187 films from 89 countries to be showcased at IFFI 2015 in International Section
Andalib Akhter /
Minister for Finance, Corporate Affairs and I&B Arun Jaitley today said that the International Film Festival of India IFFI held a special significance and had become a global brand in the world of cinema. It promoted excellence and provided an opportunity to showcase the best domestic and international talent.
Addressing the curtain raiser press conference of IFFI 2015, Minister said that the film festival would showcase 187 films from 89 countries in World Cinema section along with 26 Feature and 21 Non-Feature films in Indian Panorama section. He said that Anil Kapoor would be the Chief Guest at the opening ceremony. The jury for International Competition included Chairperson Shekhar Kapur along with Mr. Michael Radford, Ms. Julia Jentsch, Ms. Suha Arraf and Mr. Jeon Kyu-Hwan.
On the focus country for the film festival Jaitley said that the ‘Kingdom of Spain’ would be the focus country for IFFI 2015.The films of master Spanish filmmakers Carlos Saura and Pedro Almadovar along with contemporary filmmakers like Alejandro Amenabar would be screened at the festival. The section would also feature Spanish actress Leticia Dolera’s directorial debut ‘Requirements to Be a Normal Person.’ The IFFI 2015 in the International Competition would include 15 films from across the globe.
Jaitley also highlighted the new initiatives of IFFI-2015. He said this year IFFI would feature a special section on ‘World Cinema Restored Classics’ to highlight the idea of film restoration. This would feature a package of classics to put spotlight on National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM). The Minister further said that the film festival would also introduce a new segment- ‘First Cut’ to recognize the young talent in the field of cinema and would screen some of the outstanding directorial debuts of 2015. The section would feature emerging filmmakers including Brian Perkins (Film – Golden Kingdom, USA), Michael Klette (Film – Solness, Germany) among others. The festival in association with the Oscar Academy would also promote skill development in film making through master classes on varied topics like sound designing, film archive and film editing.
Jaitley said that IFFI 2015 would also include special award – “ICFT- UNESCO Fellini Prize” in collaboration with the International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication (ICFT), Paris and UNESCO. The award would be presented to a film which reflects the ideals of peace, tolerance, non-violence and friendship promoted by UNESCO. Shri Arun Jaitley also released the poster for the 46th International Film Festival at the press conference.
The 13-member Feature jury and 7- member Non-feature jury was headed by Aribam Syam Sharma and Rajendra Janglay respectively. The opening film of IFFI 2015 would be ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’ by Matthew Brown. The film was a true story of friendship between Indian Mathematician Ramanujan and Professor GH Hardy that forever changed the world of mathematics.
Sunil Arora, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting while giving introductory remarks at the press conference said that IFFI was the biggest Film Festival in Asia and a leading platform for art and creativity. He said that Goa had been the perfect venue for past 11 years for the film festival. He further said that this year the festival would also have a special Focus on North East Cinema and would showcase the best of films and filmmakers from the region to the world. It would have a Special Retrospective on Aribam Syam Sharma along with a unique segment featuring next generation filmmakers from North East.
IFFI 2015 would also organize a special seminar on Film and Cultural diversity. A special series titled ‘In Conversation’ with eminent Indian filmmakers such as Shyam Benegal, Vettrimaran would be organized to discuss films and the art of filmmaking with the audience.
Organized by the Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, in association with the State Government of Goa, the International Film Festival of India is an endeavor to understand the various social and cultural ethos through the eyes of cinema. Moving from the artistic centers of Asia to the cinematic arena of the world, the festival’s founding principles focus on discovery, promotion and support of filmmaking of all genres, thus bringing together the diversity of the forms, aesthetics and contents. The festival has gained huge popularity amongst the global cinema lovers.
Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, Shri Laxmikant Parsekar, Chief Minister of Goa and Shri Sunil Arora, Secretary I&B were also present at the occasion.