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The18th edition of the International Film festival of Kerala (IFFK), claimed to be Asia’s largest in terms of viewer participation, got underway here yesterday.
Nearly 10,000 delegates, including journalists, are attending the fete, which will see 211 quality films from 64 countries screened at 12 venues over eight days.
Yesterday, 36 films including the inaugural film, Amos Gitai’s Ana Arabie (I’m Arab), were screened.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy inaugurated the festival at the Nishagandhi amphitheatre. Celebrated filmmaker Carlos Saura received the lifetime achievement award from the chief minister.
Actor Shabana Azmi was the guest of honor.
Mexican Ambassador Jaime Nualart, Kerala’s Tourism Minister A P Anil Kumar, Cultural Affairs Minister K C Joseph, Health Minister V S Shiva Kumar and actor Manju Warrier were also present.
A special cultural programme was held to celebrate 100 years of Indian cinema.
South Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-Duk, who is hugely popular among the festival buffs, will be the chief guest at the concluding ceremony on December 13.
Online ticket reservations are available through the IFFK official website.
The recently-launched “she-taxis” and “pink auto-rickshaws” have been pressed into service for female delegates.
The organisers have arranged regular programmes like Meet-the-Press, In-Conversation and Meet-the-Director besides marketing workshops and seminars.
A film technical exhibition is also being showcased as a part of the festival.
The films are divided across 16 sections, including the competition section which has 14 films.
Works by filmmakers like Italian Marco Bellocchio, Japanese Takashi Miike, Serbian Goran Paskaljeviae, Claire Denis of France and Malayalam director Hariharan feature in the contemporary masters section.
‘Expressionism – The Indo- German connection’, will showcase eight films that depict the cultural exchange between the two countries and masters like Fritz Lang while seven films will be screened in the Samurai films section, including the works of Kon Ichikawa and Kenji Mizoguchi.
Five films of French new wave director Jean Renoir will be screened in the introspection section.
The IFFK will also pay homage to Bengali director Rituparno Ghosh, actor Sukumari, art director S Konnanad and music maestros K Raghavan and V Dakshinamoorthy.
Mexican director Arturo Ripstein is the chairman of the jury comprising Peter Scarlet, Aditya Assarat, Khalo Matabane and Gouthami.
“We have incorporated films that reflect the diverse tastes and cultures,” said Bina Paul Venugopal, the artistic director of the IFFK which focuses on Asian, African and Latin American films.
“The presence of great filmmakers will definitely up its energy level”.
This year’s guest list also includes Italian filmmaker Marco Bellocchio, Serbian Goran Paskaljevic. “We have tried to concentrate on new cinema, basically films that belong to 2012 and 2013. Some routine names will be missing as they have been replaced by new filmmakers,” said Venugopal, who is also an award winning film editor.