The International Film Festival of India 2013

As I write this, the IFFI 2013 has already begun in Goa. I hope those of you lucky ones who can, are attending it! It will run till the 30th, and among other things :

• Has in attendance Suran Sarandon, critically acclaimed Iranian director, producer and screenwriter Majid Majidi, Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, along with luminaries from Indian cinema like Kamal Haasan, Rekha and Asha Bhosle
• 15 films from around the world will vie for the coveted Peacock Awards at the 44th IFFI
• The Lifetime Achievement Award will be bestowed on renowned Oscar winning Czech director Jiri Menzel and his latest film ‘The Don Juans’ will also open the Festival.
• ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom’, directed by Justin Chadwick and written by William Nicholson will be the closing film of IFFI 2013
• The festival features a specially curated section on films from the eight states of North-East India

The Indian Panorama category comprises of 26 feature films and 16 non-feature films from contemporary Indian cinema including 2 National Award entries from the Feature and Non-Feature section. In the feature films category, 6 are in Malayalam, 5 in Bengali, 5 in Hindi, 3 in Marathi and 2 in English. One film each has been selected in Konkani, Kannada, Mising, Oriya and Tamil. Some notable mentions include critically acclaimed 2012 film ‘Ship of Theseus’ (English), Paan Singh Tomar, Listen Amaya, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, ‘Fandry’ (Marathi), and ‘Kanyaka Talkies’ (Malayalam) by K.R. Manoj, which is also the Opening Film of Indian Panorama 2013 on 22nd November 2013

The Festival will also feature some Satyajit Ray Classics.

[amazon_link id=”6304587384″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Satyajit Ray is regarded as one of the great film-makers of world cinema. Ray received many major awards in his career, including 32 Indian National Film Awards, a number of awards at international film festivals and award ceremonies. He was given the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in Cinema in 1992. The Government of India honoured him with the Bharat Ratna in 1992. Films to be screened in this section are:

CHARULATA (The Lonely Wife) – 1964 / Bengali / Black and White / 117 min

MAHAPURUSH (The Holy Man) – 1964 / Bengali / Black and White / 65 min

KAPURUSH (The Coward) – 1965 / Bengali / Black and White / 74 min

NAYAK (The Hero) – 1966 / Bengali / Black and White / 120 min

JOI BABA FELUNATH (The Elephant God) – 1966 / Bengali / Colour / 112 min

Information in this post has been gotten from IFFI Publicity; please double-check information and schedules at their website.