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Hrishikesh Mukherjee

IFFI to open with film starring Penelope Cruz
12th Oct 2006 09.30 IST
By Agencies

The 10-day International Film Festival of India (IFFI), starting in Panaji from November 23 and showcasing films from 40 countries, would open with ‘Volver’, a Spanish film directed by Pedro Almodovar starring Penelope Cruz and Carmen Maura.

‘Babel’, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez (Mexico), starring Kate Blanchett and Brad Pitt would be the closing film for the festival, according to a release by Entertainment Society of Goa, a nodal agency to conduct IFFI.

The festival will present films from about 40 countries in the prestigious cinema of the world section – including those films that have won awards and acclaims abroad and debut films that have won critical reviews, the release stated.

ESG sources disclosed that the highlight of this festival would be Asian, African and Latin American competition section which will be screened before five-member international jury chaired by Olf de Heer, an award winning Australian director.

The Golden award will be given to the best film while the Silver peacock will be given to the most promising director.

Special Jury Award will be given to the director of a film for his individual artistic contribution.

The festival will also have a retro of Javier Barden (leading actor from Spain), retro of digital editing (presented by leading film editor Steven B Cohen from Hollywood), restoration of films by Augustucolor Italy, Animation and digital effects by UBIK visual effects, Italy.

In the Indian retrospective 2006, a retrospective of Malayalam filmmaker Late Govindan Aravindan is also scheduled. Five landmark films by Aravindan – ‘Thampu’, ‘Kanchan Sita’, ‘Chidambaram’, ‘Vasthuhara’ and ‘Esthappan’ will be screened. The section opens with ‘Vasthuhara’ on Nov 26, 2006.

In the Indian mainstream section 10 of the best grossers of the past from all Indian languages will be screened.

A special retrospective of landmark films produced by NFDC will be presented at the festival as well. The films are ‘Agantuk’, ‘Jane Bhi Do Yaaron’, ‘Gandhi’, ‘Mirch Masala’, ‘Marupakkam’ and ‘Mangamma’.

A special meet-the-director session is also part of the retrospective. The section will open on November 25 with the screening of one film each day for six days.

Special tributes would be paid to Prithviraj Kapoor and Sachin Deb Burman.

The festival also plans to pay homage to great personalities including renowned director Hrishikesh Mukherjee , actress Nadira, music composer Naushad , Kannada legend Dr Raj Kumar, Malayalam actor Oduvil Unnikrishnan, South Indian actresses P Bhanumati and Padmini.

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