The 12th edition of the biennial Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short and Animation Films (MIFF 2012) kicks off on February 3. To be held until February 9, 2012 at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) Mumbai, the festival since 1990  has grown to be one of the premier global events of documentary film movement and considered on par with acclaimed international film festivals like Leipzig, Berlin, Oberhausen, Cracow, Yamagata and Tampere.

During the week long festival, 101 films including 40 international will be screened. Besides India, countries like USA, UK, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Romania, Georgia, Russia, Hong Kong,  Myanmar and Australia  will participate in the International competition section.

Addressing the press conference Director General, Films Division, Government of India and Festival Director Bankim said, “every effort has been made to make MIFF 2012 content rich” and added “the festival has been made more competitive and as a result evinced keen interest from film makers across the world.”

This year total award money has been enhanced to Rs 63.50 lakhs. The international section will have  twelve awards where best documentary (upto 40 mins) will be honoured with Golden Conch Award  and Best Fiction and Best Animation categories will each get prize money of Rupees five lakhs.

Indian section too will receive ten awards with Golden Conch Award for Best Documentary, Best Fiction and Best Animation film.

To promote student filmmakers in India Best Student Film Award (instituted by Indian Documentary Producers Association) and held in MIFF-2010 has been retained in the current year. The award money also has been enhanced from Rs. 25,000 to Rs.1.00 lakh.

While Best Debut Film Award will fetch a Trophy and Rs one lakh, Dr. V. Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award  will be given to an Indian documentary film maker for his/her contribution to documentary movement. The award will fetch the winner a  trophy and Rs.five lakh in cash.

To commemorate 150th year of Ravindranath Tagore and Centenary celebrations of Satyajit Ray the Homage Section will include films of Mani Kaul, MV Krishnaswamy, BD Garga, PB Pendharkar, Zull Velani and Pratap Sharma.

The jury includes world renowned film maker John Bradbury of Australia, Japanese animation director/producer, SayokoKinoshita, Austrian cinematographer and Director Michael Glawogger, Bulgarian film maker Adela Peeva, Irish film maker Stefanie Dinkelbach and acclaimed film maker Kumar Shahni as part of the Indian and International jury.

The festival includes acclaimed films sourced from India and abroad in special packages and retrospectives. These include the much-admired Eye Candy Animation, films from Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Venezuela, Netherlands and Balkan shorts, Best of Festivals, Films from Film Schools, World War Specials, North East package, PSBT films, Expresion enCorto from Mexico and Decades’ Cream by FTII.

Additionally the festival will have seminars, workshops and open forums on various aspects of short film genre. Master classes by veteran film makers and a workshop on animation and Canon D7 camera will also be held.