Panaji: ‘Semkhor’, the first-ever Dimasa language movie, is among the 15 films lined up for the International Competition of the 52nd edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) to be held in Goa later this month. The movie will also be screened as a part of the Indian Panorama.
Apart from ‘Semkhor’, two other Indian films – ‘Godavari’ and ‘Mee Vasantrao’, both in Marathi – are also a part of the International Competition section.
‘Godavari’ is a story of a family living on the banks of River Godavari in Nashik, while ‘Mee Vasantrao’ is a biopic on the legendary vocalist Vasantrao Deshpande.
‘The First Fallen’ (Os Primeiros Soldados), a Brazilian movie tracing the beginning of the AIDS crisis in the early 1980s when the first wave of the AIDS epidemic hit Brazil, and ‘Ring Wandering’ (Ringu Wandaringu), a Japanese film narrating the tale about the desire of young people to help others thus revealing the secret of happiness, are also included in this list.
The best of the feature length fiction films from all over the world are annually selected to compete in this section, vying for the Golden Peacock award as well as other awards.
The movies that are part of the line-up under this section include ‘Any Day Now’ from Finland directed by Hamy Ramezan, ‘Charlotte’ from Paraguay directed by Simon Franco, ‘Godavari’ (Marathi) from India directed by Nikhil Mahajan, ‘Întregalde’ from Romania directed by Radu Muntean, ‘Land of Dreams’ from New Mexico-U.S. directed by Shirin Neshat and Shoja Azari, ‘Leader’ from Poland directed by Katia Priwieziencew, ‘Mee Vasantrao’ (Marathi) from India directed by Nipun Avinash Dharmadhikari and ‘Moscow Does Not Happen’ from Russia directed by Dmitry Fedorov.
The other films to be screened under this section are ‘No Ground Beneath the Feet’ from Bangladesh directed by Mohammad Rabby Mridha, ‘Once We Were Good For You’ from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina directed by Branko Schmidt, ‘Ring Wandering’ from Japan directed by Masakazu Kaneko, ‘Saving One who was Dead’ from Czech Republic directed by Václav Kadrnka, ‘Semkhor’ (Dimasa) from India directed by Aimee Baruah, ‘The Dorm’ from Russia directed by Roman Vasyanov and ‘The First Fallen’ from Brazil directed by Rodrigo de Oliveira.
These films will compete for various categories of awards like Best Film (Golden Peacock) award, which carries a cash prize of Rs 40 lakh to be shared equally between the director and the producer of the film. Both, the director and the producer will also receive the Golden Peacock and a certificate in addition to the cash component.
The Best Director award has Silver Peacock, certificate and a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh, while the Best Actor (Male) and Best Actor (Female) will each receive Silver Peacock, certificate and a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh.
The Special Jury Award includes a Silver Peacock, certificate and a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh given to a film, for any aspect of the film, which the jury wishes to award/ acknowledge, or an individual for his/ her artistic contribution to a film. The award, if given to a film, will be presented to the director of the film.