Kolkata International Film Festival: 143 movies to be screened across 12 venues; Yellow is inaugural film

Actors Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Kamal Haasan, and director Mahesh Bhatt, will inaugurate the festival on November 10 at Netaji Indoor Stadium with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. (File/Photo)

As many as 143 films from 53 countries will be screened across 12 venues at the 23rd edition of Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF), which will be held from November 10 to 17. The United Kingdom has been chosen as the focus this year, and 13 films from the country will be screened. The festival will also pay homage to Ramananda Sengupta, Om Puri and Tom Alter. Actors Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Kamal Haasan, and director Mahesh Bhatt, will inaugurate the festival on November 10 at Netaji Indoor Stadium with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

“As UK has been selected as the focus country for the first time, 13 films from this country will be screened. Six films by filmmaker Michael Winterbottom and six more from Thai director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang will be screened as part of retrospective,” KIFF Director Yadab Mandal said on Sunday. In addition, 87 short films and 51 documentary films will be screened.

Festival organisers announced that Jean-Luc Godard’s The Rise and Fall of a Small Film Company (Grandeur et Decadence d’un Petit Commerce de Cinema), which had been made for French television in 1986 and released in cinematic format in October this year in France, will be screened in cinematic format. Vivek Kumar, Principal Secretary, state Information and Cultural Affairs department, said this will be the first time Godard’s film is screened outside France. Iranian film maker Mostafa Taghizadeh’s Yellow has been selected as the inaugural film, and will be screened right after the inaugural ceremony.

Eight films in as many languages — Monpa, Konkani, Kodava, Boro, Dogri, Maithili, Khasi and Chakma — will be featured in the ‘Unheard India: Rare Indian Languages’ section.

This year, organisers have done away with the Women Director Competition, replacing it with the Innovation in Moving Images Competition. The best film in this competition will be awarded Rs 51 lakh, while the best director will get Rs 21 lakh and the Royal Bengal Tiger Trophy, Kumar said.
This year, the festival will also have a new section — Competition on Indian Language Films — to promote regional cinema, with a prize of Rs 7 lakh for best film and Rs 5 lakh for best director. Ten films in nine languages will be screened in this division.

Cameras and other equipment used by directors such as the Lumiere Brothers, Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak will also be on display at an exhibition titled ‘Looking Through’.

Minister of State for Information and Cultural Affairs Indranil Sen said delegates and directors from a countries such as Italy, Germany, Turkey, Morocco, Iran, Serbia, UK, China, Sri Lanka, Argentina and others will attend the festival.

The Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Rachel Dwyer, professor of Indian Cultures and Cinema at SOAS, University of London.
There will be 16 sections at the festival, including Asian Select (four films from four countries), National Best (12 films in 12 languages), Homage (to late film personalities like Om Puri, Tom Alter and Ramananda Sengupta), Retrospective, Country Focus and Special Tribute.

State Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Arup Biswas said around 10 films will be screened in different localities of Kolkata. He also appealed to foreign delegates to visit shooting locations in West Bengal and explore filming opportunities.

“Those who attend the festival must visit our shooting spots. We have world-class facilities and studios. We are also working hard to turn these shooting spots into tourist destinations,” Biswas said.