51^st International Film Festival of India has announced a mega line-up of star-studded movie extravaganza for this edition of the festival. Delegates will be treated to a mix of premiers and showcases of select movies from across the world.

The festival will open with the Indian premier of the Cannes Best Actor Award winner Mads Mikkelsen starrer ‘Another Round’. The movie directed by Thomas Vinterberg is Denmark’s official entry to the Oscars.

World premiere of ‘Mehrunisa’ by Sandeep Kumar will happen mid-fest. The movie stars FarrukhJaffar and narrates the story of a woman’s lifelong dream.

Japanese movie Wife of a Spy directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa will bring the curtains down on this edition of the festival.

The international competition is a tight race of stellar performances. The best of cinematic experience that will comprise this lineup includes

1. The Domain by Tiago Guedes(Portugal)

2. Into The Darkness by Anders Refn(Denmark)

3. February by KamenKalev(Bulgaria, France)

4. My Best Part by Nicolas Maury(France)

5. I Never Cry by Piotr Domalewski(Poland, Ireland)

6. La Veronica  by Leonardo Medel(Chile)

7. Light For The Youth by Shin Su-won(South Korea)

8. Red Moon Tide by Lois Patiño(Spain)

9. Dream About Sohrab by Ali Ghavitan(Iran)

10. The Dogs Didn’t Sleep Last Night by RaminRasouli(Afghanistan, Iran)

11. The Silent Forest by KO Chen-Nien(Taiwan)

12. The Forgotten by Daria Onyshchenko(Ukraine, Switzerland)

13. Bridge by KripalKalita(India)

14. A Dog And His Man by SiddharthTripathy(India)

15. Thaen by Ganesh Vinayakan(India)

Bangladesh is this edition’s Country in Focus. The special segment that recognizes the cinematic excellence and contributions of a country will feature the following films:

1. Jibondhuli by TanvirMokammel

2. Meghmallar by Zahidur Rahim Anjan

3. Under Construction by Rubaiyat Hossain

4. Sincerely Yours, Dhaka by NuhashHumayun, Syed Ahmed Shawki, Rahat Rahman Joy, MD RobiulAlam, GolamKibriaFarooki, Mir Mukarram Hossain, Tanvir Ahsan, Mahmudul Islam, Abdullah Al Noor, KrishnenduChattopadhyay, Syed Saleh Ahmed Sobhan

Moving on the Festival Kaleidoscope, a gala comprising 12 feature films from across the world awaits the delegates. The lineup includes

1. We Still Have the Deep Black Night by Gustavo Galvão (Brazil, Germany)
2. Window Boy Would also Like to Have a Submarine by Alex Piperno (Uruguay)
3. Forgotten We’ll Be by Fernando Trueba (Colombia)
4. Haifa Street by MohanadHayal (Iraq)
5. Love Affair (s) by Emmanuel Mouret (French)
6. Apples by Christos Nikou (Greece)
7. Parthenon by Mantas Kvedaravičius (Lithuania)
8. My Little Sister by StéphanieChuat, VéroniqueReymond (Switzerland)
9. The Death of Cinema and My Father Too by Dani Rosenberg (Israel)
10. The Big Hit by Emmanuel Courcol (France)
11. Valley Of The Gods by Lech Majewski (Poland)
12. Night of the Kings by Philippe Lacôte(France)

The World Panorama consists of a massive line up of the following movies:

This edition of IFFI pays tributes to the genius of the famous filmmaker Satyajit Ray in a special segment showcasing five of his films.

13. Charulata (1964)
14. GhareBaire (1984)
15. PatherPanchali (1955)
16. ShatranjKeKhilari (1977)
17. Sonar Kella (1974)

In a segment that pays homage to the stalwarts of cinema that departed from the world this year, IFFI will celebrate their contributions with the following list of films in the homage section.

