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List of Shortlisted films for Screening at PVR ICON, Versova on 15th March:
Every year, handpicked films from across genres are screened at the festival, where each film is carefully selected based on artistic merit, cultural diversity, and relevance to contemporary issues. Amongst the 61 nominated films we have shortlisted 30 short films for the screening at the 3rd MICFF India Awards, which will take place on March 15th at the PVR ICON Infinity, Versova, Mumbai, from 10:00 am.
Bichauliya is the story of a man’s manhood!!
An honest lilliput pimp by the name Khushiyan, whose job is to look for online client of a high profile call girl Sugandhi, who takes Khushiyan just as a professional pimp and one fine day Khushiyan lands up at her house for the next booking, where he finds Sugandhi almost half naked but it doesn’t matter to Sugandhi as for her he is just a pimp. And there it hurts his ego & his self love rises and next day he himself becomes a client in front of Sugandhi and see what happens next when then this high-profile Sugandhi meets Khushiyan not as aPimp but as a client!!
Directed by Raj Pritam More
Cast : Indira Tiwari | Ankur Wadhave
Liberation
The girls are playing with their children when an adult woman suddenly enters their childish sanctuary and takes the girl into real and bitter life.
Directed by Milad Maleki Kahengi
Cast : Shahla Hamidvand | Mersa Alipour | Raha Dabirban Moghadam
The Acorn
An old man at the same time as the last days of his daughter's pregnancy; Lost his old wife; With the nobility of the girl's spiritual dependence on her mother; The old man is forced to hide this death until the birth of his grandson. The daughter is a restless mother.
Directed by Ebrahim Hesari
Cast : Kaleh Rashidi | Shima Mollaei | Fattaneh Ahmadzadeh
Wedding Dress
Raheleh, a 35-year-old woman, lives with her mother and son on the outskirts of the city in dire economic conditions after her husband's death due to the corona virus, and she faces a big and serious problem...
Directed by Hamed Mousavi
Cast : Kamran Ghorbani | Mina Panahi | Narjes Delaram |Mobin Zeinali | Hesam Kazemi | Roqaye Valipoor
A few minutes sub Zero
A father who enters a car warehouse with his daughter to trade a vehicle
At the same time that he was walking away from the car, his daughter, who has no good hearing, got out of the car to look for her father, but she got lost in the graveyard of cars.
Directed by Hirad Azarang
Cast : Reza Chehrazi | Sahar Aghaei | Feredrik Galestanian
Ek Aur Baat
The film is about a 50 year old internet chef Seema whose life turns upside down after the accidental delivery of a vibrator to her home. After its arrival, Seema goes through a journey of self discovery where she realises her desires and reveals her real self to her partner. The film’s objective is to normalise the sexual needs of women from a forgotten age bracket and to promote sex positivity in society.
Directed by Vamika Sachar
Cast : Pubali Sanyal | Rajiv Kumar
Dog
A man that think dog is unclean one day in its trip in desert faced with a dog
Directed by Mohammad hassan yassaee
Cast : Mohammad zebarjadi | Jeyson (Dog)
On/Off
An Afrikaans-speaking man helps his elderly German neighbour in a time of need, despite a language barrier. In the process, he learns volumes about himself.
Directed by Jurg Slabbert
Cast : Marlo Minnaar | Aletta Bezuidenhout
Tasalli Se...
Somesh (Nakuul Mehta) and Ranjan (Naveen Kasturia) are estranged friends, who haven’t met or spoken to each other since 12 years, after ideological and political differences ended their friendship. But a day well spent with each other, discussing, debating, sharing and expressing their thoughts and experiences and vulnerabilities, helps them bond again.
Directed by Tarun Dudeja
Cast : Nakuul Mehta | Naveen Kasturia
Gray
‘Gray’ is a story about Naina (Shreya Dhanwanthary), a 20-something girl whose best friend violates the boundaries of her consent. Except that, in a world where everything is defined as ‘black’ and ‘white’, she’s left to grapple with whether or not what happened was in the ‘gray’ areas. With the help of her therapist, Dr Noorani (Dia Mirza), Naina takes a journey between past and present, to learn how to deal with her feelings and her trauma, and clearly define for herself the meaning of ‘consent’.
