The 36th
International Film Festival of India (IFFI) - 2005 came to a close here today
with the screening of Belgium-France film ‘L’Enfant’, directed by Jean Pierre
& Luc Dardene. Iranian film ‘Iron
Island’, directed by Mr. Mohammad Rasoulof bagged the best film award
and won the Golden Peacock and a cash prize of Rs. Ten lakhs for originality,
deep thoughtful narration, powerful cinematic expression and great creative
strength. The most promising Director
award went to Directors Ms. Vera Eugina Fogwill and Mr. Martin Desalvo for
the Argentinean film ‘Kept & Dreamless' (Las Mantenidas Sin Suenos) with
Silver Peacock and a cash prize of Rs. Five lakhs for unveiling of the
feminine universe with sensitivity and humour in the context of the global marginalization
of people. Film Director Mr. Tom
Hooper won the Special Jury Award for the South African film ‘Red Dust’
with Silver Peacock and a cash prize of Rs. Five lakhs for the efficient use of
the cinematic language by the director, who in his first film, has dealt with
great understanding the issue of human rights.
The
five-member jury headed by the Latin American film maker Mr. Miguel Littin
included Mr. Alain Corneau (France), Mr. Saeed Mirza (India), Mr. Faramarz
Gharibian (Iran) and Ms. Sabine Derflinger (Austria) as members.
The Minister
of Information & Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Priyaranjan
Dasmunsi in his message (read in absentia) said that IFFI is a great event to
harmonise our understanding in the international film fraternity and shall
definitely carry conviction for more matured, objective and creative film
producing movement with the involvement of technicians, musicians, artists,
producers, script writers and great story writers.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister of Goa, Shri Pratap Singh
Rane said that the Festival had been a grand success due to the combined
efforts of DFF, participants, delegates, Goa Government and above all the
public of Goa. The message of IFFI has
reached every household in Goa. The
Chief Minister said that involvement of NGOs could be considered in future to
make the Festival more participative in nature. Shri Rane expressed confidence that with various advantages that
Goa offers for the hosting of IFFI, the Festival would prove to be a match for
its competitors worldwide.
Secretary,
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Shri S. K. Arora in his remarks
said that the Festival presented the best in the world and Indian cinema. The cinema at IFFI raised contemporary
concerns along with entertainment. The
cross-cultural trend would continue and enrich the viewers as well as the
quality of cinema. Appreciating the
role of film world and film personalities during IFFI – 05, Shri Arora
expressed the hope that IFFI in Goa would go from strength to strength and
achieve its due place. Director, DFF,
Shri Afzal Amanullah thanked the Goa Government and public for their tremendous
response.
Noted film star Shri Mithun Chakraborty who was Guest of Honour at the
closing ceremony said that he always considered Goa as the most suitable place
to hold IFFI.
Earlier,
the music of Hindi film ‘Zinda’ was released as part of the function. The lead actor of the film Sanjay Dutt and
director Sanjay Gupta were present. A brief music and dance programme preceded
the presentation of awards.
The 11-day extravaganza,
which began on 24th November, 2005 with the screening of
Brazilian film ‘Olga’, directed by Jayme Monjardim, showed over 300 screenings
of 182 films from 35 countries. The
Competition Section this year included films from Africa and Latin America,
besides Asia.
‘The Indian
Panorama’, and ‘Retrospectives’ of various countries including Italy, Poland,
Africa, Germany, Portugal, Canada, Egypt, Taiwan and Australia were also
screened. A Retrospective of films of legendary director Hrishikesh Mukherjee
was also screened.
A salient
feature of the Festival was all India Premier of several films including
‘Apaharan’ directed by Prakash Jha, ‘Blue Umbrella’ directed by Vishal
Bhardwaj, ‘Deewana Huye Paagal’ director Vikram Bhatt, ‘Dubai Return’ directed
by Aditya Bhattacharya and ‘Parzania’ directed by Rahul Dholakia. The Festival paid special
tributes to Ismail Merchant, Sunil Dutt and Gemini Ganesh who passed away this
year.
A large
number of people visited the Film Bazaar, which was set up at the venue IFFI
2005 during the Festival by the Confederation of Indian Industry and National
Film Development Corporation.
Apart
from a vibrant collection of film shows, the Festival had seminars, Open Fora,
Beach Screenings, Meet the Director programmes and several press conferences at
the state of the art Media Centre. Besides movie watching, the delegates,
tourist and local people enjoyed the festivities with a series of programmes.
RS/AS
release 04122005
(Release ID :13832)