South films to dominate IFFI's Indian panorama

The south Indian film industry will have a commanding presence at the 36th annual International Film Festival of India (IFFI 2005), scheduled to be staged in Goa from November 24 to December 4.

Around 14 films will represent south in IFFI's Indian Panorama section, with Malayalam leading the league with nine films.

Addressing a press conference, Sanjit Rodrigues, chief executive officer of Entertainment Society of Goa, said, "A total of 35 films (20 feature and 15 non-feature) has been selected for the Indian Panorama of which films from south occupies a major chunk with 11 films in the feature and three in the non-feature section. This apart, the jury has selected two films "� Perumazhakkalam (Malayalam) and Iqbal (Hindi) "� for the Competition Section for Asian, African and Latin American countries. The two films will compete with films from 25 countries for the Golden Peacock award (best film), which carries a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh and two Silver Peacock awards (most promising director and director of a film for his individual artistic contribution) with cash prizes of Rs 5 lakh each."

Nearly 200 international and Indian films will be screened during the 11-day festival, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Debashree Mukherjee, secretary, information and publicity, Goa, said, "We expect over 3,000 foreign and Indian delegates to attend the festival. Apart from the regular features like street animation and laser shows to showcase the picturesque Goa, we are taking two mobile cinemas to every part of the state. For the first time, we are also organising a Beach Cinema, wherein the biggest Bollywood blockbusters including Sarkar, Mangal Pandey-The Rising, Bunty Aur Babli and Salam Namaste will be screened at Caranezalem, free of cost."

As part of the film festival, CII will be organising Film Bazaar, which provides a platform for the global and Indian entertainment industry players to interact, trade movies and strike deals.