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‘Vanity Fair’ to open International Film Festival of India
09th Nov 2004 22.10 IST
By ApunKaChoice Bureau

Filmmaker Mira Nair ’s celluloid adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel about British society ‘Vanity Fair’ will be the opening film of the 35th International Film Festival of India in Goa.

Over 200 films would be screened at the Festival that is being held in the backdrop of the picturesque landscape of Goa from November 29 to December 9.

According to a press statement by the state’s Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Parrikar, the festival would open with Mira Nair’s ‘Vanity Fair’, a 2-hours- 17-minutes costume drama set in Victorian England of 19th century.

The movie is based on Makepeace Thackeray's darkly mesmerizing novel of the same title. The film star Reese Witherspoon as a seductive, complex and manipulative woman named Becky Sharp, who has had an impoverished childhood. Others in the movie’s cast include Eileen Atkins, Jim Broadbent, Gabriel Byrne and Romola Garai. The film has already competed in the Venice International Film Festival in September.

This year’s IFFI would feature seven major sections, including Asian competition, Cinema of the World section, Indian and foreign retrospectives, tributes, Indian Panorama and mainstream Indian cinema.

The Asian section would feature latest cinematic trends in Asia and would be screened before a five-member international jury, headed by renowned director, Mani Ratnam .

The best film by an Asian director would be presented the Golden Peacock award while the Silver Peacock would be given to the most promising Asian director. Special Jury Award would be given to a director for his individual contribution.

‘American Daylight’ by Roger Christian, ‘Finding Neverland’ by Marc Forster, ‘The Forgotten’ by Jospeh Ruben and ‘The Incredibles’ by Brad Bird would be premiered at the festival.

Special screening of ‘Hari Hom’ by Ganapthy Bharat and ‘Chai Pani’ by Manu Rewal would also be held at the festival, according the directorate of film festival, director, Ms Neelam Kapoor.

International celebrities, including Robert Bileimer, Floran Gallenberger, Juan Gerlad, Amos Gitai, Kate Shortland and leading stars from the Indian film industry would attend the festival. The section on retrospectives, country focus and workshop would include various packages of films, reflecting the rich cultural flavours arising from the social milieus of different countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia and Canada.

Films of Ashok Amritraj, a successful film producer of Indian origin in Hollywood, would be honoured by the IFFI by screening five of his films. His film ‘Raising Helen’ would be premiered in India.

The festival would also witness screening of six films one of the most popular and versatile stars in Italy for over 40 years, late Vittorio Gassman, known as the ‘Olivier of Italy’. ‘The Easy Life’, ‘For Love and Gold’, ‘We All Loved Each Other So Much’, ‘Scent of a Woman’, ‘The Family’, ‘The Desert of the Tartars’, would be screened at the festival.

Four films of Jean-Marie Gaston Kabore, director from Burkina Faso, would be screened at the IFFI. His film ‘Wend Kuuni’ was a breakthrough for African cinema, notable for the way it translated African oral traditions to the screen.

A retrospective of director and actor from Poland, Jerzy Stuhr would also be screened on the occasion.

The highlight of the festival would be screening of eight German films made in Bavaria. Films from Canada, Egypt, Portugal, and Taiwan would also be showcased.

The Asian section would include films like ‘Beautiful City’ (Iran), ‘Walk on Water’ (Israel), ‘Old Women’ (Russia), ‘Against the Tide’ (Sri Lanka) ‘Beautiful Boxer’ (Thailand), ‘Butterfly’ (Hong Kong) while the World Cinema section would include, ‘Daughters of the Wind’ (Brazil), ‘Manners of Dying’ (Canada), ‘His Brother’ (France), ‘Secret File’ (Italy), ‘Maiden’ (Iran), ‘The Truce’ (Mexico) and ‘Bright Future’ (Japan).

The Indian Panorama would showcase 21 feature films and 20 non-feature films. The section would be opened with two screenings — ‘Saanjh’ (non-feature film) and ‘Manasoravar’ an English feature film directed by Anup Kurien.

Other films in the section include, Akale (Malyalam), An Ode To Lost Love, Bow Barracks Forever, Chameli (Hindi), Chhayam (Malayalm), Heda Hoda (Hindi), Sahcaram (Malayalam), Iti Srikanta (Bengali), Pravaaha (Kannada) and Mathia (Kokborok) and Shwaas (Marathi).

The non-feature films to be screened include, Is God Deaf, Chauras Chand, Agni, Anand Patwardhan’s controversial film War and Peace, Passing On, An Encounter with a Life Living, Rabin, Ek Aakash and Once Upon a Time.

Twelve popular Indian films released during 2003-2004 would be showcased, with Munnabhai MBBS being the opening film in this Mainstream Indian Cinema section.

Tributes would also be paid to Yash Johar, Nargis Dutt, Mehmood, Vijay Anand, Dr. Bhabendra Nath Saika. The 50th anniversary of Pather Panchali and 75 years of Prabhat Film Company would also be commemorated.

In an interactive workshop, youngsters below 24 would be given opportunity to shoot and edit their films and screen at the festival and winners would be awarded during the closing ceremony.