Countdown begins for the 46th International Film Festival of India, 2015 in Goa
Countdown begins for the 46th International Film
Festival of India, 2015 in Goa
Anil Kapoor to be Chief Guest at the Opening Ceremony; A. R. Rahman at
Closing
Mobile App launched for real time information on IFFI 2015
‘Festival theme song’ released for the first time
Indian films to be screened at Azad Maidan for local public
The Vice-Chairman, Entertainment Society
of Goa (ESG), Shri Damodar Naik, the ADG, Press Information Bureau (PIB), Ms
Ira Joshi, the Festival Director, Shri C. Senthil Rajan and the CEO, ESG, Shri
Amey Abhyankar at a curtain raiser press conference, at IFFI Media Centre,
Panaji, Goa on November 18, 2015.
The 46th edition of International Film Festival of India (IFFI) is all set
to woo audience with an enthralling array of spectacular filmmakers and
impactful cinema. IFFI takes off day after tomorrow at Goa amidst great fanfare
and with a gala show of music and dance being held from 20th to 30th November,
2015. As IFFI completes its 12 years in a row at Goa this year since 2004, it
is all set to enter theteens here.
The 11-dayfestival will witness the confluence of cultures, communication
and commerce and a rare ferment of ideas and action. The festival will
provide a common platform to cinematography of the world for fostering
international understanding and cooperation, depicting oneness of human nature
highlighting reasons for universal appeal of films.
Ms Ira Joshi, ADG, Press Information Bureau (PIB) in a curtain raiser press
conference held at IFFI media centre, Maquinez Palace, Panjim,
Goa today,briefed about the media arrangements during festival including
opening and closing ceremonies. She also announced new initiatives being
undertaken by PIB for a seamless reach out to the film lovers across the globe.
The highlight of new initiatives will be theLive streaming of press conferences
on PIB You Tube and simultaneous Question and Answer (Q&A) sessions on PIB
Facebook/PIB Twitter to enlist larger participation in the press conferences.
Shri C Senthil Rajan, the Festival Director informed that the festival will
screen 187 films in world cinema section while 47 films will be screened in the
Indian Panorama section. The international competition will have 15 films from
across the globe. He also informed that Anil Kapoor will be the Chief Guest of
the Opening Ceremony and music maestro A.R. Rahman will be the Chief Guest at
the Closing ceremony of the festival. ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’from UK is the
opening film of the festival while ‘The Clan’ from Argentina will be the
Closing Film. This time, the Indian Panorama will open with film Priyamanasam
which is the world’s third Sanskrit film. The Kingdon of Spain is the focus
country of the IFFI 2015, he added. The festival will also be recognising
budding talent from the world of cinema under its new segment – First Cut to
showcase some of the outstanding works of debutant directors of 2015. The
Director also informed that selected Indian films will be screened at Azad
Maidan for local people of Goa.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Amey Abhyankar, CEO, Entertainment Society
of Goa (ESG) said that the preparatory work is going on smoothly and robust
security arrangements have been made for the festival. The new initiatives
include organising three food festivals for national, international and Goan
cuisines. The ‘Mobile Talkies’ will roam the countryside of Goa showing films
with the aim to connect the festival with the Goan people in the hinterland.
Other initiatives include a book store and an art exhibition in the INOX
courtyard and ‘Festival Mile’, ‘The Peacock’ publication based on fringe
activities happening in and around festival.
Shri Damodar Naik, Vice-Chairman, ESG said that efforts are being made to
make IFFI a self-sustained brand in the coming years.
The #IFFI2015 Android Smartphone App designed and
maintained by the New Media Wing of the Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting, was also launched at the press conference. An extremely
user-friendly App, #IFFI2015 hosts multi-faceted features including film
trailers, film screening schedules, reminders of favourite movies and
interactions with internationally acclaimed filmmakers and celebrities. For the
first time, the festival theme song ‘Choi Choi, ami picture choi yaar’ was also
released during the conference.
Ms Nina Lath Gupta, MD, National Film Development Corporation Ltd
(NFDC) informed the press conference that for the first time in the Film Bazaar
this year, Children’s Screenwriters’ Lab is being introduced as a part of
the Screenwriters’ Lab with the Romance
Screenwriters’ Lab introduced last year. This year, six projects are
selected in each lab, these 18 screenwriters will be at the Bazaar this year
and will get an opportunity to participate in an Investors Pitch and
pitch their projects to the invited Indian and International
buyers/producers/directors, she informed.
Highlights of IFFI-2015
Started in 1952 as a national initiative for art and cultural promotion, International Film Festival of India today has become one of the biggest film festivals in the world. Directorate of Film Festivals is going to organize the 46th edition of IFFI in Goa from November 20 to 30, 2015. The festival showcases some of the best of World Cinema and introduces Indian Cinema to the world by bringing a mélange of spectacular films with rich content, interesting stories and characters. Goa has been the perfect venue for IFFI since the last 11 years and the lively and scenic settings of Goa are offering a great platform for art, cinema, and audience. The Film Festival offers a confluence of film screenings, knowledge sharing, master classes, seminars, panel discussions, special sections, and numerous awards among other attractions.
The following are the highlights of IFFI-2015:
· The festival received an impressive 790 film entries from 100 countries. This year, the World Cinema section will present around 187 films in various sections from 89 countries.
· Written and directed by Matthew Brown, this year’s opening film is The Man Who Knew Infinity.
· Directed by Pablo Trapero, Argentina’s Oscar entry and this year’s biggest Argentinean box office hit- The Clan to be the closing film.
