Gitanjali Rao’s ‘True Love Story’ to be screened at BIFF

The biggest film festival in Asia is here again, the 19th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), which will take place from 2 to 11 October in South Korea.

BIFF is a festival where one gets to see everything from live-action movies to short documentaries. But how can any festival miss out on this brilliant animation film-maker, GitanjalI Rao. Yes, you got it right; Gitanjali’s True Love Story will be screened at BIFF this year.

“It feels great to be part of another such film festival. They were aware of my film being screened at the Cannes film festival as well, so they selected it. But they asked me to send the film only recently. My earlier film Printed Rainbows has also been screened here before,” said Gitanjali to AnimationXpress.com.

Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider, Homi Adajania’s Finding Fanny and Shonali Bose’s Margarita with a straw are among the six films that will be showcased in ‘A window to Asian Cinema’ section of BIFF.

“For the first time one of my movies that I can’t reveal right now, will be screened at the Indian Film Festival, The Hague. All these festivals are live-action centric not animation, but still I feel good to be part of them, as my films get selected among other films which are not animation specific,” added Gitanjali.

Our Metropolis by Gautam Sonti and Usha Rao has been shortlisted for documentary competition while Balaka Ghosh’s Foot Prints in Desert will be screened in the Documentary Showcase section.

On being asked whether she will be attending this year’s festival, Gitanjali added: “My film was selected through exchange of e-mails. People in charge of the film festival asked me to send them the movie CD; they watched it and took a call accordingly. I am not attending the festival as I can’t afford to spend on travel and accommodation every time (chuckles).”

Not only this, the film maker is also working on a French project, which is set around the 1920’s opera. It’s an international collaboration with Les Films d’Ici (well known for ‘Waltz with Bashir’).

“I am even working on my feature film which is based on my short film – True Love Story. What you have seen is the story of the boy, but now you will get to see stories of other characters, like the old woman, so that’s my idea for the feature film. I am looking for a financer as well,” revealed Gitanjali.