Homage to International Personalities

1. Chadwick Boseman
   42 by Brian Helgeland
2. Ivan Passer
   Cutter's Way by Ivan Passer
3. Goran Paskaljevic
   Dev Bhoomi by Goran Paskaljevic
4. Allen Daviau
   The Extra-Terrestrial by Steven Spielberg
5. Max Von Sydow
   Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Stephen Daldry
6. Sir Alan Parker
   Midnight Express by Alan Parker
7. Kirk Douglas
   Paths of Glory by Stanley Kubrick
8. Ennio Morricone
   The Hateful Eight by Quentin Tarantino
9. Olivia De Havilland
   The Heiress by William Wyler

Homages to Indian personalities

10. Ajit Das
    Tara by Bijaya Jena
11. Basu Chatterjee
    Chhoti Si Baat by Basu Chatterjee
12. BhanuAthaiya
    Gandhi by Richard Attenborough
13. BijayMohanty
    ChillikaTeerey by Biplab Roy Choudhury
14. Irrfan Khan
    Paan Singh Tomar by Tigmanshu Dhulia
15. Jagdeep
    Brahmachari by BhappiSonie
16. Kumkum
    BasantBahar by Raja Nawathe
17. Manmohan Mahapatra
    BhijaMatira Swarga by Manmohan Mahapatra
18. Nimmi
    BasantBahar by Raja Nawathe
19. NishikantKamat
    Dombivali Fast by NishikantKamat
20. RahatIndori
    Mission Kashmir by Vidhu Vinod Chopra
21. Rishi Kapoor
    Bobby by Raj Kapoor
22. Saroj Khan
    Devdas by Sanjay LeelaBhansali
23. S.P Balasubrahmanyam
    Sigaram by Ananthu
24. ShreeramLagoo
    Ek Din Achanak by Mrinal Sen
25. Soumitra Chatterjee
    Charulata, GhareBaire, Sonar Kella by Satyajit Ray
26. Sushant Singh Rajput
    Kedarnath by Abhishek Kapoor
27. Wajid Khan
    Dabangg by AbhinavKashyap
28. Yogesh Gaur
    Chhoti Si Baat by Basu Chatterjee

Along with the above massive lineup, various other features adorn the festival this year. The Masterclass will see the presence of Mr. ShekharKapur, Mr. Priyadarshan, Mr. Perry Lang, Mr. SubhashGhai, TanvirMokammel.

The In-conversation sessions will feature Mr. Ricky Kej, Mr. Rahul Rawail, Mr. MadhurBhandarkar, Mr. Pablo Cesar, Mr. Abu Bakr Shawky, Mr. Prasoon Joshi, Mr. John Mathew Matthan, Ms. Anjali Menon, Mr. Aditya Dhar, Mr. PrasannaVithanage, MrHariharan, Mr. Vikram Ghosh, Ms. Anupama Chopra, Mr. Sunil Doshi, Mr. Dominic Sangma, and Mr. SunitTandon.

The Film appreciation session will see the presence of Prof. Mazhar Kamran, Prof. MadhuApsara, Prof.PankajSaxena from Film and Television Institute of India.

The International Jury this year comprises Pablo Cesar (Argentina) as Chairman, PrasannaVithanage (Sri Lanka), Abu Bakr Shawky (Austria), Priyadarshan (India) and Ms. Rubaiyat Hossain (Bangladesh).

Background:

The International Film Festival of India (IFFI), founded in 1952, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. Held annually, currently in the state of Goa, the festival aims at providing a common platform for the cinemas of the world to project the excellence of the film art; contributing to the understanding and appreciation of film cultures of different nations in the context of their social and cultural ethos; and promoting friendship and cooperation among people of the world. The festival is conducted jointly by the Directorate of Film Festivals (under Ministry of Information and Broadcasting) and the state Government of Goa.

51st IFFI is being organised from 16th to 24th January, 2021 in Goa. This edition is being organised in a hybrid mode for the first time and will comprise of both online and in-person experience. The festival will be loaded with a line-up of famous movies with a total of 224 films from across the globe screened. This includes 21 non-feature films and 26 feature films under the Indian Panorama films section.

IFFI Website: https://iffigoa.org/

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Saurabh Singh