MUMBAI: Filmmaker Subhash Ghai inaugurated the 10th Third Eye Asian Film Festival yesterday at the Ravindra Natya Mandir Complex, Prabhadevi, Mumbai.

The opening ceremony saw the ‘Asian Film Culture Award‘ bestowed on noted Afghani filmmaker Siddiq Barmak. Barmak‘s film Osama will be screened tonight.

The award presentation was followed by the screening of the festival‘s opening Film, 11 Flowers, directed by Chinese director Xioanshuai Wang.

Some of the other important films to be screened at the festival are Nuri Bilge Ceylan‘s Distant, Italo Spinelli‘s Gangor, Rajesh Pinjani‘s Babu Band Bajaa and Asghar Farhadi‘s A Separation. Iranian filmmaker Monir Qeidi‘s On the Way to Villa will also be screened at the Festival.

The week-long festival has been dedicated to Dev Anand who passed away in London on 3 December. Incidentally, he had inaugurated the first edition of the festival in 2002.

The festival will close on 29 December with the screening of Ketan Mehta‘s as yet unreleased film Rang Rasiya.