Foolproof arrangements made for ICFFI: minister

Andhra Pradesh has made fool proof arrangements for the successful conduct of ICFFI here, state information and cinematography minister D K Aruna today said.
The 18th International Children's Film Festival of India (ICFFI) will be held here from November 14 to 20.
Recalling that Hyderabad has been made the permanent venue for the bi-annual event after successfully organising the ICFFI in 1995 for the first time, she said the state government has made it a point to encourage children's films since then.
She hoped that filmmakers would take advantage of the facilities and sops being provided by the state government.

In addition to the general arrangements for the event, she said five child delegates from each district in the state have been selected to attend the festival.
"It will be an all-children event with two child prodigies participating in the event daily and their felicitation. Volunteers and escorts are being provided for child delegates coming from other states in the country and also foreign countries, especially by the National Green Corps and the Women and Child Welfare department," she said.

3D movies would be screened for the first time during the week-long festival, the minister said.
Two hundred films from 48 countries would be screened in over 10 theatres in the city during the children's film festival.

An estimated 1,50,000 children are expected to view the films and 16 awards would be given away in four categories of international live action, international animation, short films and little directors, officials said here today.
The 18th ICFFI will have Czech films as its 'country focus' and a retrospective of Czech films would be screened during the event in collaboration with Zlin Film Festival, Czech Republic, which is the oldest children's film festival in the world.
The 'country focus' would showcase a diligently curated package of children's films from the Czech Republic right from 1950s to some of their recent productions, the officials said.