IFFI Tribute to departed film personalities

The 40th IFFI to be inagurated this 23rd at Goa would offer homages to 13 film personalities who left us since the last fest -Murali, A.K. Lohitadas, Rajan P. Dev Nabendu Chatterjee, Prakash Mehra, Gulshan Bawra, Leela Naidu, Shakti Samanta, Feroz Khan, , Nilu Phule, Bhaskar Chandavarkar, R. Lakshman and Nagesh.

Stage set for the impressive 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) – 2009

The Chief Minister of Goa, Shri Digambar V. Kamat has pointed out that 'Goa, a Celluloid Destination' would be an important section this time. The idea is to promote Goa as a shooting destination for all the international directors, producers and other film makers. It was informed that at least eight films shot in Goa will be screened during the Festival. Shri Kamat reiterated that there is no security threat to the Film Festival and the people need not feel concerned on this account. Shri Kamat informed the press that last year they dspent 11 crores and this year planning to cut the cost of the fest. The Chief Minister was addressing a press conference here along with the Shri S. M. Khan ,Festival Director, Shri Sanjay Srivastava ,Chief Secretary of Goa, Shri Manoj Srivasta, CEO of ESG.
The Chief Minister added that a new idea of 'T20 of Indian Cinema', nominating the best of twenty films produced in the last 96 years, has been introduced this year and this has an overwhelming response .The Chief Minister also informed that on the sidelines, at the Corniche between Old GMC and Kala Academy Goan cultural activities would also be showcased between 23rd November to 3rd December 2009.Shri S. M. Khan, the Festival Director pointed out that the International Film Festival of India is also noted worldwide for the attractive awards given out at this Festival. Shri Khan elaborated that the Best Film Award to the Director and Producer of the Award Winning Film in the Competition Section carries a prize money of Rs. 40 lakhs and the Golden Peacock Award. Shri Khan also said that in keeping with the recommendations of the International Jury last year, this year's Silver Peacock Award along with monetary prize of Rs. 15 lakhs would go to the Best Director rather than to the Best Debut Director as had been the practice till last year. The Special Jury Award at IFFI also carries a sum of Rs. 15 lakhs along with the Silver Peacock Award. He informed that this year films from Croatia, Estonia, Italy, and Poland will be screened under the ?Country Focus? Section at IFFI-2009. 75 years of Assamese cinema and screening of Telugu musical hits will be yet another novelty for IFFI-2009. The Indian Section at IFFI - 2009 under nine different segments will screen 77 films. The Indian Panorama at IFFI 2009 would present a bouquet of 44 films, 26 feature films and 18 non-feature films.
Nearly 6000 delegates and more than 300 media persons are likely to participate in IFFI-2009 scheduled to be inaugurated on November 23, 2009. Veteran Film Actress Waheeda Rehman will be the Chief Guest at the inaugural ceremony. The Governor of Goa Dr S. S. Sidhu, the Chief Minister, Shri Digambar V. Kamat and the Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting, Smt. Ambika Soni will also grace the occasion. Actor Asin would be special guest for lighting the ceremonial lamp, actor Kabir Bedi and artist Divya Dutta would be compeering. The Festival would conclude on December 03, 2009 with presentation of Golden and Silver Peacock Awards for Best Film and Best Director, the Special Jury Awards as also the Vasudha and Golden Lamp Tree Awards for the short films. The renowned actor Mammootty will be the Chief Guest at the Closing Ceremony.

Waheeda Rehman and Mammootty would be Chief Guests of 40th IFFI

The versatile actor of yester years Waheeda Rahman and the renowned actor Mammootty will be the Chief Guests at the Opening and Closing ceremonies, respectively, in the 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2009 to begin at Panaji,Goa on the 23rd of November 2009. Smt Ambika Soni , Minister of Information and Broadcasting will be present in the Opening Ceremony. Actor Asin would be special guest for lighting the ceremonial lamp and actor actors Kabir Bedi and Divya Dutta would be compeering the Opening Ceremony.

The International Section of the IFFI includes Cinema of World with55 films from 45 countries. The retrospectives of Gurinder Chadha, Nonzee Nimabitur, Roland Reber, Joao Batista and Manoel De Olivera would be the highlights of this edition of IFFI.. The continent Focus on Latin America and Country Focus on Croatia; Italy; Poland; Estonia and France would be other attractions.. Film India Worldwide will showcase films made by Non-Resident Indians in collaboration with foreign filmmakers. There is also a section on Anti War Films. In the Indian Panorama section 26 feature films and 18 non-feature films would be screened.

14th International Film Festival of Kerala -Programmes being finalised

The Department of Cultural Affairs and Kerala State Chalachitra Academy are planning to felicitate Music maestro A.R. Rahman , Oscar winners Resul Pookutty and Gulzar at the inaugural ceremony of the forthcoming IFFK -14th International Film Festival of Kerala from 11 to 18th December.Fourteen films, including two Malayalam films, Sufi Paranja Katha directed by Priyanandanan and Madhyavenal by Madhu Kaithapuram. are selected for the competition section. Do paise ki dhoop, char aane ki baarish by Deepti Naval and Road to Sangam by Amit Rai are the other two Indian films in the competition section.
There are seven films in the Indian Cinema Now section, including the award winning Marathi film Harishchandrachi Factory. Two other Marathi films, Gandh directed by Sachin Kundalkar and Vihir directed by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni, have also found their place in this section. Bengali films Kaalbela directed by Goutam Ghosh and Maya Bazaar directed by Joydeep Ghosh, Telugu movie Sontha Vooru directed by P. Suneel Kumar Reddy and Hindi film Ek tho chance by Saeed Akhtar Mir are also included .Films from Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe will also be screened at the festival. The country in focus for the current fest will be Cuba.

