Bhubaneswar, May 13: Odisha-born producer Jitendra Mishra will present 10 Indian films at the 68th Cannes International Film Festival in France in a bid to promote independent filmmaking.

The films will be presented at the Marché du Film at Cannes, touted as one of the largest film markets of the world. It is also the annual meeting place for film industry professionals, including distributors, producers, filmmakers and sales companies, around the world.

Mishra was selected for the Cannes Producers Network 2014 last year during the 67th Cannes Film Festival. The network simulates networking and gives the filmmakers an opportunity to meet their potential partners to carry forward their projects.

"Films are one of the most powerful media that depict the reality and emulate values. India produces more than 100 meaningful cinemas every year, but only few of them reach a logical end as there is still a gap between the independent films and the world market," said Mishra.

Mishra has plans to spread the spirit of Indian cinema among the international audience. He was at the festival last year for Solila Parida's award winning Hollywood film Desires of the Heart.

At present, Mishra is working as the world sales and distribution consultant for the Children's Film Society, India, and has selected four award-winning children's film for the market. The films are Gattu, The world of Goopi and Bagha, Kaphal and Pappu ki Pugdandi.

"Recently, we have been working on various innovative ideas to help these films reach the global audience and taking these films to Cannes Film festival is a part of such efforts," said Mishra, who hails from Titilagarh. He has also been associated with films such as I am Kalam, Aaasma and Chausar.

Mishra has also scheduled Madhureeta Anand's Kajarya and Judhajit Sarkar's Goatspeak for the market premiere. While the former deals with pertinent topic of sex selection in India and violence against women, the latter is a Naseeruddin Shah-starrer that talks about the freewheeling passion of a youth and the unpredictable perils of fate.

Mishra is also planning to facilitate Odia films at the international market. "A number of good films are also made in Odisha, but they go unnoticed. I will conduct a survey and try to promote Odia films in the next edition of the festival," said Mishra.

In another development, Odia feature film Capital I had been acquired by Open Reel, an Italian worldwide distribution and sales company.