Kriarj Entertainment teams up with Anushka Sharma's production Clean Slate Films for their upcoming film ventures

Fresh from the success of Rustom and the much anticipated Toilet-Ek Prem Katha making all the right noises, Kriarj Entertainment has announced their association with Clean Slate Films (Anushka Sharma's production banner with brother Karnesh). Both the companies have joined hands to produce films, the first of which goes on floor in the new year. 

Following the success of their maiden production venture NH10, Clean Slate Films is ready to release their next production, PHILLAURI. Speaking on the association, Karnesh said, "We are happy to have Kriraj Entertainment on board our next project. Both the production houses share a common vision of providing strong content to the discerning cinema viewers and we look forward to this association." 

Arjun N Kapoor, Co founder of Kriarj adds 'To my mind, there couldn't be a more fitting partnership for Kriarj. Clean Slate Films has, with their choice of films shown consistency in quality content and hence we found this to be a perfect fit. We look forward to a long term collaboration with Anushka and Karnesh'.

Sangram takes up the cause of Women athlete

There are not many people today who strongly believe in the principle of giving back to the society. The Common Wealth Heavyweight Professional Champion, Sangram Singh is one of those.  The cause that he has attached himself most recently with is that of the women athletes in the country.  In the latest initiative by Doordarshan,  ‘Rio to Tokyo, Vision 2020’, Sangram is seen speaking with the country’s leading female athletes while they speak about the gender-based challenges that they have to face from society and sometimes from within the family. 

Athletes like Rio silver medalist Sakshi Malik, Golden girl of Indian hockey Mamata Kharab, Wrestler Jyoti and Kavita and ace boxer Pinki Jangra. While speaking to the panelists, Sangram said, “A women athlete has to work three times harder that a male athlete to get to the same place.” In the wake of great face-saving performance by both Sakshi and P. V. Sindhu, the importance of women athletes has become evident to a larger section of the society. 

Sangram has always strived towards giving back to the society by taking up numerous causes of social service and motivational speaking. He has been a motivational speaker for not just the Wrestling Federation of India but also the Indian Army. There are a few that truly understand the meaning of overcoming obstacles in life considering Sangram a World class wrestler was once bound to a wheelchair.  Sangram constantly works towards the empowerment of women right from the early life with the tools of education. 

Sangram said, “Sports are primarily considered the domain of men in India. There is an urgent need to change that perspective, especially after the glory that the girls have brought us after Rio. Like in all fields in India, the obstacles for female athletes are of mammoth proportions. The responsibility of improving the situation for women falls on both the society and the girls themselves.  The society needs start recognizing the potential of our country’s daughters and the girls should take inspiration from the likes of Sakshi and strive to achieve their dreams against all odds.” 

The show was aired on DD Sports and will soon be telecasted across the other channels under the Doordarshan Network.

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High Court rejects plea to vacate injunction; asks copyright licensors to prove their ownership

EEMA had a very successful day in the Delhi High Court today. For the first time, the PPL, IPRS, Novex and other licensing entities have been forced by the court to prove their ownership of copyright. Moreover, they are required to publish all their assignments, agreements, chain of ownership, etc. online and list it on their website…thereby available to all stakeholders. 

We would also like to advise entertainment industry not to be fooled by the propaganda that is currently being put out by the vested interests and the agents of PPL / IPRS / Novex and the licensing agents who have been helping event organisers obtain licenses from them. They are part of the vested interests and would like to project this as a win for PPL/IPRS and Novex, since they can continue to claim copyright fees without having to prove ownership. 

In reality, EEMA believes that copyright fees should be paid to the rightful creators and owners of copyright in a transparent and reasonable manner so that the rightful owners should receive their due and the rates being charged are logical and reasonable. The orders of the court are a big step in this direction. 

In continuation of the Writ Petition that we had filed in the court wherein we had received an Injunction against PPL / IPRS & NOVEX on the 23rd against charging royalty under section 33 (as a registered copyright society).

The writ petition was challenged by PPL, IPRS and Novex . The respondents were represented by more than 20 senior Advocates including the previous law minister Dr Ashwani Kumar who made strong arguments to the court requesting that the interim injunction order passed by the court on 23rd December be vacated and that EEMA should put in a bank guarantee if its members do not want to take the music license. 

