Stage set for 27th IFFK, 186 films to be screened

Thiruvananthapuram: Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the 27th edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) on Friday at Nishagandhi Auditorium at 3.30pm.
As Iranian filmmaker and women’s rights activist Mahnaz Mohammadi, chosen for the Spirit of Cinema award, has not been able to make it to the festival owing to travel restrictions, Greek filmmaker, and jury member Athina Rachel Tsangari will receive the award on her behalf.
A movie with the theme of life-affirming friendship, “Tori and Lokita” by the Dardenne brothers, is the opening film at the film festival. The directors--Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne--are considered as the masters of humanist films for their remarkable documentation of human conditions.
Masterfully crafted and heart-breaking, “Tori and Lokita”, will get its first Indian premiere after the inaugural ceremony at the Nishagandhi.
Seat reservations for the festival will begin on Friday. Reservations can be made through the official website of the festival, www.iffk.in or by downloading the IFFK application from Play Store.
Reservations have to be made 24 hours before the screening and can be done from 8am, until the seats are filled. The registration number, password, and movie code are required to complete seat reservations. Every theatre, except Nishagandhi requires seat reservations. A maximum of three movies can be reserved per day.
Help desks have been set up at Kairali, Aries, and Tagore theatres to help with reservations.
The festival will be screening 186 films from 70 countries. Seventy-eight films will be screened under the World Cinema section. As many as 12,000 delegates and around 200 guests from the film field will take part in the festival.
As many as 9,600 seats have been set up for the festival in various theatres. Nishagandhi, an open theatre with 2,500 seats, is the largest screening venue. As part of the festival, various art and cultural programs are also slated.