In the eight years since the launching of our festival, Osian's-Cinefan has undergone sweeping changes. From 20 films in 1999 as Cinefan, The Cinemaya Festival of Asian Cinema, to 120 films as Osian's-Cinefan now. Along the way we have added a competition for Indian cinema and, most importantly, IBM² — the Infrastructure Building for Minds and Markets which covers a multitude of events, from the Talent Campus to seminars and Round Tables, debates and panel discussions on a range of subjects, to exhibitions of popular and fine arts, and an auction of Film Memorabilia.

As time passes our aspirations and our dreams spread outwards and upwards. The site of a film festival, we feel, has to be a space for a coming together of the peoples of cinema. To argue or agree, to ask and learn and challenge, to stretch the boundaries and ignite the imagination, and work towards building an infrastructure that will see talent take flight. The audience is all-important — no less so the media. The rasikas of cinema whose understanding and appreciation will spur the directors and producers to further heights.

The cinema is known as the 7^th Art but it is rarely if ever placed side by side with the other arts. Entertainment or high Art, films are made with the same tools, the same rules apply, the same freedom, the same constraints are experienced by all. And we feel that a festival is a place to share experiences and look for answers. While films are of course the heartbeat of a Festival, we feel there has to be more than a passive reception of what passes on the screen. Cinema must be more than a moment to savour. Its place in our lives must be acknowledged and accepted and built upon; its material and artistic aspects understood and respected.

And so our horizons have expanded to include exhibitions, workshops, an auction, debates and exchanges between the media and the market, between the audience and the filmmakers and producers, actors and writers, the production and technical crews who make it what it is.

All these years an audience of the enthusiastic and the faithful has kept us company. We owe them our gratitude for their trust in us. We have tried to live up to their expectations by harvesting some of the finest films made in recent times, films that have spark, spirit and inventiveness, that weave fantasies and touch the heart and excite the mind. Our invitation to great cinema comes with an invitation to join us in a great adventure.