Renowned film critic Malti Sahai today said the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) has become mature in terms of the quality of its infrastructure and choice of films, as also its growing number of delegates.
Sahai, also the former director of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in its itinerant days, was speaking at the inaugural 'meet the press session' of the 20th edition of the IFFK, which began here yesterday.
"A film festival is all about the movies, the audiences and the viewing facilities on offer," said Sahai, who chaired the selection jury that picked the two Malayalam movies in the Competition Section - Ottaal and Chayam Poosiya Veedu.
Kerala State Chalachitra Academy (KSCA) chairman T Rajeev Nath and Film Employees Federation of Kerala president B Unnikrishnan also participated in the inaugural meet of the press session.
"Our festival has grown in quality and participation. The festival must be seen as the microcosm of Kerala's cinema traditions and its rich art heritage," Unnikrishnan said.
"That must be the ultimate goal of the festival. I'm sure the coming days will see a very creative visual and verbal dialogue between the filmmakers and the audience," the director added.
