Eight-day film festival to start from December 15.
The Bengaluru International Festival or the 4th BIFFES is set to be held in Bangalore from December 15 to December 22. In all, the film festival will see 175 films from all over the world being screened. For the first time the festival will have a competition section with four categories of awards.
The festival is being organised by the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy for state government. The academy was set up two years ago to promote the cinema culture and education in the state. With the state providing most of the funds of about Rs 3 crore, the organisers say they will approach corporate sponsors only if they find the amount not being enough.
The festival was not held last year because of the economic turmoil and as companies cut their budgets. Then, in stepped the Karnataka government that propped up the festival.
The competition section where awards have been instituted in four categories: Golden Berunda for the Best film of Rs 10 lakh and a Silver Berunda for the Best Director of Rs 5 lakh in World Cinema; NETPAC (Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema) Jury Award of Rs 2 lakh for the Best Film in Asian Cinemas; Critics’ Award christened the Suchitra Sanman for the Best Film of Rs 2 lakh in Chitrabharati (Indian Cinema) and film societies’ pick for Best Film of Rs 2 lakh in Kannada cinema.
This edition’s country focus will be on Polish, Egyptian, Asian, Chitrabharati (contemporary Indian) and Kannada (contemporary Kannada). Retrospective will have films of Michael Cacoyannia and Theo Angelopoulos of Greece; Hsiao-hsien Hou of Taiwan; Dariush Mehrjui of Iran; G Aravindan from the Malayalam cinema and Puttanna Kanagal from Kannada.
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This year, the festival has included special sections of political cinema, films of FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) award winners, NETPAC award winners, Nostalgia.
T S Nagabharana, festival director and chairman, Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy, said, as part of the festival, a seminar will be held with some 6-7 papers being presented.
This time around, some 350 films were considered by the jury and 175 films were chosen from amongst them.
4th BIFFES artistic director H N Narahari Rao said, “This time we have invited entries from Kannada filmmakers for all categories in the competition section of the festival.” In the Kannada cinema category, seven films will be selected by the committee for consideration of the jury. Under the World Cinema category, provision has been made for one Kannada and one Indian (non-Kannada film).
Similarly, there is provision for one Kannada film in the Chitrabharati category, apart from the films picked by the selection committee.