International Film Festival of India

The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) (sometimes referred to as the India International Film Festival) is a ten-to-eleven day film festival organised by the Indian Directorate of Film Festivals and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The first IFFI was held in 1952; since 1975, it has been held annually. The thirty-sixth festival was held in Goa, between the 24th of November and the 4th of December 2005.

2006

The 37th IFFI was held from November 23 to December 3 2006, in the coastal state of Goa. This festival's top prize -- the Golden Peacock -- will also carry along with it a cash prize of a million rupees, and goes to the director of the prize-winning film

The 'most promising director' gets a silver peacock and a cash prize of half-a-million rupees (Rs 500,000). There's also a special jury award, of a silver peacock and a cash prize of half-a-million rupees for an individual's artistic contribution.

2007

The IFFI 2007 are scheduled in Goa in November 2007. The juries for the Indian Panorama Section of IFFI 2007 recommended 21 feature and 15 non-feature films for screening. Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan is invited to inaugurate the film festival.who win the golden peacock awards

Categories

In 2006, this festival is being divided into the following categories -- competition (feature films by directors from Asia, Africa and Latin America); cinema of the world; retrospectives, tributes, focus; Indian panorama; mainstream Indian cinema. There will also be a film bazaar, an initiative of recent years to promote and sell Indian film.

Since 1952, India has hosted 36 International Film Festivals, both competitive and non-competitive. These festivals became annual events from 1975 onwards.

Indian government, Goa government and film industry

As usual, this festival is being organised by the Directorate of Film Festivals, of the Government of India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, in collaboration with the State Government of Goa and the Indian film industry.

This festival is recognised by the International Federation of Film Producers’ Associations (FIAPF). The FIAPF (the French acronym for the InternationalFederation of Film Producers Associations) was created in 1977. It is an organization composed with 31 member associations from 25 of the leading audiovisual production countries. FIAPF is also in charge of supervisinginternational film festivals, including some of the world's most important ones.

Organisers said the festival -- being held for the third time in Goa, after moving out of New Delhi -- "aims at providing a common platform for the cinematographies of the world to project the excellence of the film art".

It's goal also includes "contributing to the understanding and appreciation of film cultures of different nations in the context of their social and cultural ethos", and "promoting friendship and co-operation among peoples of the world".

Packaging the event

Organisers have sought to describe this as "India's Cannes" and said that IFFI 2006 in Goa would mean "240 hours of sheer entertainment and fun". Pre-event statements said the chief guest for the event would be Bollywood film start Shashi Kapoor, while guest of honours would be film-star Anil Kapoor (also of Bollywood) and also Bengali star Prosenjit Chatterjee.

For 2006, the opening film was [Pedro Almodóvar's Volver

Rules for entries

For the competition, films must be feature-films completed between August 2005 and August 2006. Rules for the festival say that except for films produced in India, the film should not have been shown in India. Selection of Indian films for the competition will be done from the entries of Indian Panorama feature films.

Films for the festival must also be made by "directors of Asian, African and Latin American descent and produced in an Asian or African or Latin American country". There are separate rules for co-productions.

Though part of the event, the Film Bazaar during IFFI-2006 will be organised by the Worli (Mumbai)-based National Film Development Corporation.

Trivia

* On the eve of IFFI2006, journalist and author Mario Cabral e Sa's book Location Goa, highlighting Goa's contribution to the Hindi film world, was released on November 21, 2006 at 10.30 am at Hotel Nova Goa.

* In 2006, Goa hosts the International Film Festival of India for 11 days from November 23 to December 3. India's smallest state, a seaside attraction, has been host to the annual festival since 2004. This brings in more visitors to the State, and also coincides with the novenas and feast of the sixteenth century Basque missionary-saint Francis Xavier.

* IFFI's local host in Goa is the Entertainment Society of Goa, set up by the state government in 2004. It's goal is to "frame an entertainment policy and to help cultivate Goa into a world-class international entertainment nerve centre of the country".

* Accommodation of the queues of wanabee delegates has proven a challenge for Goa, This is aggravated the fact that the State has been unable so far to incorporate its existing -- mostly run-down -- cine theatres to be part of the festival, and extend its impact in the host area.

External links

* [http://iffi.nic.in/ Official Website]
* [http://www.iffigoa.org IFFI-Goa site]