50th IFFI from November 20 at Goa, 200 films from 76 countries to be screened

Two hundred films from around 76 countries and 26 feature and 15 non-feature films in the Indian panorama section will be screened during the coming IFFI, said Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar on Sunday.

The 50th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will be held at Goa from November 20-28, 2019.

Javadekar said the megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who was recently conferred with Dadasaheb Phalke award, will be honoured by screening his most 'impactful' films during the event.

"Dadasaheb Phalke award winner Amitabh Bachchan's outstanding contribution to cinema will be honoured and celebrated through a package of his impactful and entertaining films in the 50th edition," said Javadekar.

The minister said 'Uri: The Surgical Strike,' 'Gully Boy,' 'Super 30,' and 'Badhaai Ho' will also be screened at the 50th IFFI, which is celebrating its golden jubilee edition.

To mark the milestone, 12 prominent films in different languages that have completed 50 years in 2019 will also be showcased during the IFFI.

According to Javadekar, there will also be the screening of a special movie for visually impaired people. The film will have special recorded narrations for the part where there are no dialogues for visually impaired people to understand "what is happening on the screen" in-between of dialogues.

"Since visually impaired people can't experience the film in full as they can only hear the dialogues, the festival will also have the screening of one film which will have narrations recorded for the gaps. This is a new initiative for visually impaired people so that they can enjoy films for the fullest," he added.

This year the feature film jury is being headed by acclaimed filmmaker and screenwriter Priyadarshan.

The jury has chosen 'Hellaro', a Gujarati film, helmed by Abhishek Shah as the opening feature film of the Indian Panorama, 2019.

Filmmaker Rajendra Janglay is heading another section, the non-feature jury, which opted 'Nooreh,' directed by Ashish Pandey, as the opening non-feature film of the Indian Panorama, 2019.