Reliance is understood to have pulled out of sponsoring MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2024 due to creative differences. The South Asian Film Festival which has been hosted in the Maximum city since 1997 will be held from October 19-24 this year.  Organised by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image or MAMI, the film festival is struggling to find sponsorships this year according to sources. 

The Academy hosted the largest edition of the film festival in 2023 under the aegis of Reliance which served as its title and venue partner in 2023. Some of the most acclaimed films in the lineup were showcased at the Jio World Center along with several other PVR properties across the city.

With the inauguration of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, the Ambanis signalled their intent to put Mumbai front and centre on the global artistic stage.

The 2023 edition of the festival was hosted after a hiatus of three years when it struggled to raise funds. The festival envisions to become the largest and the most prestigious film festival in South Asia bringing the best of Indian and World Cinema right at the doorstep of Mumbaikars. 

The festival organisers did not comment when this paper reached out. Reliance did not reply to businessline’s queries at the time of filing the report. 

Some of Mumbai’s most commercially successful creative talent as well as business giants are associated with MAMI every year. Last year’s festival was chaired by Priyanka Chopra Jonas with Nita Ambani sitting as co-Chair. Other members sitting on the festival board included Isha Ambani, Anand Mahindra and Ajay Bijli from PVR Inox. 

Titles showcased in the festival last year include 20 Days in Maripol, a documentary of the war in Ukraine which won the Audience Award at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. The 2023 Jio Mami Festival featured over 250 films in 70 different languages.