Iffi’s Indian Panorama to open with Kannada movie, will also screen Konkani film ‘Wagro’

Panaji: The Indian Panorama section at the 53rd edition of the International Film Festival of India (Iffi) will open this year with the Kannada feature film ‘Hadinelentu’, directed by Prithvi Konanur. This year, in the non-feature film section of Indian Panorama, the Konkani film Wagro will be screened. Earlier this year, ‘Wagro’, by young Goan filmmaker Sainath Uskaikar, was screened at the Festival de Cannes, 2022, in the short film corner category.

‘Wagro’ translates to ‘place of sacrifice’ and has been produced by two-time national award winner De Goan Studio headed by producers Rajesh Pednekar and Gayatri Pednekar. In the Indian Panorama’s feature film section this year, among the 25 selected films for screening, four films are in Hindi, three each in Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, and Tamil, two in Telugu and one each in Bengali, Oriya. and Maithili.

The feature film section will also see a film in Irula being screened, which is a language belonging to a small ethnic group in South India.

In the mainstream feature film category, Vivek Agnihotri’s Kashmir Files and SS Rajamouli’s RRR will be screened, among others like the Telugu film Akhada and Marathi film Dharmveer… Mukkam Post Thane.

The feature film jury, comprising 12 members, was headed by acclaimed director and editor Vinod Ganatra, and the 25 feature films were selected from 354 qualifying contemporary Indian feature films.

In the non-feature film category, Wagro made it among the 20 selections from 242 contemporary Indian non-feature film entries. The non-feature film jury of six members was headed by national award-winning filmmaker Oinam Doren.

“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,” the jury has said.