Hoping for dip in COVID cases, Bengaluru International Film Festival waits out pandemic 

The festival, which usually takes place during the end of February, has been postponed to April, hoping that the fear of Covid-19 would get reduced by then.
N Vidyashankar, creative director, BIFFes (Photo | Facebook)
N Vidyashankar, creative director, BIFFes (Photo | Facebook)

BENGALURU: It’s good news for movie buffs out there as the 13th edition of the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes) has announced the last date of submission for films in the competitive category for Asian, Indian and Kannada cinema. The last date of submission is Feb. 8. 

The festival, which usually takes place during the end of February, has been postponed to April, hoping that the fear of Covid-19 would get reduced by then. This also means that the festival can be held in a physical form rather than a virtual one. N Vidyashankar, creative director, BIFFes, says the idea of the film festival is to bring like-minded people together who are passionate about movies.

“We are sure that we want to screen films at a live gathering rather than do it online. We want dignitaries from various film industries to come under one roof to exchange their knowledge about movies. Moreover, the film industry saw a huge loss last year. This festival is important to create opportunities for people in the industry,” says Vidyashankar, adding that he is hopeful that by April, the apprehension to step out would have come down with vaccination in place.

Apart from movies from various genres, the festival also includes film competitions where entries can be sent in for three different genres –  Indian, Asian and Kannada. “We are hopeful  to get around 60-70 entries in Kannada, 40-50 entries in the Asian category, and 30-40 entries in the Indian category,” says Vidyashankar, adding that the competition will have the same rules as before where a jury will choose 12 movies which will be featured in the film festival.

Ideally, he says, the last date for competition entries would have been Dec. 2020, but things got delayed because of the uncertainty of the pandemic. One might expect a lukewarm response going by general inhibition, but Vidyashankar is optimistic that the film festival is going to bring more and more movie goers to auditoria.   

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com