October 7, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Third Eye Asian Film Festival is going to felicitate veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal. The festival will be held from October 29 to November 4 in Mumbai. Eighty films and fifty short films from the Asian countries will be screened in the festival. The festival director Sudhir Nandgaonkar confirmed that Benegal will be felicitated with a special honor. He was quoted saying that in Indian cinema, Shyam Benegal is a great force and he will be honored with the Asian Film Culture award.

Nandgaonkar also informed that the festival will be inaugurated by an Iraqi film called Son of Babylon.

The Asian Film Culture award is offered to the Asian directors to honor their achievements and is conferred every year to the master of Asian cinema. Under the Asian Masters section, the festival will screen six films by renowned Indian filmmaker Mrinal Sen.

The festival director, further, said that Asian cinema has gained huge popularity in the last 20 years by winning some top-level awards at various important film festivals all over the world. Marathi film Mee Sindhutai Sapkal will be closing film for the festival.

This award will add one more feather to this seven-times National Film Award winner filmmaker.

-- Sampurn Wire