BENGALURU: 'For the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFE) around 200 movies from 60 countries and 11 screens have been planned,' announced the commissioner of Information department Siddaramappa.
Siddaramappa said 'Kannada actor Anant Nag's movie screenings will be the highlight of the film festival.'
Addressing media persons in the city, he said chief minister BS Yediyurappa will inaugurate the festival on February 26. The week-long screenings will be held from February 27 to March 4.
Movies will be screened in PVR Cinemas, Orion Mall in Rajajinagar, Kalavidara Sangha, Dr Rajkumar Auditorium in Chamrajpet and Suchitra Film Society Auditorium in Banashankari 2nd stage.
The festival will have competitions in four genres of movies- Asian, Indian, Kannada or Kannada Popular Entertainment and Unsung Incredible India category which will have movies from Tulu, Banjara, Kodava, Konkani, Paniya, Irula, Khasi, Pengchenpa, among others.
However, the list of movies was not released on Thursday.
A special category on biographies of film makers, artists, musicians, will be screened -- and will include films on cinematographer Dadasaheb Phalke and filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky.
Foreign delegate contingent includes Florence Girot, director for Film Festivals representing the International Federation of Film Producers from France.
'Movie discussions will include a large number of women-centric films and discussions will be hosted in gold class halls in the mall.' the organisers revealed.
Screenwriting workshop
Art director of BIFFE, Vidyashanker said, 'The festival will take script writing a notch higher this year. While last time, a general script lab was held, this year, the team is contemplating a one-on-one for those who have written their scripts. In the years to come it will become a forum or lab for producers.'
'A film bazaar has also been planned but there won't be a sale of tangibles related to movie production', said the organisers.
'This will be an attempt to gather target audience and the forum will be used to globally market Kannada films,' said organisers.