Panjim is getting decked up with enormous display of film actors and iconic scenes from movies
which can be a film buff’s dream. The 50th edition of the International Film
Festival of India (IFFI) will be held in Panjim from November 20-28, 2019. The
opening ceremony will be hosted by Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar at the Dr
Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium, Bambolim. Indian cinema superstars
Amitabh Bachchan and Rajinikanth, are set to grace the event. Rajinikanth will
be awarded the `Icon of Golden Jubilee Award` for his outstanding contribution
to Indian cinema at the festival.
French actress Isabelle Huppert will be honoured with the
Lifetime Achievement Award at IFFI 2019. She will also take a Masterclass under
Actors Connect. The opening film is director Goran Paskaljevic’s ‘Despite the
Fog’, an Italian drama, and it will be screened after the official inauguration
at 7pm at Kala Academy, Panjim.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) Vice- Chairman Subhash Phal
Dessai informs that a short seven-minute film on former defence minister and
Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar depicting his contribution will be screened
at the inaugural ceremony of the IFFI.
‘Bend It Like Beckham’ star Jonathan Rhys Meyers is expected to
attend the opening ceremony. South stars Vijay Devarakonda, Rakul Preet Singh,
Rashmika Mandana and Nithya Menen are expected to make an appearance at the
festival. Wagner Moura, Brazilian journalist and filmmaker, is also likely to
attend the event.
At the Golden Jubilee of IFFI 2019, a lot of interesting
masterclasses and talks will be held, including ones by film celebrities Anil
Kapoor, Anees Bazmee, Taapsee Pannu, Rohit Shetty, Tammanna Bhatia, Kajal
Agarwal, and Madhur Bhandarkar, among others. Meghana Gulzar will also talk on
nuances of filmmaking.
The IFFI 2019 screenings will be held at Kala Academy in Panjim,
INOX Panjim and also INOX Porvorim. There will also be some open-air screenings
next to Kala Academy. The masterclasses will be held at Maquinez Palace in
Panjim at the ESG Goa premises. IFFI 2019 will showcase over 200 films from 76
countries, which includes 26 feature films and 15 non-feature films in the
Indian panorama section. John Bailey, cinematographer and former President of
the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences will head the International
Jury of the 50th International Film Festival of India. Part of the Jury at IFFI
2019 are French filmmaker Robin Campillo, also on the Cannes 2019 International
Jury; Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yang, Scottish filmmaker- writer and
cinematographer Lynne Ramsay, and eminent Bollywood filmmaker Ramesh Sippy.
Isaignani Ilaiyaraaja will be part of a masterclass session on
November 27 and after his session; the maestro will enthrall the audience with
a live performance. This will be the first time he will perform at a film
festival. He will perform with his nine-member troupe from Chennai.
The
IFFI 2019 closing film will be Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s ‘Marghe
and Her Mother’. The screening will be held after the closing ceremony on
November 28, 2019. At IFFI 2019, Russia is the country in focus. The
prestigious film festival is organised by the Government of India every year,
an initiative of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and managed by
the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) and the Entertainment Society of Goa
(ESG).
