Thursday 29 October 2015

IFFK at 20: Jury declared; Delegate Registration to start from Nov. 5




Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 29: Celebrated Brazilian filmmaker Julio Bressane will head the five-member core jury for the 20th edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), it was announced here today.
The other members of the jury for Kerala’s premier film festival, which will run from December 4 -11, are Moussinin Abza, Nadia Dresti, Maxin Williams and Janu Baruva.
A core committee, appointed by the state government along with a Technical Committee headed by filmmaker Shaji N Karun, also announced two other jury boards for the smooth functioning of the festival.  Deric Malcom and Lathika Padgongar are members of the Fipresci (international federation of film critics) Jury. The Netpac (Network for the promotion of Asian Cinema) Jury consists of Siddique Marbak, Swarna Malvarchi and Meenakhi Sheddey.
The core organizing committee meeting, held at Thycaud government guesthouse, also hammered out the details of delegate registration and improved infrastructure facilities.
Delegate registration for the 20th IFFK will start from November 5th and will be available at a price of Rs 500, which is the same as last year’s. Students can avail the delegate passes at a subsidized rate of Rs 300. Two public venues are also being transformed for public screenings. A total of 180 movies will be screened in this year’s IFFK.
The meeting also decided to implement a slew of plans to make this year’s IFFK a grand event in all aspects. Besides increasing the number of theatres and their seating capacity, Nishagandhi is being  transformed into a temporary fully air-conditioned theatre with a seating capacity of 3000. Other theatres participating in the festival and their seating capacity are: Sreekumar (1000), Sreevisakh (700), Dhanya (700), Remya (700), Tagore Theatre (900), Kairali (440), Sree (300), Nila (260), Kalabhavan (410), New Screen1 (520), Screen 2 (200) and Screen 3 (200).
The main attraction this year’s IFFK will be the acquisition of two public spaces for the screening of censored movies, said Shaji.N.Karun, Chairman ,Advisory Committee. While Manaveeyam veedhi has been selected as a venue for screening censored movies, plans to take over the basket ball court of Central Stadium to screen special movie packages, with a seating capacity for a thousand people, are also at its final stage.
More than 80 foreign films will feature in this year’s festival, adding strength to its diversity. The participating movies are classified into ten categories: International Competition Section( 14), Malayalm Cinema (7), Indian Cinema (7), Country Focus (Lithunia, Myanmar)(8), World cinema (80), contemporary Masters (7), Tribute to Vincent Master (3), Retro International (10), Jury Films/Lifetime Achievements 10, and Public Screening (7).
Further, 20 movies will be screened as a special package coming under the categories 3-D, True story, Women’s Side and New Directors , with five movies included in each section.
A jury board, comprising Malayalam film director Kamal, Malathy Sahai and K R Mohan, was assigned the task of selecting movies for this year’s fest. Foreign programmers Alassandra Special, Rosacarilo, June Givani, Martin Armand and Sussane Sandos will lend help to Chalachitra Acdemy for the functioning of this year’s IFFK.
The technical aid for the fest has been assigned to a committee, chaired by K Ramachandra Babu, Ujwal Nirguthkar and Kethan Mehta with representatives from BSNL, Barco and Dolby. This committee will be responsible for the standard check in theatres and giving instructions for technical advancement.
 A book revealing the history and legacy of all the 19 IFFKs happened so far will be published during the opening ceremony, said Academy Chairman  T.Rajeevnath. M.F Thomas, Kalpatta Narayanan, G P Ramachandran and Meer Sahib have been assigned for this purpose with C.S Venkiteshar donning the editor’s role. Books on MT Vasudevan Nair, Vincent Master and M S Vishwanathan will also be published during the occasion.
Claire Dobin, Festival Director of Melbourne Festival, will deliver a talk at the Aravindan Memorial Speech this year. A workshop conducted by three internationally acclaimed technicians will also be held during the festival, which is expected to be  a great learning curve for the Malayalam film Industry. Narayanan Srininvasan, Director of Miami Film Festival, will supervise these workshops.
A festival manual is also in the making.
The core committee meeting was attended by Shri Rajeev Nath, Shri Shaji N Karun, Chalachitra Academy Vice Chairman Shri Joshy Mathew, Sahitya Akademy Chairman Shri Perumbadavam Sreedharan, Film Chamber President G P Vijayakumar, Film Development Corporation Chairman  Rajmohan Unnithan, Executive Member Ramachandra Babu, Director G S Vijayan  and Chalachitra Academy Secratery T. Rajeendran Nair


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