The court was convened before the Vacation Judge today only to hear the above matter. Sr Advocate Mr Ramji Srinivasan backed by TMT Law ( EEMA’s lawyers) appeared before the court and spoke for over 90 minutes explaining the entire situation to the Hon Judge in great detail. There were several rounds of discussions and cross questioning that took place in the hearing which lasted for over 4 hours in the Delhi High Court today. 

We were able to secure the interests of our members and get significant reliefs from the court at the end of the hearing, some of the points that came out were as follows:- 

1. The Judge did NOT cancel or vacate the previous order - so the injunction obtained by EEMA against the collection of licence fees under Section 33 ( reserved for copyright societies) by these parties continues. PPL, IPRS and Novex have accepted in court that they are not copyright societies.

2. Therefore copyright licence fees can only be collected under Section 30 which is reserved for owners of the copyright with the clear provision that when called upon to do so they need to prove their ownership.

3. The court has provided a process for the Licensing in the immediate interim period:

-  EEMA members / the event organisors will provide a list of songs that they intend to play BEFORE the event on mail.

-  The respondents (PPL / IPRS / Novex) will thereafter need to confirm in writing if they are the owners / assignees or authorised agents of the tracks mentioning the assignment no / details on the invoice

-  The event organisers will pay the amount before the event as per mutual negotiation with the copyright owner basis confirmation receieved

-  The License issuing company/entity shall provide proof by way of legal agreements within 7 days of the invoice, to the satisfaction of the event organiser.

-  In case, the event organiser is not satisfied by the proof provided, the money will not be appropriated by the respondents and the event organisor has the option of seeking refund by way of legal remedies.

4.  Additionally, PPL/IPRS/Novex are required to put up a detailed list on their website listing all songs they own including the names of the authors / producers they have acquired them from along with the dates of validity of the contract - TILL 31st December, 2016

5. In addition to this, the licensing companies without fail need to also upload the valid legal agreements by which they claim ownership of these tracks by 31st December which will be available for all to see and check.

6. The Court instructed PPL/IPRS/Novex to set up an online payment gateway within 1 month of this hearing wherein we will be able to easily obtain permissions online.

1ST INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL & AWARDS‧MACAO CONCLUDES WITH SUCCESS

~Winners of Competition Section are announced~

The 1st International Film Festival & Awards‧Macao (“IFFAM”) officially concluded today (13 December). The Awards Ceremony was held at Macao Cultural Centre at 8 p.m. tonight. Around 800 guests were present in the ceremony including many internationally-acclaimed directors, film stars, industry professionals and personages. The personages include the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macao Special Administrative Region Government, Alexis Tam; Spouse of Chief Executive of the Macao SAR, Mrs. Winnie Chui; Deputy Director-General of the Department of Culture and Education of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao SAR, Zhao Chuan Dong; Spouse of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China in the Macao SAR, Counsellor Qiu Weiwei; Director of Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) and President of the IFFAM Organizing Committee, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes; President of Macau Films & Television Productions and Culture Association (MFTPA) and Executive Vice President of the IFFAM Organizing Committee, Alvin Chau; IFFAM Image Ambassador Zhang Hanyu; IFFAM Talent Ambassador Rhydian Vaughan; acclaimed directors and Festival Ambassadors Ann Hui and Clemens Klopfenstein; Jury President of IFFAM, Shekhar Kapur; Jury members of IFFAM, Giovanna Fulvi, Stanley Kwan and Makiko Watanabe; as well as the director and co-writer of Oscars 2016 Best Picture "Spotlight”, Tom McCarthy, among other guests. 

MGTO Director and President of the IFFAM Organizing Committee, Senna Fernandes, stated in her closing remarks, “After an intensive program of activities from film screenings, Industry Hub, Masterclasses to press conferences and more over the last six days, tonight, we come to the closing of the International Film Festival & Awards‧ Macao. This inaugural edition of the Film Festival not only has elevated Macao’s international reputation, boosted the synergy between tourism and culture and promoted local tourism development, but also introduced world class exchange opportunities, functioned as a regional exchange platform and empowered the local film industry as well as the cultural and creative industry to progress, while widening the cultural perspectives of our local residents and bringing multi-faceted benefits to Macao at large.” 

