PANJIM: All-time megastar Anil Kapoor will inaugurate the 46th edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa, scheduled from November 20 to 30. Some 187 films from 89 countries will be showcased during the ten-day long festival, while ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’ will be the opening film.
Addressing the media in New Delhi, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Arun Jaitley said Spain would be the country focus at this year’s IFFI. The Indian Panorama section will screen 26 feature and 21 non-feature films. Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar also addressed the media.
Jaitley said IFFI has become a common platform to celebrate the excellence of film making and appreciate film cultures of different nations. “Today, the festival has grown as one of the biggest film festivals in Asia and with each edition it is creating new benchmarks of success all over the world. The festival has gained huge popularity amongst the global cinema lovers and the world is eagerly waiting for the IFFI 2015,” he said.
With Spain being the focus country, films of master Spanish filmmakers Carlos Saura and Pedro Almadovar, along with contemporary filmmakers like Alejandro Amenabar will be screened at the festival. The section will also feature Spanish actress Leticia Dolera’s directorial debut ‘Requirements to be a Normal Person’.
The International Competition will have 15 films including two films from India. The jury for International Competition includes Chairperson Shekhar Kapur along with Michael Radford, Julia Jentsch, Suha Arraf and Jeon Kyu-Hwan.
The Union Minister announced that as a pioneering step, IFFI in collaboration with the International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication (ICFT), Paris and UNESCO will be presenting the “ICFT-UNESCO Fellini Prize” to a film which reflects the ideals of peace, tolerance, non-violence and friendship promoted by UNESCO.
The section Focus on North East Cinema has emerged as a platform to showcase the best of films and filmmakers from this region. This year, the section will have a special retrospective on Aribam Syam Sharma, the filmmaker, actor and music composer from Manipur along with a unique segment featuring next generation filmmakers from the North East.
