For many of the youngsters, The International Film Festival of India turned out to be quite an experience. This year, 346 students from 14 different institutes were at the festival learning and interacting with the best, it was the first time they were participating in a festival and it was an opportunity to interact and watch movies from all over. Milton Dev Varma from Tripura, a screenwriter, participated in the ‘Young Filmmakers – The Future is Now’ and his group won the prize for best writing and best actress. “It is a great experience being in Goa, participating and interacting with people from all over,” says Milton.
Sreha Mehra from the Biju Patnaik Film Television Institute of Orissa aspires to be an editor. This was her first visit to the festival and she came in a group of three students and one teacher. “I liked the quality of films shown at the festival and I hope that someday my film will make it to the festival,” she says. The cost of flight was paid by the institute for the group.
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Chandidas from the same institute is training to be a cinematographer and this was his first time at IFFI too. He attended masterclasses and was learning a lot of new things. The movies he saw motivated him to return one day with a movie of his own. “I attended the John Seale masterclass and came away with a lot of technical knowledge,” he adds.
Sarah Anna from Jain University, Kochi is doing her MA in animation. This is her first time at the festival and she finds the festival awesome though she feels the Indian movies shown could have been better. She watched several good movies which could have been previewed here. “The movies could have been better and they should have been the ones that opened the mind. I loved the international movies,” she says. Since it is not a government institute, she and her friends had to fund their entire trip. Each of them were paying around Rs 7,000 for train tickets and stay in Goa.
A R Radhakrishnan from the same institute is studying animation, and he says there were movies which had animation in them and he was looking forward to watching them.
Nageshwari Nandini, a film student from Patna is training to be an editor. She is one of 50 students from Bihar to come for the festival. Their expenditure is being incurred by NFDC. She attended the Kolkata Film festival and she preferred that one over IFFI. “The selection of films were better there. The films at IFFI were more commercial and I preferred art house films,” she says.
Jaishree Verma is a student of animation at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata and was keen on watching films on animation. She was disappointed that there was only one masterclass on animation, which she attended.
Sujat from Tamil Nadu felt the curation of films could have been much better. He says, “It’s more commercial than an art house which should be represented here. The film I watched today was very good and I hope the films that I watch next will be as good.” Around 50 students have come from Kolkata and all their fares are paid for by the government.
Mika, an international student from Japan, who is on a scholarship by the government, says it should have been better organised. There is, without a doubt, an effort being made to expose the filmmakers of the next generation to the best of world cinema. One hopes it pays off in the long run.
