MUMBAI: The 17th edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) will get underway at Thiruvananthapuram tomorrow with the screening of Alfred Hitchcock‘s silent drama The Ring. Noted Australian filmmaker Paul Cox is the jury chairman of the present edition.

The eight-day annual movie gala, that will be inaugurated by state Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, will showcase around 200 handpicked movies from 54 countries in 15 different categories in select theatres in the city.

Malayali actor Mohanlal will be the chief guest at the inaugural ceremony in which a number of dignitaries like union minister Sashi Tharoor, K Muraleedharan MLA and city Mayor K Chandrika would make their presence felt.

Australian indigenous films, top-angle Cinema, theater film, Hitchcock‘s silent films and movies on adolescence are some new categories in this edition of the festival, which will screen 14 movies under ‘Competition Section‘, 76 in World Cinema‘ category and seven under the ‘Indian Cinema Now‘ section.

This year, Vietnam will be the ‘Country in Focus‘.

The ‘Retrospective category‘ would have select films of classic masters like Akira Kurasawa, Paul Cox, S Pierre Yameogo, Alain Resnais, Helena Ignez, Hitchcock and Sharada.

The category ‘Malayalam Cinema Today‘ will have films including Indian Rupee directed by Ranjith, A Document of Separation by Madhupal, In Recent Times‘by Arun Kumar Aravind and Chayilliam by Manjo Kana.

The Best film will bag the Suvarna Chakoram (Golden Crow Pheasent) award with a cash prize of Rs 1.5 million.

The festival will conclude on 14 December.