Started in 1952 as a national initiative for art and cultural promotion, International Film Festival of India today has become one of the biggest film festivals in the world. Directorate of Film Festivals is going to organize the 46^th edition of IFFI in Goa from November 20 to 30, 2015. The festival showcases some of the best of World Cinema and introduces Indian Cinema to the world by bringing a mélange of spectacular films with rich content, interesting stories and characters. Goa has been the perfect venue for IFFI since the last 11 years and the lively and scenic settings of Goa are offering a great platform for art, cinema, and audience. The Film Festival offers a confluence of film screenings, knowledge sharing, master classes, seminars, panel discussions, special sections, and numerous awards among other attractions.  

 

The following are the highlights of IFFI-2015:

 

·        The festival received an impressive 790 film entries from 100 countries. This year, the World Cinema section will present around 187 films in various sections from 89 countries.

 

·        Written and directed by Matthew Brown, this year’s opening film is The Man Who Knew Infinity.

 

·        Directed by Pablo Trapero, Argentina’s Oscar entry and this year’s biggest Argentinean box office hit- The Clan to be the closing film.

 

·        Directed by Academy Award Winner Tom Hooper, The DanishGirl will be the mid fest film.

 

·        The Kingdom of Spainwill be the focus country of IFFI 2015.

 

·         The International Competition will have 15 films from across the globe including countries like Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Colombia, France, Germany, Iceland to name a few. Two films from Indian Panorama section will also be competing in this section.

 

·        The International Jury is headed by Mr.ShekharKapur(Chairperson, India) and includes film personalities like Mr. Michael Radford, Ms. Julia Jentsch, Ms.SuhaArrafand Mr.JeonKyu – Hwan.

 

·        Anil Kapoor will grace the opening ceremony as the Chief Guest of the event.

 

·        A.R. Rahman will be the Chief Guest of the closing ceremony.

 

·        IFFI 2015 awards spread across different categories including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor – Male, Best Actor – Female, Special Jury Award, Centenary Award, Lifetime Achievement Award and Centenary Award- Indian Personality of the Year.

 

·        The Indian Panorama section received a total number of 384 films from different regions of the country including 238 Feature and 146 Non-Feature films, out of which 26 feature and 21 non-feature films will be screened during the festival.

 

·        Mr.AribamSyam Sharma headed the Feature jury while RajendraJanglay headed the Non-feature jury for Indian Panorama section.

 

·        World’s third Sanskrit film Priyamanasam will be the opening film of Indian Panorama section.

 

·        Filmmakers ShyamBenegal, Vettrimaran, KaushikGanguliand Anand L Rai will interact with audience in a special series titled “In Conversation”.

 

·        The festival will organize a Special Retrospective on the legendry actor ShashiKapoor.  

 

·         The ‘Focus on North East Cinema’ section will feature a Special Retrospective on the ace filmmaker AribamShyam Sharma and special section on new generation filmmakers from the North East region.

 

·        IFFI 2015 in collaboration with the International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication (ICFT), Paris and UNESCO will present the “ICFT- UNESCO Fellini Prize” to a film.

 

·        For the first time, IFFI will be recognizing young talents from the world of cinema under its new segment - First Cut that will showcase some of the outstanding works of debutant directors of 2015.

 

·        Focusing on skill building in filmmaking and enhancing talents, IFFI in association with the Oscar Academy will organize master classes with eminent Academy Members including Mark Mangini, Milt Shefter, Humphrey Dixon to name a few. 

 

·        IFFI 2015 will featurea special section ‘Restored Classics’ to highlight National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM). The section will showcase world-class restorations of some landmark films.

 

·        The sections Masterstroke and Festival Kaleidoscope will showcase the latest films of the masters of world cinema. Films from Palestine, China, Mexico, Sweden and other countries will be screened in this section.

 

·         The festival will feature a Special Retrospective on eminent Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai. His 10 films will be screened in retrospective section.

 

·        The festival will pay a Special Tribute to noted Danish-French actress, director and screenwriter Anna Karina and will feature her 3 films.

 

·        The festival will welcome more than 7000 delegates (need to confirm with DFF) and thousands of cinema lovers from across the globe.

 

·        The film festival will also host the 9^th edition of Film Bazaar which will be focusing on more than 150 film projects. Delegates from 38 countries will be participating in the Film Bazaar.

 

*****

NB/AT/NK/UD