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IFFI Goa 2025, 11: Film selection--The Good (rare), the Bad (many) and the Ugly (too many)
Beginning where I left off.
My Daughter’s Hair/Iran/2025/Hesam Farahmand
Curious and off-beat title, but only in the English version. In Farsi (Persian), it is named after its lead character, a girl called Raha. Even that could be a bit of a misnomer, because it is as much the story of Raha’s father and brother, as it is of Raha. Interestingly, another film in the competition section is ti...
Bhay trailer launch: PR Agency Moe’s Art hits record low, gags senior-most journalist
As a journalist writing about various media events and reviewing content, I am usually contacted by PR agencies via WhatsApp, when something is coming up. Some of them even send WhatsApp reminders, or even call me, to confirm my attendance. Not all journalists are favoured by all agencies. Some are boycotted and never invited, obviously because they do not agree to play ball or get manipulated, and, pe...
IFFI Goa 2025, 10: Film selection--The Good (rare), the Bad (many) and the Ugly (too many)
Films that are screened at IFFI are selected by a large committee that takes several weeks to vet the available movies, entered in the festival. Each category of films has a different committee assigned to it. The Preview Committee (sometimes referred to as the Selection Jury) for the International Section at IFFI 2025, which selects the international (non-Indian) films that are screened at IFFI, compri...
IFFI Goa 2025, 09: Does IFFI need the media, or does the media need IFFI, that is the question
This is not the first time that media has been maltreated at IFFI. It will also not be the last time. The only way for media to avoid being humiliated and maltreated is to not go to cover IFFI as a media-person. It would appear that the media needs IFFI, and that IFFI does not need the media. Or, at least, it does not want media to be treated well. Cinema is a medium, and taught at hundreds of film-...
IFFI Goa 2025, 08: Prizes and surprises
Vietnamese film Skin of Youth, written and directed by Ashleigh Mayfair, was adjudged the best feature film in the International Competition section, thereby bagging the prestigious Golden Peacock in 56th IFFI, which concluded on the 28th of November in Panaji, Goa. Ashleigh, who hates being called Ashleigh, and prefers ‘Ash’, has highlighted the problem of trans-gender persons in her country, using a real life story, with the protagonist pl...
IFFI Goa 2025, 07: On the trail of the opening film, The Blue Trail, Berlinale Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize-winner
Hoping to start with a bang, IFFI 2025 has chosen The Blue Trail s its opening film. Released in 2015, it is directed by Gabriel Mascaro. A Mexico-Chile-Netherlands-Brazil co-production, it is in Portuguese, with English sub-titles, and runs for 86 minutes. The Blue Trail can be categorised both as riding the twin genres of drama and sci-fi.
Let us see what is known about the fi...
IFFI Goa 2025, 06: Debut on view
IFFI 2025 will showcase seven potential masterpieces from India and around the world
Aimed at promoting outstanding new talent in international cinema, the Best Debut Feature Film of a Director Award, at the 56th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2025, will showcase a hand-picked selection of five international and two Indian films.
The winner will receive the coveted Silver Peacock, a cash prize of ₹10 lakh, and a commendation.
An eminent jury ...
IFFI Goa 2025, 05: Films competing for the ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi Medal
Instituted at the 46th International Film Festival of India, the ICFT-UNESCO Gandhi Medal is an international honor presented in collaboration with the ICFT Paris under the aegis of UNESCO. The honor is given to an excellent film, which promotes peace and inter-cultural dialogue, and honours Mahatma Gandhi's vision of non-violence and peace.
This year’s 10 notable films will be judged by an esteemed Jury panel comp...
IFFI Goa 2025, 04: Indian Panorama Selection and Best Web-Series (OTT) Award nominations
In the Indian Panorama section, 25 feature films (including 5 films from Mainstream Cinema), 5 films nominated for Best Debut Director of Indian Feature Film Award films and 20 non-feature films for the year 2025, will be shown.
