The Golden Jubilee year and 50th edition of the International Film Festival of India will begin in Goa today. The week-long festival aims at providing a platform to filmmakers from across the globe to showcase their work while promoting art and cultural exchange.
Indian movies like Uri, Gully Boy and Super 30 are among the 200 films scheduled for screening at the festival. Since 2004, its venue got permanently shifted to Goa. The 50th edition of IFFI will be held from November 20 to November 28.
The festival is jointly hosted by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Directorate of Film Festivals and the Government of Goa.
About the films
I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar last month announced that around 200 films from 76 countries will be screened this year. This includes 26 features and 15 non-feature films in the Indian Panorama section.
A short film on Goa’s former chief minister Manohar Parrikar will also be shown at the opening ceremony. Parrikar is credited for bringing IFFI to Goa in 2004 and making it the festival’s permanent destination.
Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s Marghe and Her Mother will close the festival. The movie deals with the life of a 6-year-old. Her single mother Claudia has been thrown out of her house due to non-payment, leaving the girl at the mercy of an old woman next door.
IFFI 2019 will also screen 50 films of 50 women directors.
The Golden Jubilee Edition of IFFI will declare open with the Asian Premiere of the film “Despite the Fog” directed by Europe’s one of the most respected filmmakers, Goran Paskaljevic.
Catch the Red Carpet screening of this spectacular film on the 20th Nov at #IFFI2019 pic.twitter.com/c8oNkLksRH
— IFFI 2019 (@IFFIGoa) November 6, 2019
Films screened in Indian Panorama section
Feature Films: The feature film jury has picked Hellaro, a Gujarati film helmed by Abhishek Shah, to open the Indian Panorama 2019. Filmmaker Priyadarshan is heading this jury. A total of 26 feature films have been selected including mainstream movies like Uri: The Surgical Strike, Gully Boy, Super 30 and Badhaai Ho.
Non-Feature Films: Filmmaker Rajendra Janglay is heading the non-feature jury. Director Ashish Pandey’s Nooreh has been chosen as the opening non-feature film of the Indian Panorama 2019 segment. A total of 15 non-feature films will be screened including Bohubritta, Letters, Bridge, Maya, Iravilum Pakalilum Odiyan and The Secret Life of Frogs.
Film sections and awards
- Festival Kaleidoscope: Parasite, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Patrick, Little Joe, Synonyms, Queen of Hearts, So Long My Son and a lot more fall under this.
- Soul Of Asia: Feelings to Tell, Summer is the Coldest Season, The Fourth Wall, Ten Years Japan, Ten Years Taiwan, The Other Half and Wet Season will be screened.
- Oscar Retrospective: Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, Ben Hur, The Best Years of our Lives, All About Eve, Lawrence of Arabia, The Sound of Music, The Godfather, The Silence of the Lambs and Forrest Gump will be screened at IFFI 2019.
- Mid-Fest Film: German Romantic Drama Traumfabrik’s Asia Premiere will take place at IFFI 2019. It is the story of a man trying to reunite with his lady love after being separated by the construction of the Berlin Wall, in 1961.
- Restored Indian Classics Section: This includes Ritwik Ghatak’s A River Called Titas and Uday Shankar’s Kalpana.
- International Competition Section: Antigone, Watch List, Captive, Steed, Stories from the Chestnut Woods and Balloon fall under this category.
- Special Goan Film Section: Seven local Konkani language films will also be shown. This includes Digant, Amori, K Sera Sera, The Rainy Day and others.
- Open Air Screening Section: 14 films including Hindi movies Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Padosan, Andaz Apna Apna, Hera Pheri, Chennai Express, Badhaai Ho, Total Dhamaal, Super 30, Uri and Gully Boy will be screened across two venues – Joggers Park (Altinho, Panjim) and Miramar Beach, Panjim.
- Accessible India Section: Lage Raho Munnabhai, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story and Questao De Confusao will have additional narration for the visually impaired.
- Golden Lining Indian Films’ Section: To mark the 50th year of IFFI, several prominent films from across languages that have completed 50 years in 2019 will also be shown. These include Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Satyakam and Shakti Samanta’s Aradhana.
- Master Frames: This will have 17 films by filmmakers of international repute.
- Golden Peacock Award: 15 films from 20 countries including Particles, The Science of Fictions, Gamperaliya, At Five in the Afternoon, Moner Manush, Porfirio, The Bostonians, The King of Masks, Tulpan and Leviathan are among the films competing for the Golden Peacock award. Two Indian films Mai Ghat: Crime No. 103/2005 and Jallikattu are also vying for the big award.
- Best Debut Feature Award: Abou Leila, Monsters, My Name is Sara, Cleo and Romang are competing in this film section. National Award-winning film Hellaro, directed by Abhishek Shah, and Malayalam film Uyare by Manu Ashokan are the two Indian films competing for this award.
- IFFI Lifetime Achievement Award: French actor Isabelle Huppert
- Special Retrospective Film Section: Tribute to acclaimed British filmmaker Ken Loach
- Icon of Golden Jubilee Award: Superstar Rajinikanth
- Retrospective of Amitabh Bachchan: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan’s most ‘impactful’ films will be screened to commemorate his “outstanding contribution to cinema”. Bachchan has himself picked six of his best films including Sholay, Deewaar, Black, Piku and Badla. His Paa will open this special section.