Directed by Sakshi Gurnani
Cast : Dia Mirza | Shreya Dhanwanthary | Chaitnya Sharma | Gurpreet Saini | Devika Vatsa
Pound of Flesh
Pound of Flesh is an Indian Neo-Noir short film that revolves around the life of a self-perceived righteous man, Venkat Anna or just Anna to those who love and even revere him. His approach to life is rooted in a simple approach to Karma. By doing good, he believes that if he hasn’t done anything wrong, Karma is a witness to his good actions and bad won’t ever happen to him.
Directed by Chinmay Deshpande
Cast : Kumaradas T N | Jagdish Kannam | Ashwanth Ashokkumar | Bachan Pachehra | Vikrant Wadkar
Master Ji
This is a story of Tyagi Sir - a biology teacher just 2 years away from retirement. The film starts on 21st Mar 2020 - the day India announced 1 day of lockdown and then extended it for 5 months. In the film, Tyagi sir's world changes overnight, as schools go online. We see him struggling. His family tries to help and keep him happy. He is hoping for lockdown to end so that he can go back to school. The day lockdown is removed, he gets to know that online school will continue for 6 more months. This is the day when all his hopes are shattered and he types his resignation letter. He receives a call from one of his ex-students, who is now a doctor thanking him for his contribution in his life. Shaken, Tyagi sir, decides to master technology and new ways of teaching.
Directed by Sameer Sharma
Cast : Raghubir Yadav | Anjuman Saxena | Priya | Zeeshan
I Pledge
India is a land where we preach non violence. It's one of the rarest civilizations where we pray both to the male and female Gods. We learn in a pledge that we should be compassionate to every soul but things are happening on the contrary.
Directed by Anurag Tiwari, Himanshu Vohra
Cast : Ayesha Siddiqui | Biraj Vohra | Aarav Grover | Ansh Dixit | Amogh Bajpayee | Manish Kumar
The Rein
A husband comes to visit his wife (Who has come to her parent's place) in the field making an excuse of her birthday. Their meeting slowly unfolds the tension between them.
Directed by Madan Kale
Cast : Siddharth Thorat | Swati Gotawale
Chateau Sauvignon: terroir
'Chateau Sauvignon: terroir' follows the isolated adolescent son of a storied vintner family who finds himself torn between obeying his father’s callous restrictions and preventing his ailing mother from deteriorating further. When a doting woman and her indifferent son arrive seeking a tasting and tour of the winery, Nicolas sees an opportunity to help care for his mother, as well as prove his worth to his choleric father. However, his wayward plan quickly takes a turn for the worse, and his missteps puts his family’s secretive murderous ways in peril of being unearthed.
Directed by D.M. Night Maire
Cast : Michael Lorz | Sean Weil | Anthony del Negro | Nancy Nagrant | Pooya Mohensi
Birth of Fire
One fine day in a rural village in Maharashtra, a man commits an act of violence and justifies it in the name of peace. This starts the journey of his self introspection. Fire is the only one who is witness to his self destruction.
Directed by Rohan Apte
Cast : Makarand Naik | Vedant Nene | Kiran Keluskar | Pranay Manohar
Ankur
Film is about an optimistic farmer who doesn't want to migrate to the city like others even though there is a drought in the village. The Farmer's son also has his own aims and desires about life. He knows that his father is not able to afford home expenses, so how could he fulfil my desire? So he tried himself to complete his desire, He used his own knowledge which he learnt from the environment around him to complete his aim as well as come out from drought situation. This is a story of a farmer and his son who continue to fight with drought with some innovative ideas; we couldn't come to a conclusion that it's a solution.
Directed by Mohan Anandrao Dhuldhar
Cast : Harish Baraskar | Neha Bhosle| Sujal Shelke | Ratandip Wavhale | Narayan Pawar Ratandip Wavhale
The Last Walk
The story of an old blind man coming to terms with saying goodbye to his long time canine friend.