The selection of the Indian Panorama is made by eminent personalities from the world of cinema from across India comprising a total of twelve Jury members for Feature films and s...
IFFI Goa 2025, 03
With less than a week to go for the inauguration of IFFI Goa 2025, a press conference on the prestigious film festival was addressed by the Chief Minister of Goa, Dr. Pramod Sawant and Union Minister of State (MoS) for Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs, Dr. L. Murugan, in Panaji yesterday.
Addressing the media, Goa CM Dr. Pramod Sawant said that as part of the festival, films will be screened at INOX Panaji, INOX Porvorim, Maquinez Palace Panaji, Ravind...
IFFI Goa 2025, 02
22 features and 5 docus shortlisted for international financing at WAVES
The 19th edition of India’s flagship film market—formerly known as Film Bazaar and now reimagined as WAVES Film Bazaar, is returning with a robust Co-Production Market for features and documentaries, including curated projects shortlisted for international financing and festival circulation. On the sidelines of the 56th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), WAVES Film Bazaar will be...
IFFI Goa 2025, 01: Birds eye view aka drone view
It’s that time of year when cineastes who can healthy and can afford to travel will be heading to the tourist paradise of Panaji, Goa, not for browsing the beaches of Goa but the brochures and schedules of the 56th International Film Festival of Goa, 2025. IFFI 2025 will be held in Goa from November 20-28, carrying forward the festival’s legacy as South Asia’s only FIAPF (the international body that grants recognition to film ...
Bahadur 120, Songs launch: Heart-warming at the second coldest place on earth
They chose Royal Opera House, near Charni Road Railway Station, South in Mumbai. Sensibly, a time of 7.30 pm was indicated. If things went well, proceedings would be over by 9 pm, and the guests travelling by train or road, would have beaten the peak-hour rush. A potpourri of snacks and beverages was laid out in the compound of the once popular cinema location, owned by a royal family, and retaining its regal splend...
Satish Shah, Memories
St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, has a reputation for holding among the best annual cultural fests from the city’s 100+ colleges. It is called Mahar, so named because it takes place during the monsoon. Malhar started in 1979, and, to the best of my knowledge, continues. The college was also associated with a group simply called Theatre Group, founded in 1941, by Sultan ‘Bobby’ Padamsee and his brother, Alyque Padamsee. Personalities like Satyadev Dub...
Ching’s Secret Attack, now in a new, 9 minute, video pack
Few people know the recipé of this concoction. Those who know are keeping it a secret. But they have managed to sell millions/billions of sachets of this ‘Desi Chinese’ product, without spilling the beans. Ching, a variation of Qing, refers to the Manchu dynasty in China, which ruled during 1644–1912, and was the last imperial dynasty that ruled the country. In Mandarin Chinese, thousands of words have va...
FICCI FRAMES 2025, 05: Padma Shri Akshay Kumar and Ayushmann Khurrana, BA
FICCI FRAMES the annual Media and Entertainment Convention event, was held over two days, October 07 and 08, at the Fairmont Hotel, near CSMI Airport, Sahar, Mumbai. RISE: Redefining Innovation, Sustainability, and Excellence was the theme for the convention this year. The inauguration of the event, on the morning of October 07, was graced by India’s Information and Broadcasting Secretary in the Union Govern...
Gabby’s Dollhouse, Review: A tonic for every catatonic
Gabby Dollhouse is the second live-action film produced by DreamWorks Animation, after the 2025 remake of How to Train Your Dragon (2010). It is also DreamWorks Animation's first live-action +animation film that is not a remake. DreamWorks is a ComCast company, as is the international distributor of the film, Universal. It is the big screen version of Gabby's Dollhouse an American interactive television series, premiè...
FICCI FRAMES 2025, 04: Call for Balanced Regulation, Innovation and Digital Expansion, in Broadcasting Sector
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman, Anil Kumar Lahoti, has emphasised the need for balanced regulation and innovation to drive the next phase of growth in India’s broadcasting and media industry.
