The high point of the festival, however, is saved till the final day, on March 13, when Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura receives the festival’s Global Lifetime Achievement Award.

In between, the event will screen 140 international films from 45 countries, including Italy’s silent film Pinocchio(1911) with live music, Japan’s The Mourning Forest, Fearless from China and Romanian director Cristian Mungio’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. The bouquet also contains eight of Saura’s films. Apart from Wajda’s Katyn, which was in the Oscar race, the festival will showcase his Ashes and Diamonds, Conductor, Hunting Files, Landscape after the Battle, Man of Marbles and The Iron Man.

A look at the selection of films—a number of which have done the rounds of heavyweight international festivals held at Berlin and Cannes—and the introduction of Global Lifetime Achievement Award, shows the MAMI (Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image) festival’s aspiration to be prominent on the global festival circuit.

“The award is a special addition to the event in its 10th year along with Dimensions Mumbai. The latter is a competition of five-minute-long digital films, which has received nearly 50 entries,” says Kiran Shantaram, secretary of MAMI.

Shantaram admits the MAMI festival striving for an international status, but feels it’s too early to achieve this. He is probably right considering that the event has managed to overcome its financial hardships just two years ago.

“The MAMI festival’s budget is only Rs 1.2 crore while big international festivals pump in more than Rs 5 crore,” says Sudhir Nandgaonkar, artistic director of the event.

However, the cinematic extravaganza, which was started by the late filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee, hopes to get more sponsors as well as international flavour in the next few years.

When Saura visits, he will have a five-member Spanish delegation for company, apart from nearly 20 other international filmmakers. Spanish filmmakers were in focus in the last edition of the festival, too ,with films like Pedro Almodovar’s Volver showing. “They always respond warmly to our invitation,” says Shantaram, explaining the regular presence of Spanish delegations. Next year, the MAMI event is likely to play host to a Korean delegation.

Adding to the global parade will be the presence of Indian stalwarts. Dharmendra and Rishi Kapoor get Lifetime Achievement Awards while Gulzar will be honoured for his outstanding contribution and lyricist

Hitendra Ghosh for technical excellence. The spotlight will also be on Ritwik Ghatak.