Asia’s equivalent to the popular Cannes Film Festival, IFFI aims at facilitating a common stage for artists from around the world to showcase the flavours of cinema from their regions.
The Golden Jubilee edition of IFFI will feature eight extraordinary films by Russian directors that have been included in the 2019 line up.
Two of the most talked-about movies from Russia are “Abigail” by 30-year old Aleksandr Boguslavsky and “Andrei Tarkovsky: A Cinema Prayer” – a masterpiece documentary by Tarkovsky himself, who died back in 1986.
While “Abigail” revolves around a girl named Abigail who thinks she lost her father to an epidemic only to find out later that no epidemic actually even occurred, “Andrei Tarkovsky: A Cinema Prayer” recounts Tarkovsky’s life and work as he shares his memories, views and reflections on art, destiny of an artist and the meaning of human existence.
Other Russia-originated movies include “Acid”, “Beanpole”, “Great Poetry”, “Once in Trubchevsk”, “Why don’t you just die!” and “The Hero” by directors Alexander Gorchilin, Kantemir Balagov, Aleksandr Lungin, Larissa Sadilova, Kirill Sokolov, and Karen Oganesyan respectively.
On 20 November, legendary Indian megastars Amitabh Bachchan and Rajinikanth inaugurated the film festival in the Goa capital of Panjim, with ace Bollywood director Karan Johar hosting the ceremony.
The 50th International Film Festival of India will witness over 200 films from 76 countries, 26 feature films and 15 non-feature films in the Indian Panorama section and more than 10,000 people and film lovers are expected to participate in the festival.
The eight-day film festival will also be attended by Bollywood actors and directors including Anil Kapoor and Imtiyaz Ali among others.
The best movie handpicked by IFFI jury members will receive the “Golden Peacock” award.
Cinematographer John Bailey, ex-President of the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences is heading the jury for IFFI 2019. Cannes jury member and French filmmaker Robin Campillo, Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yang, and Indian director Ramesh Sippy will be part of the international jury for the film festival this year.
IFFI began in 1952 with the patronage of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