He was speaking at the 25th edition of FICCI FRAMES in Mumbai. Lahoti noted that India’s Media & Entertainment (M&E) sector contributed ₹2....
FICCI FRAMES 2025, 03: Landmark MoU signed between FICCI, IICT and Netflix
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and the Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT) announced a landmark partnership with Netflix India to nurture India’s AVGC-XR (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics & Extended Reality) talent. The MoU was exchanged in the presence of Sanjay Jaju, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, a...
FICCI FRAMES 2025, 02: India’s M&E industry grows ten-fold, from Rs. 25,000 crore in 2000, to about ₹2.5 lakh, in 2025
I missed it, but you get it. A report on the fireside chat between Maharashtra’s Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis, Supersta...
FICCI FRAMES 2025, 01: A silver jubilee March, into October
As it happened several times in the past, my participation and coverage of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)’s annual media convention, FRAMES, began with accreditation/registration blues. There was no reply to the online form submission. Assuming that it was too late now to consider going there, I was surprised to find a WhatsApp voice message on my phone, sent at 6.22 am and viewed at 9.20 a...
Kantara, A Legend, Chapter 1: All’s well that ends in a Well
How many times can you scream out long war-cries in a film that is 168 minutes long? Theoretically, maybe around 2,520 times. Kantara, A Legend, Chapter 1 does not clock anywhere near that number, hovering, most probably, around a mere 252 times. That shows consideration and sympathy for your tympanic membranes, aka ear-drums. In between, it lets out a barrage of voice overs, dubbed dialogue (I saw the Hindustani version of th...
Sunny Sanskari ki Tulsi kumari, Overview: Funny Kalamkari ki Bhari shikari
Okay, so you need to look up the word ‘kalamkari’. No, you don’t. I will do the needful. ‘Kalamkari’ is a form of printing designs on cloth. And if you tell me you don’t know what shikari and funny mean, it is not funny! So, who or what is funny? Sunny (proper noun) is. And where is the ‘kalamkari’? All over the film, in terms of criss-cross lines and a veritable feast of...
Tu Meri Poori Kahani, Overview: Future to the Back
Presenter and co-writer Mahesh Bhatt, director Suhrita Das and music director Anu Malik make an attempt to espouse the cause of films of yore, that had songs, most of them playback in lip sync, and many of them owed their success to these songs. This pattern of film-making, in vogue from 1935, got phased out in the late 90s, with the death of gramophone records, cassette tapes and VHS videotapes, and the emergence of music videos, telecast fr...
Kantara, Chapter 1, press meet: A Legend at Land’s End
A young man worked in Andheri West, Mumbai as an office boy, and, later, as a driver, in 2008. More recently, he started making films, in his home state, Karnataka. He spent 250 days of the last 3 years shooting a film, which is a prequel to a blockbuster he made, released in 2022. A writer, director and actor, he camped in a place called Kundapur, near Mangalore, Karnataka, with his wife, the costume designer, and their 10-month ol...
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About Siraj Syed
 Syed Siraj
(Siraj Associates)
Siraj Syed is a film-critic since 1970 and a Former President of the Freelance Film Journalists' Combine of India.
He is the India Correspondent of FilmFestivals.com and a member of FIPRESCI, the international Federation of Film Critics, Munich, Germany
Siraj Syed has contributed over 1,015 articles on cinema, international film festivals, conventions, exhibitions, etc., most recently, at IFFI (Goa), MIFF (Mumbai), MFF/MAMI (Mumbai) and CommunicAsia (Singapore). He often edits film festival daily bulletins.
He is also an actor and a dubbing artiste. Further, he has been teaching media, acting and dubbing at over 30 institutes in India and Singapore, since 1984.
Bandra West, Mumbai India View my profileSend me a message
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