· Directed by Academy Award Winner Tom Hooper, The DanishGirl will be the mid fest film.
· The Kingdom of Spainwill be the focus country of IFFI 2015.
· The International Competition will have 15 films from across the globe including countries like Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Colombia, France, Germany, Iceland to name a few. Two films from Indian Panorama section will also be competing in this section.
· The International Jury is headed by Mr.ShekharKapur(Chairperson, India) and includes film personalities like Mr. Michael Radford, Ms. Julia Jentsch, Ms.SuhaArrafand Mr.JeonKyu – Hwan.
· Anil Kapoor will grace the opening ceremony as the Chief Guest of the event.
· A.R. Rahman will be the Chief Guest of the closing ceremony.
· IFFI 2015 awards spread across different categories including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor – Male, Best Actor – Female, Special Jury Award, Centenary Award, Lifetime Achievement Award and Centenary Award- Indian Personality of the Year.
· The Indian Panorama section received a total number of 384 films from different regions of the country including 238 Feature and 146 Non-Feature films, out of which 26 feature and 21 non-feature films will be screened during the festival.
· Mr.AribamSyam Sharma headed the Feature jury while RajendraJanglay headed the Non-feature jury for Indian Panorama section.
· World’s third Sanskrit film Priyamanasam will be the opening film of Indian Panorama section.
· Filmmakers ShyamBenegal, Vettrimaran, KaushikGanguliand Anand L Rai will interact with audience in a special series titled “In Conversation”.
· The festival will organize a Special Retrospective on the legendry actor ShashiKapoor.
· The ‘Focus on North East Cinema’ section will feature a Special Retrospective on the ace filmmaker AribamShyam Sharma and special section on new generation filmmakers from the North East region.
· IFFI 2015 in collaboration with the International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication (ICFT), Paris and UNESCO will present the “ICFT- UNESCO Fellini Prize” to a film.
· For the first time, IFFI will be recognizing young talents from the world of cinema under its new segment - First Cut that will showcase some of the outstanding works of debutant directors of 2015.
· Focusing on skill building in filmmaking and enhancing talents, IFFI in association with the Oscar Academy will organize master classes with eminent Academy Members including Mark Mangini, Milt Shefter, Humphrey Dixon to name a few.
· IFFI 2015 will featurea special section ‘Restored Classics’ to highlight National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM). The section will showcase world-class restorations of some landmark films.
· The sections Masterstroke and Festival Kaleidoscope will showcase the latest films of the masters of world cinema. Films from Palestine, China, Mexico, Sweden and other countries will be screened in this section.
· The festival will feature a Special Retrospective on eminent Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai. His 10 films will be screened in retrospective section.
· The festival will pay a Special Tribute to noted Danish-French actress, director and screenwriter Anna Karina and will feature her 3 films.
· The festival will welcome more than 7000 delegates (need to confirm with DFF) and thousands of cinema lovers from across the globe.
· The film festival will also host the 9th edition of Film Bazaar which will be focusing on more than 150 film projects. Delegates from 38 countries will be participating in the Film Bazaar.
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46th IFFI- New Initiatives by PIB
The Press Information Bureau is taking new initiatives to increase the information dissemination about IFFI 2015 particularly by utilising the potential of social media like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Briefing about the media arrangements made for IFFI 2015, ADG PIB, Ms Ira Joshi informed that this year the social media will be used to increase the participation and involvement of media and film critics across the country as well as abroad. This will help to create synergy amongst various channels of media and facilitate real time interaction as well as real time information dissemination during the press conferences. She was speaking at the curtain raiser press conference of IFFI 2015 held at IFFI Media Centre at Maquinez Palace in Panjim, Goa today.
Ms Ira Joshi said that the following are thenew initiatives being taken upthis year-
• Live streaming of press conferences on PIB You Tube and simultaneous Question and Answer(Q&A) sessions on PIB Facebook/ PIB Twitter to enlist larger participation in press conferences
• PIB has already organized a Facebook Q&A on IFFI with renowned film critic/journalist ShriUtpalBorpujari on 12 November 2015 as a part of pre-event build up.
• Similarly, PIB also organized Twitter Chat on IFFI with noted film critic/journalist ShriSaibalChatterjee on 17 November 2015.
• A series of Twitter Chats with Film Personalities will be organized during the festival.
• Special Video Playlist on IFFI Movie trailers is being created on PIB YouTube Channel
• PIB will also be inviting questions on Twitter and Facebook from foreign media as well as foreign film critics to make the press conferences more interactive and broadbased specially in case of foreign films.
Ms Ira Joshi said that the following are thenew initiatives being taken upthis year-
• Live streaming of press conferences on PIB You Tube and simultaneous Question and Answer(Q&A) sessions on PIB Facebook/ PIB Twitter to enlist larger participation in press conferences
• PIB has already organized a Facebook Q&A on IFFI with renowned film critic/journalist ShriUtpalBorpujari on 12 November 2015 as a part of pre-event build up.
• Similarly, PIB also organized Twitter Chat on IFFI with noted film critic/journalist ShriSaibalChatterjee on 17 November 2015.
• A series of Twitter Chats with Film Personalities will be organized during the festival.
• Special Video Playlist on IFFI Movie trailers is being created on PIB YouTube Channel
• PIB will also be inviting questions on Twitter and Facebook from foreign media as well as foreign film critics to make the press conferences more interactive and broadbased specially in case of foreign films.
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