The 8-day festival to feature 145 films from 45 countries.
By Prabhav Hiremath
MUMBAI: Following two of India’s biggest film festivals, the Mumbai International Film Festival and the International Film Festival of India, Goa, it’s time now for the inauguration of the 6th Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFF), to be held from December 26th, 2013 – January 2nd, 2014.
If Shyam Benegal and Sonakshi Sinha inaugurated the Mumbai version in presence of the Maharashtra Chief Minister, then the Bengaluru one will be inaugurated by the living legend, actor, director and producer Dr. Kamal Haasan, along with the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
The festival is being organized in association with Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy (KCA) on behalf of the Government of Karnataka and the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC). It will be host to 145 films from 45 countries. The Government of India has pumped in Rs. 2 crores for the eight day long festival.
Fourteen of the 145 films are from the main entries of the 86th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Screening of Dr. Rajkumar films as a retrospective is an attraction of the festival, in addition to films from world renowned directors like Andrzej Wajda, Asghar Farhadi, Istvan Szabo, Francois Ozon, Susan Blier, Goran Paskaljevic, Mike Leigh, Claire Denis and Thomas Vinterberg. The Asian countries marking their presence at the festival include Korea, China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, apart from India.
The films at the festival will be categorized into 9 sections: Cinema of the world, Asian Cinema, Chitrabharati (Indian Cinema), Kannada Cinema, Retrospectives, Country Focus, NETPAC award winners, FIPRESCI award winner and Special genre: Train films.
Indian Cinema and Kannada Cinema sections will be competing with each other for a handsome cash prize and an award, to be presented by NETPAC for Asian Cinema. Students and aspirational film makers will have an excellent opportunity to interact with industry professionals in academic events like workshops, seminars and master classes.
The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) award is given at select international film festivals to promote Asian cinema by highlighting exceptional films and discovering new talent. The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) award is presented to what the professional film critics and film journals from around the world see as enterprising film making.
This post first appeared in americanbazaaronline.com