NEW DELHI: The Lunchbox directed by Ritesh Batra appears to be garnering much more attention than it would have got at the Oscars. The film has visited many international festivals and is set to go to two more soon.
The Lunchbox will compete at the 24th Stockholm Film Festival being held from 6 to 17 November, and at the American Film Institute Festival from 7 to 14 November.
Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout and Remo D’Souza’s Any Body Can Dance (ABCD) will screen under the Asian Images section in Stockholm.
The Lunchbox, making its Nordic Premiere at the festival, will compete with films like Paul Wright’s For Those in Peril, Anthony Chen’s Ilo Ilo and Amat Escalante’s Heli. The section showcases directors making their first, second or third feature film. .
Monsoon Shootout has earlier been screened at Cannes, Durban, Sydney, Jerusalem and London Indian Film Festivals. Remo D’Souza’s Any Body Can Dance (ABCD) is a 3D dance film directed and choreographed by Remo D’Souza and produced by UTV.
Meanwhile, a total of 32 titles will be screened in the World Cinema section of the AFI. The complete programme includes 119 films (83 features, 36 shorts) from 43 countries.
The Lunchbox, featuring Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, had its world premiere at the International Critics’ Week of the Cannes Film Festival and has since travelled to several important festivals including Telluride, Toronto, Karlovy Vary, Zurich and BFI London.