Germany As Focus Country at 25th Kolkata International Film Festival
The press meet of the 25th Kolkata International Film Festival took place in the presence of Aroop Biswas, Chief Advisor, KIFF and Hon’ble MIC, Public Works, Sports & Youth Services Department, Indranil Sen, Co-Chairman, KIFF, Raj Chakraborty, Chairman, KIFF, Vivek Kumar, Parambrata Chatterjee, Koel Mallick and Friso Maecker, Director, Goethe-Institut/ Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata.
The number of feature films this year is 214. 152 is the number of short and documentary films that will be screened. Films from 76 countries will be screened at 17 venues- Nandan 1, Nandan 2, Nandan 3, Rabindra Sadan, Sisir Mancha, Bijali Cinema, Priya Cinema, Navina Cinema, Ajanta Cinema, Minar Cinema, Nazrul Tirtha, New Empire, Netaji Indoor Stadium and others.
The focus country is Germany. German classics, special screenings, German documentary films, contemporary German cinema and others will be under focus.
The Master’s Class will be taken by Andie Macdowell on 9th November at 3 pm on Journey of Andie Macdowell in Hollywood Films and the other class will be taken by director Volker Schlondorff on 14th and 15th November at 3 pm on Adapting Literature and Working with Actors.
The Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture will be delivered by director and screenwriter Kumar Shahani on the topic Future of the Individual.
KIFF will be playing host to 56 foreign film personalities from 24 countries and 60 film personalities from India will be participating in the event.
Along with the Royal Bengal Golden Tiger Trophy, the Best Film will be awarded Rs 51 lakh and the Best Director will be awarded a sum of Rs 21 lakh.
In the Indian Languages Competition Section, the Best Film will be awarded a sum of Rs 7 lakh while the Best Director will be awarded Rs 5 lakh along with the Hiralal Sen Memorial Trophies.
The Best Short Film will be awarded Rs 5 lakh while the Best Documentary will be awarded Rs 3 lakh.
The special tribute is dedicated to Basu Chatterjee and four of his films will be screened this time.
The theme music of the film festival has been composed by Bickram Ghosh.
Homage will be paid to Mrinal Sen, Girish Karnad, Swarup Dutta, Chinmoy Roy, Vidya Sinha, Ruma Guha Thakurta, Mohammed Zahur Khayyam. Films of these personalities will be shown at the film festival.
Ten Indian films in rare languages will be screened.
KIFF for Kids at Sisir Manch on Children’s Day will be organized for the kids. Animation films from Germany will be screened in Nandan- Rabindra Sadan campus through LED display board on 14th November, 2019.
Two 3D films will be screened in Priya and Bijali.
A comprehensive Heritage Sights Trip will be organized for the foreign delegates visiting KIFF. They will visit heritage destinations in Kolkata.
An exhibition titled KIFF: A Journey of 25 Years on the 25 years of Kolkata International Film Festival will be inaugurated on 9th November at 5 pm at Gaganendra Pradarshashala.
An exhibition on the life and works of Rainer Werner Fassbinder will be inaugurated on 9th November at 1.30 pm by Friso Maecker, Director, Goethe Institut/ Max Mueller Bhavan.
The festival will be inaugurated on 8th November in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Mahesh Bhatt and other eminent dignitaries. The ceremony will be held at Netaji Indoor Stadium, Kolkata at 4 pm.
The inaugural film is Goopy Gayen Bagha Bayen which will be celebrating its fiftieth year in 2019.
The festival will conclude on 15th November at 5 pm at Nazrul Manch.
Priyanka Dutta