Winners in Competition Section are announced

The six-day Film Festival was a success and came to an end tonight. Winners in the Competition Section were announced and presented the awards on the closing night. The Competition pitted twelve films against each other for a total of eight awards and the Macao Audience Choice Award, which went to the most popular film voted by local audience. The twelve films are “150 Milligrams” (France), “Elon Doesn’t Believe in Death” (Brazil), “Free Fire” (United Kingdom), “Gurgaon” (India), “Hide and Seek” (China), “Queen of Spades” (Russia and Italy), “Saint George” (Portugal and France), “Shining Moment” (Hong Kong) , “Sisterhood” (Macao), “Survival Family” (Japan), “Trespass Against Us”(United Kingdom) and “The Winter” (Argentina and France). The winners were interviewed by media and shared their joy during the press conference held right after the Awards Ceremony at MGM Macau. The list of winners is as follows: 

Best Film: The Winter [presented by Jury President of IFFAM Shekhar Kapur and Academy-Award Winning Director Tom McCarthy]

Best Director: Marco Martins (Saint George) [presented by Director Jonathan Chu and Festival Ambassador Ann Hui]

Best Actor Award: Nuno Lopes (Saint George) [presented by Producer Jason Taylor and Actress Lisa Lu]

Best Actress Award: Lyndsey Marshal (Trespass Against Us) [presented by IFFAM Actress in Focus Gwei Lun-mei and Actress Karena Lam]

Award for Best Technical Contribution: Elon Doesn’t Believe in Death for Original Music & Sound Design - Sound: Pablo Lamar and Original Soundtrack: Daniel Saavedra [presented by Producer Todd Brown and Actress Jin Qiao Qiao]

Award for Best Screenplay: Amy Jump, Ben Wheatley (Free Fire) [presented by Jury Member of IFFAM Giovanna Fulvi and Actor Chin Han]

Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress: Jennifer Yu (Sisterhood) [presented by Producer Gianni Nunnari and Actress Margarida Vila-Nova]

Jury Prize: Trespass Against Us [presented by Jury Members of IFFAM Stanley Kwan and Makiko Watanabe]

Macao Audience Choice Award: Sisterhood [presented by Actress Josie Ho and IFFAM Talent Ambassador Rhydian Vaughan] 

To commend outstanding films and filmmakers, the IFFAM Organizing Committee and Variety Magazine jointly conferred the Asian Blockbuster Film 2016 on the Korean film “Train to Busan” [presented by Variety’s Asia Bureau Chief Patrick Frater and IFFAM Head of Festival Management Lorna Tee], besides the above awards in the Competition Section; in addition, the Macau Films & Television Productions and Culture Association (MFTPA) presented the “MFTPA Special Award for Contribution to Chinese Film” to the Chief Executive Officer of Bona Film Group Limited, film producer and distributor Yu Dong [presented by President of MFTPA Alvin Chau], while the Career Achievement Award was presented to acclaimed Mainland director and actor Feng Xiaogang [presented by Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macao SAR Government Alexis Tam]. 

With the aim to raise public awareness of the Film Festival, encourage people to participate and enhance the glamour of the event, the “CINEFANTASY International Short Film Screenwriting Competition 2016” was held to inspire creativity in screenwriting. Awards were presented to the winners at MGM Macau after the Awards Ceremony. Jointly organized by the IFFAM Organizing Committee and the International Council for Films, Television and Audiovisual Communication (ICFT), the “CINEFANTASY International Short Film Screenwriting Competition 2016” received 168 qualified submissions from 44 origins worldwide. The two final winners are Ilashree and Manasri Goswami from India (title of entry: “Legacy of Dreams”) and Alessa Ellefson from Belgium (title of entry: “The Seeker’s Key”). 

The Organizing Committee hopes that the event can introduce world-class exchange opportunities to the local cultural and creative industry, unleash a synergy between culture and tourism and enrich visitors’ cultural experience in Macao through different kinds of cultural tourism products and mega events, which will steer the tourism industry and the cultural and creative industry towards sustainable development in the long run, and support Macao to become a World Centre of Tourism and Leisure. 

For more information and latest news of the 1st IFFAM, please visit http://iffamacao.com/en/