PANAJI
The 51st edition of International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will have its opening ceremony on Saturday, in the presence of Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar and Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
IFFI, which takes place from November 20-28 every year, was postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic and will now be held from January 16 to January 24.
The ceremony, to be held at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium, will kick-start the festival’s first “hybrid mode” edition, where delegates can participate and watch films and events virtually.
Multiple Academy Award-winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro will be honoured with the Lifetime Achievement award at the ceremony.
For the film lovers, film critics and the overall film industry, this is for the first time in the history of this festival that the opening ceremony will witness very few VVIP guests from the film fraternity and other invitees apart from selected media persons.
It will be heart-warming to see Pablo Cesar, an Argentine filmmaker who will be participating as jury at IFFI this year. It was in 2018 that he directed the film 'Thinking of Him' on the relation between Rabindranath Tagore and the Argentinean writer Victoria Ocampo.
Indian film 'Khisa (Pocket) has been officially selected in Indian Panorama in short film category. As a part of the tribute, IFFI will be celebrating the work of filmmaker Satyajit Ray, and five of his films will be showcased.
'In Our World', a non-fiction film which is selected for the IFFI screening, highlights many shades of autism.
For Goan film producers and directors, this year’s IFFI would prove to be a good platform as a total of seven entries are received in premier and non-premiere sections.
