YAMUNA NAGAR: The third Haryana International Film Festival and Film Appreciation Course, being organised by the DAV College for Girls, will this year feature around 50 films from India and overseas.
The Festival, to be inaugurated by famed filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan on 1 October, will open with the Dadasaheb Phalke award winning movie Nizhalkuthu (Shadow Kill). Om Puri will be the chief guest for the closing ceremony.
The festival, which will end on 7 October, will have films from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, the United States, Poland, Russia, Japan, China, Iran, Sweden, Hong Kong, the Phillipines, Denmark, Hungary, Norway, Argentina and Brazil among others.
Eight important films are being premiered in Haryana during this festival. Apart from Shadow Kill, the others are Gautam Ghose‘s Kaalbela, Makrand Deshpande‘s Hanan, Seema Kapoor‘s Haat - The Bazaar, Anwar Jamal‘s Harvest of Grief, Sharmila Maiti‘s Beyond Borders, Tripurari Sharan‘s Jab Din Chale Na Raat Chale and Ranjeet Bahadur‘s Sab ko Intezaar Hai.
Festival Director Ajit Rai said there will be a special focus on Iran to be inaugurated by the Director of the Iran Cultural Centre attached to the Iran Embassy in India, Ali Dehghai.
Literature and Cinema is the theme of a seminar to be held on 3 October that will be inaugurated by eminent littérateur and Hans editor Rajender Yadav. Basu Chatterji‘s film Sara Akash, based on Yadav‘s novel, will be screened on the occasion.
Dadasaheb Phalke Awardee Shyam Benegal will be in conversation with filmmaker Anwar Jamal on 5 October. This will be followed by the screening of Benegal‘s Samar.
On 2 October, a Children Film Section will be inaugurated in collaboration with the Children‘s Film Society, India, by Bipin Chandra with child star Shreya Sharma of The Blue Umbrella as the Guest of Honour.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) founded by eminent critic Aruna Vasudev and some international personalities keen to popularise Asian cinema.
