NEW DELHI: The Fortieth International Film Festival of India in Goa next month will feature 200 films from about 50 countries and will for the first time award the best director as well.
There will be about 65 films from 45 countries in the Cinema of the World. The continent focus is on Africa and Latin America, while the country focus is on the cinema of Italy, France, Poland, Croatia and Estonia.
Films made by Indians abroad on NRI issues will be part of the ‘Film India worldwide’ section. Retrospectives in the foreign films category will include Gurinder Chadha of the United Kingdom, Manuel De Olievera of Portugal and Nonzee Nimibutr of Thailand. In addition, five anti-war films will also be shown.
IFFI 2009 will commence on 23 November at the Kala Academy in Panaji and run for 10 days till 3 December.
According to Festival Director S M Khan, “The best film award will be jointly shared by both the director and the producer of the film‘‘ and the winner gets the prestigious Golden Peacock award and Rs 4 million as cash prize. The Best Director and the winner of the Special Jury Award will get silver peacock and cash prizes of Rs 1.5 million each.
The Indian Panorama will showcase 47 films – 26 feature and 21 non-feature films. In addition, the National Film Archives of India, Pune, will screen five vintage musical hits and three National Film Award winning movies – Do Ankhen Baara Haath (1957), Sagar Sangame (1958) and Apur Sansar (1959).
Tributes to Indian film personalities include Neelu Phule, Prakash Mehra, Shakti Samanta, Feroz Khan, Leela Naidu among others. The Films Division, Mumbai, will show documentaries on Indian music and musicians including Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Ustad Bismillah Khan, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Pandit Jasraj, Naushad, K L Saigal, Begum Akhtar and Mohammad Rafi.
The retrospectives in the Indian section will include films from Assam, as the Assamese Film Industry is celebrating the diamond jubilee. The films of Jahnu Barua, Bhabhendranath Saikia, Santwana Bardoloj and Sanjeev Hazarika will be showcased.
The retrospective will also feature films of those artistes who have completed 50 years in the film industry. Two movies each of Kamal Hassan, Asha Parekh and Saumitra Chatterjee will be screened.
Spoof Cinema, mocking popular cinema, is the new entrant in this edition of the festival. Films such as Malegaon ka Superman and Gabbarbhai MBBS are part of this package.
Among the parallel activities, Shiamak Davar will present a lecture demonstration on ‘Evolution of Dance in Hindi Cinema’ while Kishwar Desai will speak on ‘Hindi Films based on book adaptations.”
A total 1200 seats in Madgaon and another 100 in Kala Academy, Panaji, have been added for the Festival this year
