IFFI Goa 53, 2022, 2: Austrian film Alma and Oskar to open fest Austrian film Alma and Oskar will be the Opening film at the 53rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI), to be held in Panaji, Goa, from November 20 to November 28. The passionate and tumultuous relationship between the Viennese society Grand Dame Alma Mahler (1879-1964) and Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) is the subject of this biopic. Directed by Dieter Berner, the film has a runtime of 110 minutes. Oskar Kok...

IFFI 52, 03: Call for entries in the special Goan section The Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG), which co-organises IFFI Goa, has announced a special Goan section Konkani/Marathi feature and non-feature films, for the 52nd International Film Festival of India(IFFI), Goa which is scheduled to be held in Panaji-Goa from 20th to 28th November 2021. The aim of the Special Goan Première and Non-Première Sections Konkani/Marathi Feature and Non-Feature Films for the 52nd IFFI is to s...

IFFI 52, 02: Entries close on 31 August There is still time to enter your films for the 52nd International Film Festival of India, which will be held in a hybrid format during November 20-28, 2021, in Panaji, Goa, Western India. The last date for submission of Online Application is 31st August, 2021. International entries are accepted if they conform to the following rules: NOTE: Classroom and advertising films are not eligible for participation in any section. NOTE: Final screening ma...

IFFI 50: The three encounters of Rashid Irani Ex restaurateur turned full-time film-buff and much revered/feared critic, Rashid Irani’s IFFI 2019 was an event that he would like to forget for reasons other than the quality of films he saw at the festival. So keen was he to see the Oscar package that he went all the way to INOX Porvorim to catch these Academy Award-winning movies. Some of them were scheduled at 9 pm and were four hours long, which meant that he would reach his hotel in P...

IFFI 50: Complexities of the complex As a film festival that wants to vie with the best in the world, the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) needs a regular festival complex. It does not have one. IFFI moved to Panaji, Goa, in 2004, a good 15 years ago. To facilitate this move from Delhi to Goa, the then Chief Minister, late Manohar Parrikar, leased out land to the INOX group of multiplexes, and a four screen cinema hall was built in a record 100 days. The Goa government also acquire...

IFFI 50, III: 50th festival since 1952 Started way back in 1952, the first ever IFFI was organised by the Films Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, with the patronage of the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. This was also the first International Film Festival held anywhere in Asia. It inspired many budding talents to become film-makers, especially the film Bicycle Thieves, which remains a classic 70 years later. Seen in the picture, r...

*In quoting me, the word creditability has been used. 'Credibility' is the correct word.  *The clubbing of Films Division in the same quote is out of context as FD does not post news on social media. *Mike Pandey's Green Oscar winning film is titled Shores of Silence, not Whale Shark Hunting, as the report says. Incidentally, Mike Pandey is the President of the Indian Documentary Producers' Association and a former Chairman of the IFFI Steering Committee. (This writer t...

IFFI Goa 2017, III: Three organisations, two lists and we are still clueless Attempts at getting any current information about the organising or the content of the 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), 20-28 November, 2017, Panaji, Goa, have met with no success. In this context, the confirmation of my accreditation (and I hope that of many others qualifying journalists, critics and photographers who had applied) has been received by email, a month after applying. That said, here i...

IFFI Goa 2017, II: The Countdown has begun, but who is counting? Hitherto, the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) was organised by the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), Central Government of India (all in New Delhi), in collaboration with various other Ministry units. The media relations were handled solely by the Press Information Bureau (PIB). When the annual event moved to Goa and set base there, a special body was created by the ...

It began, like Ameen Sayani’s legendary film music popularity countdown show, Binaca Geetmala, in 1952, a few months after I was born. The first International Film Festival of India (IFFI) was held in 1952, in Bombay, which was at that time, a state in itself. It was a non-competitive festival and ran for a fortnight. Twenty three countries, including host India, participated, along with the United Nations Organisation. 52 feature films and 115 documentaries, scientific films, cartoons, ...

       IFFI Goa 2014, Festival Diary, Part III A bit of luck meant that I got a room at Hotel Neptune Deluxe at an affordable rate. My room was on the fourth floor, and, for an inexplicable reason, the lift only serviced floors 2 to 4, in the five storey building, where only floors 3 and 4 were occupied by the hotel. A staff-boy helped me carry my luggage till the second floor, and I settled in Room 116. The number has significance for film-buffs, for Secret Agent 116 featu...

A 40 minutes delayed flight on Jet Airways from Mumbai to Panaji, accreditation badge not ready on arrival, late first night due to checking into the hotel, unpacking, settling down, dinner with a friend, etc, missing the next morning's Indian film preview screening because it clashed head-on with the Curtain-Raiser Press Conference (PC), missing the next one while trying to get the badge made, going for the third film of the day, KUTTRAM KADITHAL-Tamil-director Bramma G-2014-122...

In mid October 2014, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, started calling for accreditations from media-persons. Soon after the International Film Festival of Mumbai (IFFM) got over, journalists started applying for the same. It would be 10 years since the travelling festival moved to Panaji, Goa, and took-up permanent residence there, and in power was Goa's Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who had been in office in 2004 t...

GOA, June 29, 2008: For a country sometimes viewed as 'the enemy' in geopolitical rivalries or the cricket-field, the films of neighbouring Pakistan, currently being screened at the South Asian Film Festival here in Goa, are drawing significant interest and appreciation.Screened in Panaji (also called Panjim or Ponnje) -- though with a small audience, reflecting the overall lack of publicity for the first SAFF being held here -- was reporter Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy's documentary 'Pakistan's Doubl...