THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The 25th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) will commence on Wednesday. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the festival at 6pm at Nishagandhi auditorium. The event will be presided over by Minister for Cultural Affairs A K Balan.
Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan will be the chief guest. MLAs V K Prasanth and M Mukesh, and T K Rajeev Kumar, former chairman of Kerala State Chalachitra Academy (KSCA), will also be present.
Lifetime achievement award for Jean-Luc Godard
This year, IFFK will present the lifetime achievement award to French-Swiss filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. In his absence, filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan will accept the award. Thiruvananthapuram Mayor Arya Rajendran will release a book on the auteur and hand a copy to District panchayat president D Suresh Kumar.V K Prasanth will release the festival handbook. He will hand over a copy of the same to T K Rajeev Kumar.
Cultural Affairs department secretary Rani George, KSCA chairman and festival director Kamal, vice-chairperson Beena Paul, and secretary C Ajoy will participate.Bosnian genocide war drama Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020) will be the opening film of the festival.
A total of 2,500 passes have been issued in the Thiruvananthapuram leg of the festival. As many as 2,164 seats have been arranged across five theatres in the city. Apart from movie screenings, the festival will host online forums and events, which will see the participation of prominent film personalities.
Covid testing of delegates, officials to begin today
The antigen testing of delegates, guests and media persons will begin on Monday. The tests will be conducted across four counters, set up on the premises of Tagore theatre, from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm. Those who are from the capital district can undergo the test on Monday and Tuesday, while those from other districts can get tested on Tuesday and Wednesday.
KSCA has informed delegates of the same through SMS. Everybody who is a part of IFFK, including volunteers, officials, film personalities and duty staff, will be allowed to participate only after securing a Covid negative certificate.