NEW DELHI: A British film on Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan - The Man Who Knew Infinity – will be opening film in the 46th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) held at Goa starting from November 20.
Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor will be the chief guest during the inaugural ceremony. While, Spain will be focus country for the 11-day festival which has now made its presence felt on the international film circuit.
Films of master Spanish filmmakers Carlos Saura and Pedro Almadovar along with contemporary filmmakers like Alejandro Amenabar will be screened at the festival. The section will also feature Spanish actress Leticia Dolera's directorial debut "Requirements to Be a Normal Person".
Talking about the highlights of the IFFI, Information and Broadcasting minister Arun Jaitley said the film festival would showcase 187 films from 89 countries in world cinema section along with 26 feature and 21 non-feature films in Indian panorama section.
The jury for International Competition would include chairperson Shekhar Kapur along with Michael Radford, Julia Jentsch, Suha Arraf and Jeon Kyu-Hwan. There are 15 films in this section, including two Indian titles - Kaushik Ganguly's "Cinemawala" and "Natoker Moto" by Debesh Chatterjee.
The opening film of IFFI ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’ is directed by Matthew Brown. The film is a true story of friendship between Indian Mathematician Ramanujan and Professor GH Hardy that forever changed the world of mathematics.
Announcing the Indian Panorama, Jaitley stated that the section will have a confluence of remarkable films from different languages and states.
Salman Khan's "Bajrangi Bhaijaan", Cannes FIPRESCI winner "Masaan", India' Oscar entry "Court" are some of the films in the Indian Panorama section (Feature).
Referring to the proposed boycott call given by the Film Federation of India (FFI) and Federation of Western India Cine Employees' (FWICE) Jaitley said, "I don't understand why anyone should disrupt an international event like IFFI. It is not a good practice."
For the first time IFFI in collaboration with the International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication (ICFT), Paris and UNESCO will be presenting the "ICFT- UNESCO ellini Prize" to a film which reflects the ideals of peace, tolerance, non-violence and friendship promoted by the UNESCO.
The award is named after great Italian director Federico Fellini.
This year, the 'North East Cinema' section will have a Special Retrospective on Aribam Syam harma, the eminent filmmaker, actor and music composer from Manipur along with a unique segment featuring next generation filmmakers from North East.
For the first time, the festival in association with the Oscar Academy, will organise master classes with eminent Academy members Mark Mangini, Milt Shefter and Humphrey Dixon on varied topics like sound designing, film archive and film.