Key highlights of the 46th International Film Festival of India

The 46th International Film Festival of India, that began in Goa on November 20, draws to close today with a Closing Ceremony paying a musical tribute to the spirit of Cinema and screening of the Closing Film ‘The Clan’ from Argentina.

Following are the key highlights of the 10 day long festival.

• UNESCO Fellini Medal for the first time to be awarded in India at IFFI 2015
• The Kingdom of Spain was the focus country of IFFI 2015
• Total No of Delegate Registered-7000
• International Jury headed by the chairperson, Shekhar Kapur along with UK based director, Micheal Radford, Palestinian based Israel director, Ms. Suha Arraf, German Actress, Julia Jentsch and South Korean filmmaker Jeon Kyu-Hwan.
• The 13-member Feature Jury was headed by Chairperson, Aribam Syam Sharma while the 7-member Non-Feature jury was led by Chairperson, Rajendra Janglay.
• Total no. of premiers (World, International, Asia and India) during the festival - 120
• This year the festival hosted more than 820 film delegates including 540 national and 280 international directors, actors, producers, technicians including Oscar Academy members and Hollywood experts
• Total numbers of films received as entries was unprecedented 790 films. Final selection of films - 182 (Foreign Cinema)
• Countries representing - 90
• Opening Film- The Man who knew Infinity, Mid Fest Film-The Danish Girl was widely appreciated by media and audience.
• Closing Film- El Clan was selected to be screened in the main competition section of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival where director Pablo Trapero won the Silver Lion. The film was selected as the Argentine entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards.
• 26 Official Oscar Entries besides several big films from Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and Locarno film Festival
• 47 films in Indian Panorama section (Feature and Non-feature)
• New Horizons from North-East- A special retrospective on ace filmmaker Aribam Shyam Sharma and special section on new generation filmmakers from the North-East
• This year, out of 15 films in International Competition, 5 films are official Oscar entries from different countries. The list includes Colombia’s ‘El abrazo de la serpiente (Embrace of the Serpent)’ directed by Ciro Guerra, France’s ‘Mustang’ directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Germany’s Oscar entry ‘Im Labyrinth des Schweigens (Labyrinth of Lies)’ directed by Giulio Ricciarelli, Iceland’s Oscar entry ‘Rams’ directed by Grímur Hákonarson and Serbia’s ‘Enclave’ directed by Goran Radovanovic.
• Lifetime Achievement Award to Oscar winning Russian filmmaker, actor and head of Russian Cinematographer’s Union, Nikita Mikhalkov for his contributions to world cinema at the 46th International Film Festival of India. The festival also had a special Tribute section on his selective films- Burnt by the Sun, Sunstroke, Barber of Siberia and Oblomob.
• Centenary Film Personality Award conferred upon Internationally acclaimed Music composer Illayaraja during the Opening Ceremony
• ICFT-UNESCO Seminar on Film and Cultural Diversity was held with participation of Mr. Philippe Queau (France), Mr. Charles Vallerand (Canada), Ms. Sharada Ramanathan (India)
• Interactive Meeting with Industry Professionals on Shooting in USA in collaboration with FICCI
• Multimedia exhibition on National Film Heritage Mission being organized by DAVP and NFAI
• Special Retrospective on Shashi Kapoor offered glimpses of the work of the legendary actor Shashi Kapoor and screened his 8 films at IFFI 2015. Junoon (1978) will be screened as the opening film of the section followed by New Delhi Times (1986), Utsav (1984), In Custody (Muhafiz) (1993), Kalyug (1981), Deewar (1975), Shakespearwallah (1965) and House holder (1963).
• Three member delegation from the Oscar Academy visited India for the first time to present important master classes. Master Classes by Oscar Academy members and Hollywood experts like Mark Mangini, Milt Shefter, Humphrey Dixon and Nancy Bhishop on varied topics like sound designing, film archive, film editing and casting.
• Eminent National and International film celebrities like Anil Kapoor, Illayaraaja, Sonakshi Sinha, Kabir Khan, Dev Patel, Mark Mangini, Ayushmann Khurrana, Aditi Rao Hydari, Jackie Shroff, Nana Patekar, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Subash Ghai, Shekhar Kapur, Kaushik Ganguly, Edward Pressman, Nikita Mikhalkov, Michael Radford, Julia Jentsch, Suha Arraf, Rajkumar Hirani, Priyadarshan, Vetrimaaran, Madhur Bhandarkar, Anand L Rai, Shyam Benegal, KK Senthil Kumar and Shankar Mahadevan to name a few.
• Featured a special section ‘Restored Classics’ to highlight National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM) - an initiative of National Film Archive of India (NFAI) envisioned by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. The initiative is aimed to protect and preserve the rich and diverse cinematic heritage of the country for future generation.
• First Cut, a specially curated selection of films representing THE FIRST WORK OF THE emerging talent in world cinema. The section featured emerging foreign filmmakers including Brian Perkins (Film - Golden Kingdom, USA), Michael Klette (Film - Solness, Germany) and Piotr Chrzan (Film – Moskvich-My Love, Poland) among others.
• An exclusive section ‘Womenclature of Cinema’ showcased the films by Indian women filmmakers. Included best work of women film makers like Anjali Menon (Manjadikuru), Aparna Sen (36 Chowringhee Lane), Zoya Akhtar (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara) amongst others.
• New Media initiatives like live streaming of Press Conferences, Festival Mobile App and other initiatives for instant information, content and updates to guests and delegates.
• Despite having so many screenings of movies, the cinema halls were housefull everyday.
• Path-breaking Indian directors like Rajkumar Hirani, Madhur Bhandarkar, Shyam Benegal, Vettrimaran, Kaushik Ganguly, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Priyadarshan, Anand L Rai in a special series titled “In Conversation”. The series provided a unique opportunity for audience to interact with their favorite filmmakers and film experts.
• The festival showcased a special package on Contemporary Argentinian Cinema. The list of film that screened includes Argentina Zonda, El Cinco, Intimate Witness, Mexican Operation, Rapture and Wild Tales.
• Open Forum and daily Press conferences were attended by large audience and media persons.
• Closing ceremony to host the delegates from Argentina, Nigeria and Consulate General of Turkey. Opening ceremony was attended by delegates from Spain and Israel.
• Live Social Media interactions with national and international celebrities.
• Foreign and Indian delegates were delighted with the selection of movies in different sections.
• Best of world cinema was showcased to Indian audience and best of Indian cinema were appreciated by international delegates
• A.R. Rahman was the Chief Guest of the evening. Noted filmmakers and international celebrities Pablo Ceaser, John D. Bails, Guneet Monga, Michael Ward, Nishith Takia, Ioanna Stais, Young Woo Kim, attended the festival. National Award winning film makers like Bhagirathi, Tapan Biswas, Srijit Mukherji, Kaushik Ganguly along with other Indian cinema stalwarts met their fans and interacted with media and fans.
• Creating a benchmark of showcasing exceptional films from world cinema, the screened a stellar line-up of official Oscar entries from 26 countries. These films were the part of global film festivals like Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Busan.

Source: PIB

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