PANAJI:
All eyes are now on the biggest picture. After screening as many as 289 films from 90 countries across the world, the Golden Peacock is up for grabs as the 46th edition of the International Film Festival of India comes to a close on Monday.
Keeping its promise, IFFI 2015 held from November 20 to 30, had a stellar line-up of official Academy Award entries from 26 countries across the world giving delegates and guests a rare opportunity to watch some amazing films including Mustang (France), Labyrinth of Lies (Germany), Rams (Iceland), Enclave (Serbia), Embrace of the Serpent (Colombia), The Second Mother (Brazil) and even Chaitanya Tamhane’s 'Court' (India).
With Spain as the country focus for the festival, the ten-day long event saw the best of Spanish cinema from master filmmakers like Pedro Almadovar, Carlos Saura, Arturo Ruiz Serrano, Alejandro Amenabar. Noted filmmaker K Balachander, music composers Ravindra Jain and Aadesh Shrivastava who passed away during the last year were also honoured with a special homage.
For the first time in India, a UNESCO Fellini Medal will be awarded for a film that reflects the ideals promoted by the UN agency. First unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995, a total of 12 films including Katya Kaljat Ghusali (Marathi), Cinemawala (Bengali), Among the Believers by Hemal Trivedi are all vying for the honour.
Another first at this year's event was the new segment ‘First Cut’ which aimed to recognise debutante directors and showcase some of their outstanding works. Yet another special section ‘Restored Classics’, showcasing world-class restorations of some landmark films was also held to highlight the National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM).
The opening ceremony may have been dampened by voices of dissent from protesting FTII students, but the remainder of the festival went pretty smoothly. Argentina’s Oscar entry and this year’s biggest Argentinean box office hit The Clan, which recently won a Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film festival, will be the closing film of IFFI 2015. The best film from the International Competition section will also win the Golden Peacock award and cash prize money of Rs. 40,00,000. The Silver Peacock award will be awarded to the Best Director with a cash prize of Rs 15,00,000. Other awards that will be given out at the closing ceremony include Best Actor-Male, Best Actor-Female, Lifetime Achievement Award and two Centenary Awards.
