What’s considered the annual ball for movie buffs in the city – the Bengaluru International Film Festivals (BIFFES) – is all set to roll out its 12th edition starting today. Organised by the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy, the festival, during which over 200 movies will be screened, will be held from today and will go on until March 4. The festival will kickstart after the inauguration by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa at Sri Kanteerva Indoor Stadium. Promising to be a star-studded evening, the list of the chief guests for the ceremony include Kannada actor Yash, yesteryear actor Jayaprada, film producer Boney Kapoor and singer Sonu Nigam.
More than 225 films from 60 countries will be screened at four different venues across the city – PVR cinemas, Orion Mall, Navarang Theatre in Rajajinagar, Dr Rajkumar Bhavana in Chamrajpet, and Suchitra Film Society in Banashankari 2nd Stage. “The festival will open with the Iranian black comedy, Cinema Khar, written and directed by Shahed Ahmadlou, which includes a donkey as a character. In fact, this movie was also screened at the opening of Marché du Film, which is a part of the Cannes Film Festival, considered one of the largest film markets in the world,” says Suneel Puranik, chairman of Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy.
Israeli drama, Golden Voices, by director Evgeny Ruman shows the journey of the tale of two Russian film dubbing artistes who migrate to Israel after the fall of the Soviet Union. It will be the closing film at the week-long festival.
While there are a wide-spread of films, there will also a competitive section under the categories Asian, Indian, Kannada and Kannada Popular Entertainment. Movies centred around various countries like Germany, Philippines and Australia are also listed. A retrospective of multilingual actor Anant Nag and Russian auteur Andrei Tarkovsky is also scheduled to be screened. “In an effort to give a platform for movies made in lesser-known Indian dialects, there is a category called Unsung Incredible India. The festival also has a special section called Biopics, which includes documentaries and features made on writers, artistes, musicians etc.
“The jury has decided the list for the festival, keeping movie making and storytelling skills in mind. Most of the movies that are going to screened have travelled to different film festival. It’s been featured in major international film festivals of Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Goa etc,” says Puranik. The winner of the competition will declared on the closing event of the festival which will be held at Vidhana Soudha, on March 4 and the awards will be handed over by Vajubhai Vala, Governor of Karnataka.
Now showing
Cinema Khar (Persian)
Pain and Glory (Spanish)
An Officer and a Spy (French)
Parasite (Korean)
Les Misérables (French)
Corpus Christi (English)