MUMBAI: The 9th Chennai International Film Festival will go underway with Shekhar Kapur flagging off the nine-day event on 14 December. The festival will screen as many as 140 films from more than 45 countries.

National award winning film Aadukalam directed by Vetri Maran will screen in the competition under Tamil films while Adaminte Makan Abu by Salim Ahamed will screen in Indian Panorama.

The country focus will be on Turkey, Hungary and Poland. The festival is expected to host retrospectives of Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsao-Hsien from Taiwan and Aki Karasmaki from Finland.

The other highlights of the festival are Las Acacias from Argentina, Sleeping Beauty from Australia, Michael from Austria, A Separation from Iran, Elena and Faust from Russia.

The festival, organised by the Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation (ICAF) will end on 21 December.