Spanish director Carlos Saura bags Satyajit Ray Lifetime Award
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, November 14: The 53rd edition of the International Film Festival of India, IFFI, hosted in Goa from November 20 to 28, will feature Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement award given to Spanish film director Carlos Saura. The annual film festival brings biggest stalwarts under one roof cumulating the cohesive energy and spirit of art, films and culture.
As many as 280 films from 79 countries will be screened this year, while 25 feature films and 20 non-feature films from India will be showcased in the ‘Indian Panorama’, besides 183 films will be a part of international programming.
France is the ‘Spotlight’ country and eight films from the country will be screened under Country Focus package. The Austrian film, Alma and Oskar, directed by Dieter Berner, will open the annual festival while Krzysztof Zanussi’s Perfect Number is the closing film.
Among the several new initiatives at IFFI and Film Bazaar this year include caravans deployed throughout Goa where movies will be screened. Open air beach screening to also be carried out. Films from NFAI will be showcased in the ‘Indian Restored Classics’ section.
“Three films of this year’s Dadasaheb Phalke awardee –Teesri Manzil, Do Badan and Kati Patang will be screened as part of the Asha Parekh retrospective. The ‘Homage’ section will include 15 Indian and five international films. To promote films from North-East India, five each feature and non-feature films, will mark golden jubilee of Manipuri cinema,” said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in a statement on Monday.
Special attractions include Shigmotsav (Spring Festival) on 26th November and Goa Carnival on 27th November, 2022. CBC will organise exhibition on the theme of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.
Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting L. Murugan said that the Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura will be honoured with the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award and an eight-film retrospective at IFFI. Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura received the Golden Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival for Deprisa Deprisa, along with two Silver Bears for La caza and Peppermint Frappe, a BAFTA for Carmen and three awards at Cannes, among several others.
Tributes will be paid to Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar, singer-composer Bappi Lahiri, Kathak maestro Pt. Birju Maharaj, actors Ramesh Deo and Maheshwari Amma, singer KK, director Tarun, Mr Nipon Das Assamese actor and artist, Majumder and singer Bhupinder Singh. Whereas in International section, Festival will pay homage to the genius of Bob Rafelson, Ivan Reitman, Peter Bogdanovich, Douglas Trumbell and Monica Vitti.
The second edition of ‘75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow’, an initiative by the Ministry of Broadcasting and Information is another attraction. The number of filmmakers being recognized is symbolic of 75 years of Indian Independence. It is envisioned that in the coming years, the number of young participants will increase by one with this in mind.
‘Film Bazaar’ will screen some of the finest films and filmmakers in various sections. For the first time, Pavilions will make an appearance at IFFI in line with major international markets like the Marche du Cannes. This year, there will be a total of 42 Pavilions. They will house the film offices of the various state governments, the participating countries, industry players and media units from the ministry. This will also be the first time when many restored classics will be available at ‘The Viewing Room’ where one would be able to buy the rights of these films and use them at film festivals across the globe.
Films, like Richard Attenborough’s Oscar winning Gandhi, screened in the ‘Divyangjan’ section will be audio-visually equipped with embedded audio descriptions and subtitles. This will make them accessible to even differently-abled film aficionados and promote the spirit of inclusivity.
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