The Mumbai Academy of Moving Images on Thursday announced the shortlist for the Oxfam Best Film on Gender Equality Award at the upcoming Mumbai Film Festival (October 25-November 1).

This year’s theme for the award is Cinema Beyond Stereotypes. Nine films have been selected by the three-member jury comprising filmmaker Rima Das, actress Parvathy and Doha Film Institute head Fatma Al-Remaihi.

The Hindi films are Ajiaz Khan’s Kashmir-set Hamid, Ivan Ayr’s Soni, about two women police officers in Delhi, and Aadish Keluskar’s romance-drama Jaaon Kahan Bata Ae Dil.

Other films in contention are Karan Chavan and Vikram Patil’s Marathi film Imago, Rahul Riji Nair’s Malayalam film Light In The Room, Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s Bengali film Jonaki and Ere Gowda’s Kannada film Balekempa.

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While Imago centres on a girl who struggles to come to terms with her identity after she is diagnosed with vitiligo, Light In The Room is about a newly married woman who moves into a single-room house with her abusive husband. Gowda’s directorial debut explores the relationship between a bangle-seller and his wife who are unable to conceive. Jonaki traces the life of an 80-year-old woman through her memories.

Also in the running are Mansore’s Kannada film Nathicharami, which explores the taboos around sex through a young woman’s experiences, and Vasanth S Sai’s Tamil film Sivaranjani And Two Other Women, about the journeys of three women from different time periods.

The award last year went to Rima Das’s Assamese film Village Rockstars, which is also India’s entry for the 2019 Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film Category.

The Jio MAMI Festival is now in its 20th year. The organisers on Thursday tweeted the line-up for the Dimensions Mumbai section (below), which showcases short films by filmmakers below the age of 25. The line-ups for the India Gold competition, the India Story non-competitive section and the International Competition were announced earlier.

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