50th Int’l Film Fest from Nov 20, Bachchan films to be shown

The 50th International Film Festival of India which will be held in Goa from November 20-28, will be screening close to 250 films from across countries at the movie gala. Russia will be the partner country at the film festival this year, Information and Broadcasting Ministry on Sunday (October 6).

Two hundred films from around 76 countries and 26 feature and 15 non-feature films in the Indian Panorama, a flagship section of IFFI section, will be screened at the film festival.

Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner Amitabh Bachchan’s selected seven or eight films will also be showcased at the premier movie extravaganza, the I&B minister Prakash Javadekar announced.

“Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner Shri. 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,” Javadekar said in a statement.

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To mark the milestone, around 12 films made in different languages that have completed 50 years in 2019 will also be showcased at the golden jubilee edition of IFFI, he added.

The feature film jury, headed by filmmaker and screenwriter Priyadarshan selected Gujarati period drama “Hellaro” as the opening film of feature section. Directed by Abhishek Shan, the movie won the best feature film award at the 66th National Film Awards.

The 26 films to be screened under the feature film section include Lijo Jose Pellisserys “Jallikettu”, “In The Land Of Poison Women”, directed by Manju Borah, Aditya Dhars “Uri: The Surgical Strike”, Hrithik Roshan-starrer “Super 30”, Ayushmann Khurrana-led “Badhaai Ho” and India’s official entry of Oscars, “Gully Boy”, helmed by Zoya Akhtar.

The non-feature jury was headed by well-known documentary filmmaker Rajendra Janglay and they selected “Nooreh”, a Kashmiri language tale directed by Ashish Pandey, as the opening non-feature film of Indian Panorama 2019.

Total 15 titles, including “Bohubritta”, “The Secret Life of Frogs”, “Gadhul”, “ShabdhikunnaKalpa” and “Mamatva”, will be showcased under the section.

In a first, the festival will screen films with audio description for the visual impaired. Several film stars and about 10,000 movie lovers are expected to participate in the film festival this year.

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(With inputs from agencies)