 25 were selected.

The MAMI festival, as it is popularly called, was marked this year by good programming, which was appreciated by delegates and film buffs alike.

Addressing the gathering, the festival's artistic director Sudhir Nandgaonkar said: 'I am happy that the festival regulars and delegates attending the 10th International Film Festival, Mumbai, have liked the programming this year. This is the greatest award for me as the festival director.'

In terms of delegate attendance, this year's event was an improvement on those of the previous years. As many as 2,000 delegates attended the festival this year.

The response from the film buffs and general public was also overwhelming as all the festival venues where the movies were screened were packed all through the eight days of the festival.

Shyam Benegal, chairman of the Mumbai Academy of Moving Images Trust and celebrated filmmaker, proposed a vote of thanks.