The 23rd edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala will commence today in the capital city.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the fete in the ceremony at the Nishagandhi which will be presided over by Minister A K Balan. Bengali filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta will be the chief guest, and actress and filmmaker Nandita Das the guest of honor. Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker and jury chairman Majid Majidi will receive the Lifetime Achievement award at the event from the Chief Minister.
Minister Kadakampally Surendran will launch the Festival Handbook by handing it over to V K Prasanth, Mayor. K Muraleedharan MLA will inaugurate the Festival Bulletin. Following the ceremony, the opening film, 'Everybody Knows' directed by Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, will be screened.
The fest will screen over 160 films from around the world. Over 90 films have been included in the World Cinema package. With the message of optimism to the state in its post-flood recovery, a package of six films has been included, named 'The Human Spirit: Films on Hope and Rebuilding'. ' Tumbbad ' will be the Midnight Screening.
14 films, including ' Ee.Ma.Yau' and 'Sudani From Nigeria', will participate in the International Competition. As the year is the birth centenary of Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, seven of his films, and the documentary 'Searching For Ingmar Bergman', will be screened. In the 'Remembering The Master' package, six films by Czech filmmaker Milas Forman will be featured. Six films by Lenin Rajendran have been included in the 'Lenin Rajendran: Chronicler of Our Times' package.
The fest will conclude on December 13.
FFSI to award K R Mohanan Endowment
Federation of Film Societies in India (FFSI) will award the Best Debut Director from India in the 23rd International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), with the K R Mohanan Endowment.
The recipient of the award in memory of acclaimed filmmaker K R Mohanan, will be selected by the jury panel headed by filmmaker Kumar Shahani. Film critics Meenakshi Shedde and C S Venkiteswaran are the other juries.
There are 14 films from Indian debut directors, screened under International Competition, Malayalam Cinema Today, and Indian Cinema Now packages, in the year of inception of the endowment.
The winner will receive a cash prize of INR1,00,000 (a lakh), memento, and certificate at the closing ceremony of the fete.
IFFK Film Reservation BeginsSeat reservations at the 23rd International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) kicks off today (Dec 7). Registered delegates can reserve their seats one day prior to the screening. Reservations can be done from 9 AM to 11 PM.
The bookings can either be done online on the official website of the festival, https://registration.iffk.in/ or through the mobile app 'IFFK 2018' provided by C-DIT. The official festival app for reservations can be downloaded from Google Playstore, and is available for all android phones.
A delegate can reserve three films per day. Apart from the reservation quota, the delegates can ensure their seats by collecting coupons, which will be provided at the respective theatres two hours before the screening.
A delegate however cannot reserve more than one seat. The reservation - coupon system has been introduced to avoid long queues to enter the theatre before screening.
Mobile App for IFFKTechnopark based company Simplogics Solutions Pvt Ltd., has launched 'Kerala Film Fest', a mobile app for the delegates of the IFFK.
The free-to-download, ad-free application provides extensive information on the fest. List of films at the fete, information about each including synopses, available trailers, and screening details will be available to the delegates via the app.
One can also set a reminder for a film one is interested in. The option to directly hail UBER from the app, from the delegate's location to the theatre of the respective screening, will be of great help, especially to outstation delegates who otherwise would face difficulty in locating the screens.
'Fest 4 You', by Innowaves is another useful app that includes all the information about the films in the fest.
