National award winning director Sibi Malayil today said the International Film Festival of Kerala, the state's annual premier movie gala, has developed a culture of cinema appreciation and generated a passionate delegate base.
"The IFFK is one of the most popular and most attended festivals with delegates coming in from across the world," he said as the state is preparing for this year's festival next month.
"The festival's strength is its delegates, who are passionate about cinema," a release said here quoting the director.
"I feel that while the festival in Goa has other interests such as promoting tourism, the IFFK is all about cinema. The Chalachithra Academy has done an exceptional job keeping it that way," he said.
Making international films accessible to Malayali audiences, he said, has nurtured budding interest in world cinema.
"This has created a core audience, especially among the young, who are keen to explore new landscapes and contours in global cinema."
"Movies with unfamiliar technical, narrative and social aspects have definitely influenced the filmmaker in me. But, at the IFFK, I'm more a film student and aficionado than filmmaker," he said
IFFK 2015 is being held here from December 4-11.
