A three-day Charity Film Festival and short film competition came to a close at the Madurai Medial College auditorium on Sunday with over 700 students in attendance.
As many as 137 directors from various film institutes in the State had submitted their work for screening at the festival which was held under the aegis of Meenakshi Mission Hospital and Research Centre. Thirty films were selected for screening under the theme, ‘Leave the world to children.’
On the first two days, 14 critically acclaimed feature films such as Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful, Dan Gilroy’s La La Land and Nightcrawler were screened.
According to P. Sundarraj, Senior Manager and Head of Department of Resources and Development, Meenakshi Mission Hospital, the aim of this initiative is to raise funds for treating children with cancer. “We provide cancer treatment for about 300-400 children a year and we raise funds through different sources. Paediatric oncology in unheard of in south Tamil Nadu. So is bone marrow transplant. It costs about ₹ 4 to 7 lakh for surgery and care,” he said and added that ₹25 lakh was raised through sponsors for Camilla Children’s Cancer Fund.