8th Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) begins with Iranian film ‘About Elly’ directed by Asghar Farhadi

The PIFF scheduled to begin from January 7 will be inaugurated by Bollywood legend Dev Anand . Veteran actors Rajesh Khanna and Dr Shreeram Lagoo will be conferred with 'Jeevan Gaurav' award on the occasion . PIFF would screen more than 150 films from 42 countries .Eight films would be in the French new wave cinema section and six German films in the contemporary German cinema category. In the retrospective section four films by legendary Portuguese film-maker Manoel De Oliveira would be screened along with six films of late Bimal Roy. While elaborating the arrangements of the fest Dr. Jabbar Patel ,Director and Suresh Kalmadi ,Chairman of PIFF said around 10 documentaries and seven feature films from India and abroad would be showcased in the music, lyrics, dance ‘n’ sound section. Besides, this year six films from NFAI will be shown under the theme ‘Youth’ in the Gems from NFAI category. He said that the world competition section has received 215 entries from 51 countries of which 15 films have been selected. Likewise, Marathi competition section received 15 entries, of which seven films have been selected to be screened in the final leg of the competition. They said that awards for the best film would be announced during the closing ceremony of the festival after the international jury sees all the films that are being screened. Awards will be given by the Government of Maharashtra for best international film with a price money of Rs 10 lakh and the best director - Rs 5 lakh. In the Marathi competition award will be given for the best international Marathi film with an award money of Rs 5 lakh. For the best Marathi screen play, best acting and best director awards will be given by the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal having a price money each of Rs 25,000 they added. The highlight of this year’s festival is an exhibition of posters of old musical films from NFAI, which will be held at the art gallery of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) at Ghole Road from January 8 to 14 between 10 am to 7 pm.