A rosy picture for serious film buffs

times news network
Panaji: The number of delegates registered for the 46th International Film Festival of India (Iffi) may have halved this year thanks to the hike in delegate fee, but festival organizers are promising a unique experience for serious film lovers at Iffi 2015.
At the festival, 189 films from 90 countries will be screened—filtered from a whopping 790 entries from 100 nations.
The films to be screened this year seem to hold promise of giving a glimpse in the life of various segments across the globe, with entries like Rams from the little-known culture of Iceland. At the Indian Panorama section too, where 26 feature and 21 non-feature films will be screened, films from similarly inaccessible cultures like that in Arunachal Pradesh will be screened.
The Indian Panorama section will open with only the third Sanskrit film to be made in the world, Priyamanasam, festival director C Senthil Rajan said.
A section on Northeast Indian cinema, with a special focus on the new generation of filmmakers will be screened. Similarly, the world cinema section will introduce Iffi delegates to contemporary Argentanian cinema.
Film lovers will also be exposed to Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai in a special retrospective section, featuring 10 of his films.
“Iffi has tied up with the Oscar Academy for the first time to hold masterclasses to build allied filmmaking skills like costume design, editing, etc. Mark Mangini, Humphrey Dixon, Milt Shefter are some of the academy members who will hold the classes. We will also have ‘in conversation’ sessions with filmmakers like Shyam Benegal, Madhur Bhandarkar, Anand Rai, etc,” said Rajan.
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 in India.
The festival will feature 120 premieres in different sections.
The international jury will be headed by two-time Oscar-nominated film director Shekhar Kapur.