Interview | How select Berlinale Shorts made it into the Mumbai International Film Festival 2024 programme

Mumbai International Film Festival 2024 jury members. Berlinale Shorts head Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck is also on the MIFF National Competition jury. (Image credit: PIB Mumbai)

National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) artistic director (programming) Pankaj Saxena met Berlinale Shorts curator and head Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck in February 2024. It was Saxena's last day in Berlin where he was attending the Berlin Film Festival 2024, but the two managed to work out a plan: A selection of short films from the last five years of the Berlin Film Festival would be screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) 2024. MIFF has been showcasing Indian and international short films, animations and documentaries since 1990.

In an email interaction, Pankaj Saxena recalls: "Yes, that was my last day at Berlin and I was delighted that we were able to work out a great collaboration in good time. Berlinale Spotlight - a programme of 12 films from Berlinale Shorts at MIFF 2024 - features some of the most fascinating short films from across the globe. They amplify some very significant local concerns of diverse lands on one hand and major innovations in film form on the other."

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Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck is in Mumbai for the MIFF. In an email interaction during the Mumbai film festival, she spoke about the collaboration, Indian short film Gumnaam Din and what she is looking forward to at the 18th Mumbai International Film Festival.

How did the collaboration with MIFF 2024 happen?

Mr. Pankaj Saxena saw several screenings of Berlinale Shorts at our festival in Berlin in February. He enjoyed the selection and contacted us. We met to have a chat and some coffee and in the end we had the idea to put together a programme for MIFF 2024 and present films that premiered at Berlinale Shorts to the audience here in Mumbai.

You are attending MIFF 2024 as well. What are you looking forward to the most?

I am also part of the jury of the National Competition (at MIFF2024). This is always a great chance to learn more about the local filmmakers and the conditions they can work in, and to experience what's on their mind, how they see life and what kind of stories they want to tell or are able to tell. I enjoy exploring these different perspectives and getting to know a country through its short films.

Tell us about the current selection of Berlinale Shorts for MIFF 2024 - how did you pick these films out of all the short films shown at the Berlinale in the last 5 years?

All these films caused strong and warm reactions from the audience and the press. By putting together a mix of fiction, animation, documentary, experimental and hybrid films, I tried to give an impression of the kind of films we show at Berlinale Shorts.

If you could please share 4-5 recommendations from this section for someone who loves cinema but may be short on time.

Oh, that's always hard to do, since I love them all. But I am very much looking forward to Programme 3, because Ekta Mittal, one of the directors, will be there in person to present her film GUMNAAM DIN (Missing Days). I haven't seen her since we showed this beautiful and touching film in 2020 and I can't wait to rewatch it on the big screen together with her and the audience.