IFFI 2016

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The 47th Edition of the Prestigious International Film Festival of India is all set to be held in Goa from the 20th November to 28th November 2016. The picturesque State of Goa has been hosting IFFI every year since 2004. The Directorate of Film Festivals of the Union Ministry of Information & Broadcasting organizes the festival in collaboration with the Entertainment Society of Goa which has been established by the state government as the nodal agency for organizing IFFI.

 

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The 47th edition of International Film Festival of India (IFFI 2016) got off to a grand start today in a glittering event at Shyama Prasad Stadium, Bambolim. Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated the 9 days event in the presence of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Union AYUSH Minister Sripad Naik, CM Laxmikant Parsekar, Governor of Goa Mridula Sinha and noted film director Ramesh Sippy.

 

The IFFI this year will be screening around 300 films from nearly 90 countries with South Korea as the country of focus.

 

The opening film of the festival is Polish director Andrzej Wajda’s critically-acclaimed Afterimage. Legendary singer Padma Bhushan S. P. Balasubrahmaniam was felicitated as Centenary Indian Film Personality of the Year-2016 at the opening ceremony for his remarkable contribution to Indian Cinema.

 

The 47th edition of IFFI would screen three films for specially-abled children with special audio described technology under the Accessible India Campaign/ Sugamaya Bharat Abhiyan. This screening would take place in collaboration with UNESCO and Saksham.

 

Inspired by the Government’s Clean India Drive, IFFI 2016 will showcase a special package of 20 award winning short films based on the Swachh Bharat theme. These 20 films were short listed from 4,346 entries and awarded at the ‘Swachh Bharat Film Festival’ organized by National Film Development Corporation on 2nd October in New Delhi.

 

Another initiative is Centenary Award for Best Debut Feature of a Director. IFFI would recognize young talent under this new competition section. This section would showcase some of the outstanding directorial debuts of 2016 from across the world of cinema.

 

The winner would be honoured with a Silver Peacock and a cash price of rupees ten lakhs. 2016 in collaboration with the International Council for Film, Television and Audio-visual Communication (ICFT), Paris and UNESCO would also present the “ICFT- UNESCO Gandhi Medal” to a film, which reflects the ideals of peace, tolerance and non-violence.

 

IFFI 2016 is introducing a new laser based phosphor wheel projector from Barco Electronics, used for the very first time in any film festival across the globe.
IFFI 2016 will also have a special screening package of the award winning films from the first ever BRICKS Film festival, held in Delhi recently.

 

For involving general Goan public in the festival, blockbuster movies of India will be screened at the Miramar Beach at Panjim and 20 other places across Goa from the 21st to the 27th of November everyday at 7pm.

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IFFI, which was launched in 1952, is being held annually in Goa since 2004 and is organised by the Directorate of Film Festivals and the Entertainment Society of Goa, which function under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Goa government respectively.

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The 47th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), reckoned as one of Asia’s oldest and India’s biggest film festival, gets underway in Goa on Sunday.

The nine-day festival will be shorter as compared to the 11-day event held in the past. According to festival director K. Senthil Kumar, the 2016 version is more pruned and has more qualitative programming, including several films which are in the running for the Academy Awards, as well as a promising selection of films screened at the Cannes Film Festival.

The event will get underway when Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting M. Venkaiah Naidu inaugurates it in the presence of Bollywood director Ramesh Sippy at a glittering ceremony at the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium on the outskirts of the state capital on Sunday.

 

“There is a slack in attendance if we stretch it for 11 days. Guests generally try to come for a package of three or four days and then go out. So, we try to give them a four-day package so that they stay in nine days and within those nine days we will try to include more number of films,” Kumar told reporters at a press conference in Panaji.

 

“We have dropped some sections, which were not according to the programming format and we have tried to include new formats. So programming has been reworked with more number of films…. Quality of content will be higher than last year,” Kumar said.

 

This edition of the festival includes more than 300 films from 90 countries, 
At this year’s edition, the opening film will be “After Image”, a movie directed and written by Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda, who died earlier this year.

