Team Herald
PANJIM: The 48th edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will have the ‘future of cinema’ as its focus, with the Union Ministry for Information and Broadcasting laying emphasis on making the nine-day event people-friendly and artist-friendly.
In a major change, National Films Division Corporation (NFDC) has joined hands with Directorate of Film Festival (DFF) and Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG) to host the festival, which will be held from November 20-28.
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani and Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday reviewed preparations for IFFI at a meeting at ESG, which is the nodal agency for the event. The meeting was attended by officials of ESG, DFF and NFDC.
“The minister (Irani) wants to bring future cinema into this festival. The focus will be about new cinema,” ESG Vice Chairman Rajendra Talak told media persons after the meeting.
Talak said Irani wants to bring about a change and not just to adopt the traditional practices of organising the event. “This year, IFFI is changing. Our efforts are to make the festival people-friendly, artist-friendly,” he said. The Vice Chairman said that all the agencies are working in coordination to conduct the festival.
Talak said the annual ‘Film Bazaar’ by NFDC, held along the sidelines of the festival, will now be the part of the event. “Earlier there was no coordination between DFF and NFDC over the Film Bazaar. But now it will be held with proper coordination,” he said.
ESG has also decided to launch a people-friendly website for online registration of delegates, which is expected to be launched in the next seven days.
Talak said the festival’s opening and closing ceremonies would be held at Dr Shama Prasad Mukherjee stadium at Bambolim.
Asked whether any discussion was held on the proposed convention centre at Dona Paula, Talak said that the 50th edition of IFFI in 2019 will be held at the permanent venue, as announced by the Chief Minister. “The detail discussion on that will take place post the upcoming IFFI. There is still time for that,” he stated.
