The Seattle-based Tasveer Film Festival has unveiled several high-profile partner sponsors for its inaugural South Asian film market, ahead of its launch at the Cannes Film Festival.
The sponsors include Amazon, NBCUniversal Launch, Film Companion, credit union BECU, civil liberties organization ACLUWA, University of Washington South Asia Center and Bully Media.
The newly rechristened Tasveer Film Festival & Market will take place Oct. 15-20, during the festival. The best short film winner at the festival qualifies for the Oscars. The market aims to facilitate South Asian diasporic representation and filmmaking on a global level. It will feature a co-production market, a producer’s lab, industry panels and a work-in-progress lab. The co-production market will invite director-producer teams to pitch long-form and short-form projects, including features, shorts and series, both scripted and unscripted, to financiers, investors and studio executives.
The content advisory board for the market includes producers Apoorva Bakshi (“Delhi Crime”), Mohammed Ali Naqvi (“Among the Believers”), Neeraj Churi (“Sheer Qorma”) and Samudrika Arora (“Afghan Dreamers”).
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The market aims to cater to filmmakers, producers, distributors, financiers, sales agents, legal, talent managers, festival directors and those looking to collaborate in the U.S. and invest in projects from the South Asian diasporic community. It will launch at Cannes with a networking session and dinner at the American Pavilion on May 19. The event is co-hosted by the Pakistan Crescent Collective.
Tasveer co-founder Rita Meher said: “The goal of the Tasveer Film Market is to elevate South Asian filmmaking in the West and initiate a lucrative marketplace by tapping into the support of our creative community. Our aspiration is to be the Sundance of South Asian film festivals. We look forward to welcoming filmmakers, producers, distributors, financiers, sales agents, talent managers and others in an effort to inspire, equip and showcase the larger diasporic filmmaker community on a global stage.”
