Saturday, November 25, 2023
54th International Film Festival of India 2023.
Films compete for the prestigious ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi Medal at 54th IFFI
These cinematic masterpieces, shortlisted for the competition, stand out as beacons, realigning our consciousness towards the principles of peace, tolerance, non-violence, and compassion, especially in a world besieged by conflict and chaos.
This year, ten notable movies from diverse corners of the world compete for this award:
1. ‘A House in Jerusalem’ by Muayad Alayan (Palestine, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Qatar, 2022).
2. ‘Citizen Saint’ by Tinatin Kajrishvili (Georgia, 2023).
3. ‘Drift’ by Anthony Chen (UK, France, Greece, 2023).
4. “It’s Sira” by Apolline TraorĂ© (France, Germany, Senegal, 2023).
5. ‘Kalev’ by Ove Musting (Estonia, 2022).
7. ‘The Sugar Experiment’ by John Tornblad (Sweden, 2022).
9. ‘Malikapuram’ by Vishnu Sasi Shankar (India, 2022).
10. ‘Rabindra Kabya Rahasya’ by Sayantan Ghosan (India, 2023).
54th International Film Festival of India 2023.
Anybody can tell a woman's story, need not be by a women director - ‘Sanaa’ proves the same: Pooja Bhatt
“Sanaa proves you don’t have to be a woman to tell a woman’s story. Empathy is not a female privilege’’ said actor Pooja Bhatt. She was speaking at a Press Conference held on the sidelines of the 54th International Film Festival of India in Goa today. Her film Sanaa is among the 3 Indian films that will compete with 12 others for the prestigious Golden Peacock at the 54th IFFI. Its story revolves around an ambitious woman grappling with internal battle that is rooted from unhealed trauma. Bhatt also expressed that it is essential to have a dialogue on important issues such as abortion. She thanked the Government of India for its efforts to ensure women’s safety, empowering them to take decisions that matter to them, and further added that the same should be celebrated.
Sanaa is directed by National Award winning Director, Sudhanshu Saria. Speaking at length about his idea and approach towards making the film, Saria said, “I wanted to go more into an amorphous zone and delve into the matters of jealousy, class and desire. Those things were far more potent. It was a mixture of 3 or 4 things going on, it was about people being selfish, inappropriate relationships at work, and not having a healthy understanding of self.” Speaking about his working style, Saria said that the cast and crew worked in sync. “The best job a director can do is to direct oneself while empowering others to work at their fullest potential”, Said Saria.
54th International Film Festival of India 2023
Animation a beautiful format for telling stories to children: Indian Film industry needs to incorporate animation into mainstream cinema: experts in specially curated Segment on Animation Films at 54th IFFI
“Talent and innovation that exist in the Indian film industry can be pushed to uplift animation filmmaking,” said ace Indian film director and producer, Shoojit Sircar. He along with Founder-Managing Director, iRealities Prasad Ajgaonkar addressed the media in a Press Conference titled ‘Growing use of Animation in Indian Films’ at the 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa today.While emphasizing on the essence of animation and its nuances, Shoojit Sircar said Indian directors and producers need to involve themselves in exploring narration and storytelling through animation. “It is our duty to promote animated films and storytelling. Most of the international studios like Disney and Pixar are using sources from India. We need those talents in India to flourish in a homegrown animation industry. A scope also needs to be given to theatres to screen more animated films. If we have good scripts, any format can be used to make a film.”
54th Iternational Film Festival of India 2023
Odh’ wins best film award at IFFI's-Creative Minds of Tomorrow
"Odh", a short film about the receding beachlines of Goa, has bagged the best film award in the third edition of the '75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow' (CMOT) initiative, held at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) here. The ’75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow’, which was started by the IFFI in 2021 to mark the 75 years of India’s Independence, aims to encourage and nurture young creative talents from various trades of film making. The segment was powered by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) in collaboration with ShortsTV. During the 53-hour Challenge, 75 contestants were divided into five teams to produce short films.
