NANNI MORETTI , JURY PRESIDENT OF THE 65th FESTIVAL DE CANNES 2012

Nanni Moretti ,the Italian director would be the Jury President of the 65th edition of Cannes Film Festival. Nanni won the Palme d'Or in 2001 for his family drama "The Son's Room" as well as a director prize in 1994 for his film "Dear Diary." Moretti, who also acts, came to the Croisette last year with "We Have a Pope."

16th IFFI-Awards declared-'Future Lasts Forever' and'Abu Son of Adam' won Fipresci Prizes '

FIPRECI (The International Federation of Film Critics) selected the Turkey-France-Germany film 'Future Lasts Forever ' directed by Ozcan Alper for the Fipresci prize . The Fipresci Jury also awarded 'Abu Son of Adam ' directed by Salim Ahmed as the best Malayalam film.

16th IFFK- Colombian film The Colours of the Mountains/Los colores de la montaña directed by Carlos César Arbeláez won Suvarna Chakoram

The concluding ceremony and award giving function of the 16th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) came to a close with the screening of the award winning Colombian film The Colours of the Mountains/Los colores de la montaña directed by Carlos César Arbeláez. Bollywood director Subhash Ghai was the guest of honour.Minister for Sports and Cinema K.B. Ganesh Kumar gave away awards to the winners at the function presided over by Minister for Panchayats M.K. Muneer. Shibu Baby John Labour Minister presented the audience award. Priyadarsan the Festival Director welcomed the august gathering and K.G.Santhosh, Secretary proposed a vote of thanks.The Competition Section of IFFK is restricted to films from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Suvarna Chakoram -the Golden Crow Pheasant Award- with a Cash prize of INR 15 lakhs (US $ 30,000 approx) for the Best Feature Film, to be shared equally between the Director and the Producer , went to Colombian film The Colours of the Mountains/Los colores de la montaña directed by Carlos César Arbeláez. The Silver Crow Pheasant Award-Rajatha Chhakoram- and Cash prize of INR 4 lakhs (US$ 8,000 approx) to the Best Director went to Hameed Reza Aligholian who directed the Iranian film Flamingo No.13. Sebastian Hiriat ,Mexican director won the Best Debut Film Award and a Cash Prize of INR 3 lakhs (US$ 6,000 approx) for his film A stone’s throw away . Painting Lesson (Spain-Chile-Mexican ) directed by Pablo Pereiman won the Audience Prize (voted as the Best Entry in Competition by the festival delegates) -Rajata Chakoram and a Cash Prize of INR 2 lakhs (US $ 4,000 approx) .FIPRECI (The International Federation of Film Critics) selected the turkey-france-germany film Future lasts forever directed by Ozcan Alper for the fipresci prize . The Fipresci Jury also awarded Abu Son of Adam directed by Salim Ahmed as the best Malayalam film.NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Film Centre) award for the Best Asian Film in Competition was given to At the End of it All directed by Aditi Roy.NETPAC Award for the Best Malayalam Film also went to Abu Son of Adam directed by Salim Ahmed.The Best Indian Debut Director award (Rs. 50,000/- and memento)named Hassankutty award constituted by Ms. Mira Nair in memory of her Assistant Director late Hassankutty also bagged by Salim Ahmed for his film Abu Son of Adam. In Toto this film which was excluded from main competition section on technical grounds won three awards.

16th IFFK-Trigger Pitch -A new initiative to help fiction and documentaries

A new initiative called Trigger Pitch will be jointly launched by the Kerala State Chalachithra Academy and the Indian Documentary Foundation, to bridge the gap between creative and marketing sections of film making, on Tuesday at The Residency Tower, as a part of 16th IFFK. It is an outreach forum to promote both fiction and documentary films, beyond festival space. Six films, ‘Please Don’t Beat me sir!’, You don’t belong’, ‘A Pestering Journey’, ‘Money and Honey’, ‘Beijing Besieged By Waste’, ‘Rat Race’ will be pitched in this session. Organisations like Mahindra Rise, CGH Earth, NDTV, The Economic Times, Outlook Business, Panos South Asia, Terumo Penpol, Being Human: Salman Khan Foundation, PVR Cinemas and India Foundation For the Arts will be represented in the Forum. It is intended to propagate policy changes in marketing, build public engagements, and propose strategic partnerships and funding for film marketing, an official release said.

16th IFFK- Presence of regional language films was crucial for film festivals - French film Critics and Curators Martine Armand

Scenes of remonstration on the issue of removal of the film ‘Adimadhyantham' from the Competition Section of the 16th IFFK once again created commotion at the Open Forum..French film critics and curators Martine Armand and Lorey De Barbara; and critics V. Rajakrishnan, U. Radhakrishnan and Noah Davis participated in the Open Forum. Martine said that film festivals were for the common people who enjoyed films and not exclusively for film professionals and the presence of regional language films was crucial for film festivals.Her observation has special emphasis in a festival where no film from Malayalam was included in the competition section.

The 16th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) got off to a colourful start

The 16th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK)was inagurated at the Nisagandhi auditorium ,Thruvananthapuram,Kerala on Friday evening. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy inaugurated by lighting the traditional lamp with Actor Jaya Bachan ,the guest of honor . Inaugurating the week-long event, Mr. Chandy said that apart from providing a global platform, this festival would help Malayalam cinema to a new height. The inaugural function was presided over by Minister for Sports and Cinema K.B. Ganesh Kumar. Cultural Affairs Minister K.C. Joseph, Minister for Transport and Devaswom V.S. Sivakumar, Sasi Tharoor, MP, Culture Secretary Sajan Peter, Kerala State Chalachitra Academy chairman and festival director S. Priyadarshan, vice-chairman Gandhimathi Balan, festival deputy director Bina Paul Venugopal, Kerala Film Chamber president B. Sasikumar, FEFCA president B. Unnikrishnan and MACTA chairman Harikumar ,Actor Om Puri, veteran Malayalam actor Sukumari, and jury chairman Bruce Beresford (Australian film-maker) were also present. An array of film personalities from different parts of the world, including jury members wThe festival catalogue and festival bulletin were released at the inaugural function followed by a cultural programme, ‘Destiny's Dice,' based on the epic Mahabharata and directed by film-maker T.K. Rajeev Kumar. Under the Hawthorn Tree `', directed by Zhang Yimou, was the inaugural film of the festival., Under the Hawthorn Tree is adapted from Ai Mi's popular 2007 novel of the same name, which is based on the real-life stories of the book's heroine, Jingqiu, who shared her diary with the author. The story is of an unfulfilled romance between Jingqiu and a young man named Laosan during their "zhiqing" days towards the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76).

16th International Film Festival of Kerala 2011-Sections

There are 20 sections in the 16th edition of IFFK

Competition Films, Malayalam Cinema Today ,Indian Cinema Now, An Arab Spring,
Best of FIPRESCI,Contemporary Master in Focus:Semih Kaplanoglu,
Country Focus: Philippine Cinema ,DEFA Films ,Homage ,Jury Film,
Kaidan Horror Classics ,Kicking&Screening: Football Films,
Retrospective: Adolfas Mekas,Retrospective: Madhu ,Retrospective: Mambety
Retrospective: Nagisa Oshima ,Retrospective: Robert Bresson,
Retrospective: Theo Angelopoulos,Retrospective: Yasuzo Masumura,
World Cinema