MUMBAI: The Thomson Foundation for Film & Television Heritage has launched the Pune Film Treasures Festival at the National Film Archive of India (NFAI).

The festival, which continues till 20 March 2008, promises to showcase an interesting feast of international classics.

Thomson Foundation specialises in the field of preservation and promotion of film and TV heritage, which reflects the history and culture of a country.

It has partnered with Cinémathèque Française (France), Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) and George Eastman House (USA), to screen films based on the theme "Cinema of Modernity and Modernity of Cinema" at this festival.

The movies during the festival will be introduced each night by different filmmakers explaining their choice to the audience. The festival will be attended by film archivists and filmmakers like Sudhir Mishra, Olivier Assayas, Nishikant Kamat and Jean-François Rauger.

"Our aim is to promote film heritage in India and globally, and we will focus on movie programming and archiving training. Our efforts to sensitise the public to the richness of archives have received a boost with the support from eminent filmmakers like Shyam Benegal, Sudhir Mishra, Olivier Assayas, Nishikant Kamat, Anurag Kashyap, Adoor Gopanakrishnan and Ketan Mehta," said Thomson Foundation MD Séverine Wemaere.

Classics such as Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (F W Murnau, Germany), La Règle du Jeu (Jean Renoir, France), Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, USA) and Shiraz ( Franz Osten, India) will be screened at this ongoing festival.

"Heritage should always be shared especially with the young generation and this is a novel attempt to make youngster aware of the heritage," said FTII Pune Director Pankaj Rag.