Film Festivals an opportunity to celebrate the excellence of cinema: Shri Arun Jaitley Eminent music composer Shri Ilaiyaraaja conferred Centenary Award for Indian Personality of the Year 46th International Film Festival of India inaugurated at Goa

Film Festivals an opportunity to celebrate the excellence of cinema: Shri Arun Jaitley Eminent music composer Shri Ilaiyaraaja conferred Centenary Award for Indian Personality of the Year 46th International Film Festival of India inaugurated at Goa Shri Arun Jaitley, Union Minister for Finance, Corporate Affairs and Information & Broadcasting said that Film Festivals world over had acquired a global niche by identifying themselves with their geographical location. Citing the examples of Cannes, Berlin and other prestigious film festivals he said that it is customary to make such locations the permanent centres of such festivals where creativity excels. The Minister said this while delivering his address at the inaugural ceremony of the 46th edition of International Film Festival of India which began in Goa today. Honorable Governor of Goa, Smt. Mridula Sinha, Union Defence Minister, Shri Manohar Parikkar, Chief Minister of Goa, Shri Laxmikant Parsekar, Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore , Secretary I&B Shri Sunil Arora and Shri Anil Kapoor were also present on the occasion. During his inaugural address Shri Jaitley said that International Film festival gave filmmakers a chance to interact with fellow filmmakers and provided opportunities to showcase the best domestic and international talent. He said that there could not be a better opportunity than a Film Festival to celebrate the excellence of cinema. The Minster also mentioned that there would be many new initiatives this year at IFFI-2015 such as a special section on World Cinema Restored Classics to highlight the idea of film restoration, master classes with eminent Academy members, a special ICFT- UNESCO Fellini Prize and Talkathons. Chief Minister of Goa, Shri Laxmikant Parsekar in his address said that Indian Cinema produced in National and Regional languages represented Indias unity in diversity and IFFI had developed itself into a respectable Film Festival in Asia. In his address, the Chief Guest for the function, Shri Anil Kapoor said that International Film Festival had aimed and showcased the excellence in global cinema. Also speaking on the occasion, Secretary I&B, Shri Sunil Arora said that IFFI had been instrumental in promoting world-class films to a wide spectrum of audience surpassing the geographical boundaries and creating a benchmark of quality and consistency. IFFI 2015 would bring a mlange of brilliant films in different languages and genres. He also mentioned that nearly 7000 delegates would be participating in the Festival this year. Shri Arun Jaitley, Union Minister for Finance, Corporate Affairs and Information & Broadcasting along with the Chief Guest Shri Anil Kapoor conferred the Centenary Award for Indian Personality of the Year on Shri Ilaiyaraaja for his outstanding contribution to the music industry. Shri Arun Jailey along with actress Sonakshi Sinha also launched the book on DadaSahab Phalke Award winners published by Publications Division, a media unit of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. The jury for International Festival was also introduced at the inaugural ceremony. The International Competition section included Chairperson Shri Shekhar Kapur along with Mr. Michael Radford, Ms. Julia Jentsch, Ms. Suha Arraf and Mr. Jeon Kyu-Hwan. The Indian Panorama jury for Feature and Non-feature categories included a team of highly acclaimed filmmakers and cinema stalwarts from different regions of India. The 13-member Feature jury and 7- member Non-feature jury was headed by Shri Aribam Syam Sharma and Shri Rajendra Janglay respectively. The 11 day festival would showcase 187 films from 89 countries in World Cinema section along with 26 Feature and 21 Non-Feature films in Indian Panorama section. The opening film at IFFI 2015 was The Man Who Knew Infinity by Matthew Brown. The film was a true story of friendship between Indian Mathematician Ramanujan and Professor GH Hardy that forever changed the world of mathematics. In the Indian Panorama section Priyamanasam and Goonga Pehelwan would be the opening films in the Feature and Non Feature Films category respectively. The focus country for the film festival was Kingdom of Spain. The films of master Spanish filmmakers Carlos Saura and Pedro Almadovar along with contemporary filmmakers like Alejandro Amenabar would be screened at the festival. The section would also feature Spanish actress Leticia Doleras directorial debut Requirements to Be a Normal Person. The IFFI 2015 in the International Competition included 15 films from across the globe including two from India. The IFFI 2015 included a special award - ICFT- UNESCO Fellini Prize in collaboration with the International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication (ICFT), Paris and UNESCO. The award would be presented first time in India to a film which reflects the ideals of peace, tolerance, non-violence and friendship promoted by UNESCO. Amongst the new initiatives of IFFI-2015 this year, there was a special section on World Cinema Restored Classics to highlight the idea of film restoration. It would feature a package of classics to put spotlight on National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM). NFAI & DAVP also organized a Multimedia Exhibition on NFHM. The festival had a special Focus on North East Cinema to showcase the best of films and filmmakers from the region to the world. It would have a Special Retrospective on Aribam Syam Sharma along with a unique segment featuring next generation filmmakers from North East. The film festival also introduced a new segment- First Cut to recognize the young talent in the field of cinema and would screen some of the outstanding directorial debuts of 2015. The section would feature emerging filmmakers including Brian Perkins (Film - Golden Kingdom, USA), Michael Klette (Film - Solness, Germany) among others. The festival in association with the Oscar Academy would also promote skill development in film making through master classes with eminent Academy members on varied topics like sound designing, film archive and film editing. IFFI 2015 would also organize a special seminar on Film and Cultural diversity. A special series titled In Conversation with eminent Indian filmmakers such as Shyam Benegal, Vettrimaran to discuss films and the art of filmmaking with the audience would also be a new feature at IFFI 2015. Besides films screening, IFFI 2015 also offered various Special Programmes such as Contemporary Argentinean Cinema, Tribute to Anna Karina, Retrospective- Amos Gitai, Homage, Open Air screenings and Film Bazaar for the delegates. CP/GV

Film Festivals an opportunity to celebrate the excellence of cinema: Shri Arun Jaitley Eminent music composer Shri Ilaiyaraaja conferred Centenary Award for Indian Personality of the Year 46th International Film Festival of India inaugurated at Goa

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