Kamal Hassan The Guest Of Honour of IFFI Closing Ceremony

39th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will conclude today with a simple closing ceremony in which the noted actor Kamal Hassan will be the Chief Guest and the screening of Iranian film "Song of Sparrows" of well known filmmaker Majid Majidi. Goa is hosting this prestigious festival of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting ,Govt. of India for the fifth consecutive year. The festival was inaugurated by Rekha ,the known actor of yester years on November 22 with Peter Chan's "The Warlords" being the opening film. About 225 films from 40 countries were screened during the period. Though the Mumbai terror attacks cast a shadow over the prestigious festival . The IFFI passed off in a peaceful manner but not without controversies.The screening of M F Husain's documentary "Through the Eyes of a Painter" was deferred following threats by some Hinduata organisations but was finally shown after the film fraternity raised objections .As many as 15 films from the competition section are competing for the coveted Golden Peacock. An international jury headed by Peter Chan is entrusted with this task.. The silver peacock will go to the Best Director and the Best Debut Director. The number of delegates increased from 4,000 to 6,000 this year.The retrospective of Aki Kaurismaki was the main attraction of the fest. Indian Panorama section comprising 26 feature films and 19 non-features. A team of dedicated officials from the Directorate of Film Festival under the leadership of Sh.Pyarelal Joint Secretary in the I&B Ministry , Shri S.M Khan Festival Director ,supported by Shanker Mohan ,senior Deputy Director and Sajith ,Deputy Director devoted their days and nights .The unstinted support of Press Information Bureau ,Photo Division officials helped the DFF to make the festival a success.