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NEW DELHI: The Fortieth International Film
Festival of India in Goa next month will
feature 200 films from about 50 countries
and will for the first time award the best
director as well.
There
will be about 65 films from 45 countries
in the Cinema of the World. The continent
focus is on Africa and Latin America, while
the country focus is on the cinema of Italy,
France, Poland, Croatia and Estonia.
Films
made by Indians abroad on NRI issues will
be part of the ‘Film India worldwide’
section. Retrospectives in the foreign films
category will include Gurinder Chadha of
the United Kingdom, Manuel De Olievera of
Portugal and Nonzee Nimibutr of Thailand.
In addition, five anti-war films will also
be shown.
IFFI
2009 will commence on 23 November at the
Kala Academy in Panaji and run for 10 days
till 3 December.
According
to Festival Director S M Khan, “The
best film award will be jointly shared by
both the director and the producer of the
film'' and the winner gets the prestigious
Golden Peacock award and Rs 4 million as
cash prize. The Best Director and the winner
of the Special Jury Award will get silver
peacock and cash prizes of Rs 1.5 million
each.
The
Indian Panorama will showcase 47 films –
26 feature and 21 non-feature films. In addition,
the National Film Archives of India, Pune,
will screen five vintage musical hits and
three National Film Award winning movies –
Do Ankhen Baara Haath (1957), Sagar
Sangame (1958) and Apur Sansar
(1959).
Tributes
to Indian film personalities include Neelu
Phule, Prakash Mehra, Shakti Samanta, Feroz
Khan, Leela Naidu among others. The Films
Division, Mumbai, will show documentaries
on Indian music and musicians including
Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Ustad Bismillah Khan,
Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Pandit Jasraj, Naushad,
K L Saigal, Begum Akhtar and Mohammad Rafi.
The
retrospectives in the Indian section will
include films from Assam, as the Assamese
Film Industry is celebrating the diamond
jubilee. The films of Jahnu Barua, Bhabhendranath
Saikia, Santwana Bardoloj and Sanjeev Hazarika
will be showcased.
The
retrospective will also feature films of
those artistes who have completed 50 years
in the film industry. Two movies each of
Kamal Hassan, Asha Parekh and Saumitra Chatterjee
will be screened.
Spoof
Cinema, mocking popular cinema, is the new
entrant in this edition of the festival.
Films such as Malegaon ka Superman
and Gabbarbhai MBBS are part of this
package.
Among
the parallel activities, Shiamak Davar will
present a lecture demonstration on ‘Evolution
of Dance in Hindi Cinema’ while Kishwar
Desai will speak on ‘Hindi Films based
on book adaptations.”
A
total 1200 seats in Madgaon and another
100 in Kala Academy, Panaji, have been added
for the Festival this year.
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