The film is a biopic of master artist Wladyslaw Strzeminski, while the festival’s closing film is “Age of Shadows” by Kim Jee Woon from South Korea. South Korea is the special focus country at the 47th edition of IFFI and several films from the Asian country will be screened at the event. Incidentally, Woon’s film is the official entry from South Korea at this year’s Oscar awards.

The Indian Panorama section of the festival will open for the second consecutive year, with a Sanskrit film “Ishti”, directed by G. Prabha and will screen 22 films.

 

One of the most important and coveted sections of the festival, the International Competition section will feature some of the top films of the year, some of which have been celebrated at the Cannes Film Festival and are entries to the Academy awards. Indian films “Sahad Paather Gappo” and “Ishti” will also be competing in this section.

 

The other films competing under this section are “According to Her”, “Daughter”, “House of Others”, “I, Olga Hepnarova”, “Mellow Mud”, “Nelly”, “Personal Affairs”, “Rauf”, “Scarred Hearts”, “The Last Family”, “The Long Night of Francisco Sanctis”, “The Throne” and “The Student”.

 

Festival juries will pick out the best film, best director, best actor-male, best actor-female and a special jury award from the selection in the International Competition section.

 

In order to promote young directorial talent globally, IFFI 2016 will award a prize for the year’s best young debuting director.

 

“IFFI has decided to recognise young and upcoming talent from across the film world and will award the centenary award for best debut film of a director,” Kumar said. (IANS)

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With a tribute to women's contribution to Indian cinema, the 47th edition of International Film Festival of India (IFFI) kichstarted here, offering movie-lovers a bouquet of films from across the globe. 

The ceremony began on a sombre note as Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, M Venkaiah Naidu asked the audience to observe a one-minute silence to pay homage to the victims of UP train accident today. 

 

The festival then commenced with a gala opening performance, choreographed by Ganesh Acharya. 

Sushant Singh Rajput and veteran filmmaker Ramesh Sippy lit the lamp along with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Chief Minister of Goa Laxmikant Parsekar, Governor of Goa Mridula Sinha among others. 

 

"I am honoured to welcome everyone. We have come a long way since 2004 and even the years before that. The year 2004 marked a milestone for Goans as it was declared the venue for the first time. In 2014, it was declared by the government as the permanent venue for IFFI," Parsekar said. 

 

The opening ceremony celebrated the journey and contribution of women in Indian Cinema with a special 'Ode to a Woman' performance, which showcased the changing face of women in Indian films from the '50s to today. The performance was choreographed by Acharya. 

 

From the film industry, people like Divya Dutta, Nagesh Kukunoor, Nana Patekar, Sudhir Mishra, Mukesh among others were present. Suhasini Maniratnam and Surveen Chawla hosted the event. 

Renowned Korean filmmaker Im Kwon Taek, best known for his films such as Wife, The Family Pedigree, Evergreen, Chunhyang, Ghiwaseon and Low Life, was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the festival. 

 

Acclaimed singer, S P Balasubrahmanyam, was felicitated with 'Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year-2016 by Naidu. 

"I am embarrassed to know how ancient I am. But I am happy that I am still working... I dedicate this award to my mother and all those who have martyred themselves to keep us safe here. This award is to all those at the border. I dedicate this to you, with pride and humility. We are nothing without you," the singer added. 

 

Balasubrahmanyam has been one of the most prolific singers of the country with over 40,000 song recordings to his credit including Ye Haseen Vaadiyan, Mere rang main rang ne waali and Roja jaaneman.

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Taking the right cues from previous year’s organising debacle and meagre footfall, efforts to reinvent this year’s 47th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) from being a ‘delegate-only’ to a public inclusive event, seems to have struck the right chords, at least for now.

Not only the state government has more than doubled the budget from Rs. 6 crores (2015) to over Rs. 13 crores this year, the Directorate of Film Festival (DFF) has also increased the number of screenings from 187 movies (world cinema) in the previous year to 300 movies this time.