#IFFIWood, 21 November 2022

The jury members of the Indian Panorama (Non- Feature Films) attended the ‘Table Talks’ at the 53rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa, today 21 November, 2022.

Throwing light on the rigours selection procedures undertaken by the jury members, Chairperson and acclaimed Filmmaker Oinam Doren said, “In 15 days’ time, we watched 242 films and chose 20. That was a stressful yet entertaining process.”

Sharing how they unanimously stood on their ground for including some of the best among the entries, Oinam Doren said their effort was to choose the best work which is rich in cinematic, aesthetic and dramatic excellence.

An award winning film critic, senior journalist, A Chandrasekhar who is one among the jury members, said it was a mix of everything where some entries were so delightful and others were not up to the mark.  “It was a daunting task to find out the best, yet we managed to find the cream of the lot.”

Expressing his immense joy in working with the team who had the same penchant for choosing good content, filmmaker, scriptwriter, national award winning narrator Harish Bhimani said all the seven members unanimously decided to watch 242 films together. “It represent the intellectual honesty from the part of the jury.”

Stressing on the attempt to preserve the diversity in the content being chosen, another jury member Rakesh Mittal said the jury tried to give justice to the diversity and added, “You can witness a bouquet of 20 films where there are films in 10 languages this time.”

Jury’s choice for the opening non-feature film of Indian Panorama, 2022 is ‘The Show Must Go On’ directed by Divya Cowasji, a film based on the Parsi community whose population is dwindling fastly. According to the jury members, this film is an answer to blending watchability and documentary which is a mix of entertainment and meaningful cinema which would reflect Indian cinema as a whole.

Expressing their anguish over the lack of platforms to showcase the films under non feature films category, the jury unanimously sought concerted effort from all to treat non feature films at par with feature films.

The Non - Feature Film Jury, comprising six members, is headed by acclaimed Filmmaker, Producer, Writer and National Film Award winner, the chairperson Shri Oinam Doren. The Jury constituted of the following Members who individually represent various acclaimed films, and film-related professions, professions, whereas collectively representing the diverse Indian fraternity:

1. Shri Chandrasekhar A; Film critic, Journalist and Media Academician
2. Shri Harish Bhimani, Filmmaker, Scriptwriter, Anchor and, Actor
3. Shri Manish Saini; Filmmaker, Writer and Editor
4. Shri P. Umesh Naik; Filmmaker and Journalist
5. Shri Rakesh Mittal; Film critic, Journalist and Author
6. Shri Sanskar Desai; Filmmaker, Scriptwriter, Academician

A package of 20 Non-Feature films have been selected to be screened in the Indian Panorama section at 53rd IFFI from a broad spectrum of qualifying 242 contemporary Indian non-feature films in about. The package of non-feature films exemplifies the capacity of the emerging and established filmmakers to document, investigate, entertain and also reflect contemporary Indian values.

* * *

PIB IFFI CAST AND CREW | Nadeem/Shamila/Darshana | IFFI 53 - 78