Directed by Lawrence Chandam
Cast : Chandam Ranjan Kumar
Azaadi Mubarak
If you're not free to love, you're not free. A couple experiences the fear and anxiety owing to a seemingly creepy troublemaker. The situation makes them question their independence.
Directed by Maaz Kazmi
Cast : Chandralekha Mukherjee | Rahul Vats | Varun Vazir
Rubaroo
‘Rubaroo [Faces]’ applies a distinct approach to its visual development which ensures that the punch of the film truly lands. The plot has set out to convey an important social message, one about cruel, brutal acid attacks carried out against women in India.
The communication of the message is achieved with swift narratorial progression, as well as a strong performance, most crucial for the success of this communication. Together the various elements come forth to present a powerful narrative which, in turn, succeeds in telling an urgent story.
Directed by Maaz Kazmi
Cast : Ruchi Tripathi
Impasse
An old man whose job is to dig graves realizes that he will die soon....
Directed by Ehsan Norouzi
Cast : Parviz Zerafat | Nazila Sadeghi
The Disabled
Hossein suffers from epilepsy and is unable to work, so his family has decided to get disability through social security insurance.
Directed by Hamid kermani
Cast : Mohammadvali Foroutan | Nasrin Ahmad Khani
The Bitter Almond
Atieh is a seven-year-old girl who lives in a troubled family and the social emergency of the welfare center is trying to take her to a child care center, but Atieh and her mother are against it.
Directed by Mahnaz Ebrahimzadeh
Documentary
Khojasteh
Reza is a worker in a farm outside the city, he is an isolated and bored man
Reza's life has caused him to be pessimistic about the people around him and to have an emotional relationship with his favorite calf named Khojasteh.
But something causes Khojasteh to leave it ...
Directed by Amir Hossein Hasani
Cast : Seyed Saeid Shah cheragh | Mobina Saeedi | Ali Fathi
Mother
Reza is a worker in a farm outside the city, he is an isolated and bored man
Reza's life has caused him to be pessimistic about the people around him and to have an emotional relationship with his favorite calf named Khojasteh.
But something causes Khojasteh to leave it ...
Directed by Amir Hossein Hasani
Cast : Seyed Saeid Shah cheragh | Mobina Saeedi | Ali Fathi
Scandal
The hunter-gatherer rides a woman on the way. The man is tempted to follow the woman, and the hunter enters the house in the woman's greed.
Directed by Reza Ehsandar
Cast : Iraj Tadayon | Pardis Manouchehri | Omid Shondi
I Turn Off The Lights
It is the story of a man who buys a bed ،But he can not sleep on it alone.
Directed by Nima Abdolazimi
Cast : Bakhtiyar Khalili | Troske Chola
The Third Core
The boy is involved in a sensory maze and tries to overcome his fears and get ready to face the reality of his story, which he regrets at the last moment.
Directed by Mohsen Arshadi
Cast : Mehran Moradi | Zahra Dovoud Nezhad | Mohamamd Moghaddam
Scarf
A family that falls victim to wrong traditions
Directed by Marjan Safabakhsh
Cast : Arash Mir Ahmadi | hima Soozangari | Shahla Mousavi
I am Lawrence Wilson
The story follows Lawrence Wilson, who at 76yrs of age is a singer, dancer, and standup comedian, a cinephile who was a part of an old custom of screening films in rural Goa, India when theatres were rare and television was not popular.
Directed by Varun Kodamana
Documentary
Chikya's School
Chikya's School is a 2022 directorial debut short film of Deepak Vasant Thokal, set in a small village of Maharashtra. It's a story of a kid "Chikya", his pet dog "Tomya" and two friends. Together they live a normal life enjoying childhood and share a strong bond until one day Tomya dies in a road accident. The movie shows how Chikya, who is deeply saddened by this lose, is affected by different perspectives of people around him, and how his parents and friends try to help him overcome this grief.
Directed by Deepak Vasant Thokal
Cast : Gaurav Shinde | Yash Madane | Chandrabhag Kalyankar | Surekha Kalyankar | Bhagwan Kalyankar | Snow Gogate | Vasant Thokal | Surekha Thokal | Atul Kharat | Anand Chavan