NEW DELHI: The 50th International Film Festival of India will be held from November 20-28 in Goa with close to 250 films from various countries to be screened at the premier movie extravaganza.
Russia will be the partner country at the film festival this year, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar announced on Sunday.
The minister said Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner Amitabh Bachchan's selected seven or eight films will also be showcased at the movie gala.
"DadasahebPhalke Award winner Shri.Amitabh Bachchan's outstanding contribution to cinema will be honoured and celebrated through a package of his impactful and entertaining films in the 50th edition," Javadekar said in a statement.
As many as 12 films made in different languages about 50 years ago will also be screened at the golden jubilee edition of IFFI, he added.
Indian Panorama, a flagship section of IFFI, which showcases the best of contemporary Indian feature and non-feature films, will have Gujarati period drama "Hellaro" as the opening film of feature section.
Directed by Abhishek Shan, the movie won the best feature film award at the 66th National Film Awards.
The feature film jury, headed by filmmaker and screenwriter Priyadarshan selected the 2018 film as the opening movie.
The 26 films to be screened under the feature film section include Lijo Jose Pellissery's "Jallikettu", "In The Land Of Poison Women", directed by Manju Borah, Aditya Dhar's "Uri: The Surgical Strike", Hrithik Roshan-starrer "Super 30", Ayushmann Khurrana-led "Badhaai Ho" and India's official entry of Oscars, "Gully Boy", helmed by Zoya Akhtar.
The non-feature jury was headed by well-known documentary filmmaker Rajendra Janglay and they selected "Nooreh", a Kashmiri language tale directed by Ashish Pandey, as the opening non-feature film of Indian Panorama 2019.
Total 15 titles, including "Bohubritta", "The Secret Life of Frogs", "Gadhul", "ShabdhikunnaKalpa" and "Mamatva", will be showcased under the section.
In a first, the festival will screen films with audio description for the visual impaired.
Several film stars and about 10,000 movie lovers are expected to participate in the film festival this year.