IFFI-2015 to bring Oscar treat for film lovers

Creating a benchmark of showcasing exceptional films from the world cinema, International Film Festival of India-2015 (IFFI), starting here from tomorrow, will screen a stellar line-up of official Academy Award entries from 26 countries.

The festival will also feature 120 premieres in different sections, which will represent spectacular International films, according to an IFFI release.

Argentina’s Oscar entry and this year’s biggest Argentinean box office hit, “The Clan” (“El Clan”) will be the Closing Film of IFFI 2015. The film has recently won Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film festival.

This year, out of 15 films in the International Competition, five films are official Oscar entries from different countries, the release said.

The list includes Colombia’s “El abrazo de la serpiente” (“Embrace of the Serpent”) directed by Ciro Guerra, France’s “Mustang”, directed by Deniz Gamze Erguven, Germany’s Oscar entry “Im Labyrinth des Schweigens” (“Labyrinth of Lies”), directed by Giulio Ricciarelli, Iceland’s Oscar entry “Rams”, directed by Grimur Hakonarson and Serbia’s Goran Radovanovic helmed “Enclave”.

Other Oscar entries that will be screened at the festival include Chaitanya Tamhane’s “Court” from India, Anna Muylaert’s “Que Horas Ela Volta?” (The Second Mother) from Brazil, Nikita Mikhalkov’s “Solnechnyy Udar” from Russia, Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s “Nie Yin Niang” from Taiwan and Patricio Guzman’s “El boton de nacar” from Chile.

Continuing the legacy of screening the world-class films, the festival this year will be featuring 120 premieres in different sections including – International Competition, Cinema of the world, Masterstrokes and Retrospective.

Some of the films that will be premiered exclusively in the festival include Ciro Guerra’s “El abrazo de la serpiente” from Colombia, Amir-Hossein Saghafi’s “The Man who became a Horse” from Iran, Mai Masri’s “3000 Nights” from Palestine, Peter Greenaway’s “Eisenstein In Guanajuato” from Mexico, Aleksandr Melnik’s “Territoriya” from Russia among others.

Organised by Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting in collaboration with Government of Goa and Entertainment Society of Goa, the 46th edition of IFFI will be held here from November 20-30.
he festival will also be recognising young talents under its new segment ‘First Cut’ to showcase some of the outstanding works of debutante directors of 2015.

Focusing on skill building in filmmaking, the festival in association with the Oscar Academy will organise master classes with eminent Academy members including Mark Mangini, Milt Shefter, Humphrey Dixon to name a few.

The festival will feature a Special Retrospective on eminent Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai.

A Special Tribute to noted Danish-French actress, director and screenwriter Anna Karina will also be held.

Over 7,000 delegates will attend the festival while thousands of cinema lovers from across the globe are expected to throng Goa for taking part in the jamboree of cinema.

A special section ‘Restored Classics’ will be held to highlight National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM).

The section will showcase world-class restorations of some landmark films of world cinema.

Other sections like Masterstroke and Festival Kaleidoscope will showcase the latest movies of the masters of world cinema.

Films from Palestine, China, Mexico, Sweden and other countries will be screened in these section.

The festival will also host the 9th edition of Film Bazaar that will focus on more than 150 film projects.

Delegates from 38 countries will be participating in the Film Bazar.

Inputs by PTI