MUMBAI: The 13th Mumbai Film Festival opened yesterday to a grand response, with Bennett Miller’s Moneyball starring Brad Pitt kicking off the event.

The film was screened on all the screens of Cinemax, Versova, the festival’s main venue.

Opening the festival, director- producer Yash Chopra lit the lamp along with actress Dia Mirza with President of Film & TV Producers Guild Ramesh Sippy and trustee of MAMI Amit Khanna in tow. Joining them were the International Competition jury members Hugh Hudson (jury president), Jerzy Skolimowski, Na Hong- Jin, Roger Spottiswoode and Sarika.

Commenting on the occasion, 13th Mumbai Film Festival Festival Director Srinivasan Narayanan said, “The 13th Mumbai Film Festival has certainly begun with a tremendous turnout. We sincerely hope that all those attending will see the effort put behind organizing this popular festival and hope that this year’s selection of films satisfies their appetite of quality cinema."

The festival is a Reliance Entertainment initiative, organised by Mumbai Academy of Moving Image.