Indian panorama non feature list for 40th IFFI-2009 announced

The opening film in the non-features section will be "In For Motion" (English) by Anirban Datta in the Indian Panorama section of the 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2009 to be held in Panaji, Goa from November 23,2009 which will have 18 non features. Other films to be shown in the section are "Bilal" (Bengali and Hindi) by Sourav Sarangi, "Ekti Kaktaliya Golpo" (Bengali) by Tathagaba Sinha, "I'm the Very Beautiful" (Bengali) by Shyamal Kumar Karmakar, "The First Leap" (English) by Haobam Pabankumar, "The Latent City" (English) by Krishnendu Bose, Gautam Benegal's "The Prince and the Crown of Stones" (English), "What If?" (English) by V K Prakash, "Boond" (Hindi) by Abhishek Pathak, "Chilika Banks" (Hindi) by Akanksha Joshi, "Kya Main Qafir Hoon" (Hindi) by "Sandhin Flora", "Supermen of Malegaon" (Hindi and Urdu) by Faiza Ahmad Khan, "Swayambhu Sen Forsees His End" in Hindi, Malayalam and English by Debashish Medhkar, Arun Sukumar's "When This Man Dies" in Hindi and English, "Kelkkunnundo" (Malayalam) by Geetu Mohan Das, "Ilisa Amagi Mahao" (Manipuri) by Nighthouja Lancha, "Vitthal" (Marathi) by Vinno Choliparambil and "Nanam Oru Pen" (Tamil) V Ranganathan.
The non-feature films jury was headed by Manipuri filmmaker Aribam Syam Sharma with Paromita Vohra, Pushpesh Pant, Sameer Hanchate and Kapilas Bhuyan as the other members.

Indian panorama list for 40th IFFI - 2009 announced

Konkani movie "Paltadacho Munis" will be the opening film in the Indian Panorama section of the 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2009 to be held in Panaji, Goa from November 23,2009 which will have 26 feature films .As the Kerala High Court has lifted a stay on the publication of results of films selected for the Indian Panorama, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry announced the list of films to be shown in the Indian panorama .There will be six Bengali, three Kannada, two English ,two Malayalam, two Tamil, one Tulu , one Konkani ,three Marathi, one Rajasthani and five Hindi films.Hindi films include recent Bollywood releases "Dev. D" (Anurag Kashyap), "Firaaq" (Nandita Das), "Kaminey" (Vishal Bhardwaj), "Oye Lucky-Lucky Oye" (Dibakar Banerjee) ,and "The White Elephant" (Ajiz Khan). other films included in this basket are Bengali films, "Aainaate" (Dulal Dey),"Angashumaner Chhobi" (Atanu Ghosh), "Antaheen" (Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury),"Dwando" (Suman Ghosh), "Janala" (Buddhadeb Dasgupta), and "Shob Charitro Kalponik" (Rituparno Ghosh) and "For Real" by Sona Jain in English, "Land Gold Women" in English and Urdu by Avantika Hari,"Beli Matthu Hola" (Kannada) by P R Ramadasa Naidu, "Ijjodu" (Kannada) by M S Sathyu, "Shankara Punyokoti" (Kannada) by G Murthy, "Keshu" (Malayalam) by Sivan,"Kutty Shrank" (Malayalam) by Shaji N Karun, "Ek Cup Chay" (Marathi) by Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukhtankar, "Gabhrjcha Paus" (Marathi) by Satish Manwar, Harishchandrachi Factory ( Marathi) Paresh Mokashi , "Haat: The Weekly Bazaar" (Rajasthani) by Seema Kapoor, "Achchamundu Achchamundu" (Tamil) by Arun Vaidyanathan, "Pasanga" (Tamil) by Pandi Raj ,"Gaggara" in Tulu by Shivadhwaj Shettyand Paltadacho Munis (Konkani), by Laxmikant Shetgaonkar.
Muzaffar Ali chaired the jury of the feature films section which had Bobby Bedi, Joseph Pulinthanath, J Mahendran, Gautaman Bhaskaran, Leslie Carvalho and Raja Mitra as members.

Panorama Films for IFFI 2009: interim stay lifted

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court comprising Chief Justice S.R .Bannurmath and Justice A.K.Basheer on Tuesday stayed a single Judge’s order restraining the Government of India in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Directorate of Film Festivals from publishing the results of the selection of films made to the Indian panorama for the 40th International Film Festival of India, 2009, to be held in Panaji, Goa from November 23. In the appeal the Directorate contended that as per the existing regulations any dispute arising between the producer and the Directorate of Film Festivals shall be referred to the Secretary , Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt.of India whose decision shall be final. In this case instead of approaching the Secretary I&B first, the petitioner had filed a petition before the High Court directly.