The press meet to announce the 27^th Kolkata International Film Festival took place in the presence of Arindam Sil, Parambrata Chatterjee, Sayantika Banerjee, Indranil Sen, and other eminent dignitaries.

The logo, theme song, flyer, and the trophy of KIFF was unveiled at the press conference.

Despite the ongoing global pandemic and a fear of the Third Wave in the country, the 27^th Kolkata International Festival will be organized from 7^th to 14^th January 2022.

The inaugural program will take place at 4 pm at Nabanna Sabhaghar, Howrah on 7^th January. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will inaugurate the film festival.

The inaugural film this year is Satyajit Ray’s Aranyer Din Ratri.  It will be shown on 7^th January at 5.30 pm at Rabindra Sadan.

The focus country is Finland. Compartment No 6, Tove, Ladies of Steel, Games People Play, A Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See the Titanic, The Other Side of Hope, and The Haven will be shown at the film festival.

KIFF is accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Association, Belgium.

103 feature films, 58 short and documentary films were shortlisted from a total of 1698 films from 71 countries. A total of 161 films have been selected from 42 countries and 46 foreign films from 41 countries will be shown at the festival.

The total number of shows is 200, and the number of venues is 10 (Nandan-1, Nandan-2, Nandan-3, Rabindra Sadan, Sisir Mancha, Conference Hall, Kolkata Information Center, Chalachitra Satabarsha Bhavan, Rabindra Okakura Bhavan, Nazrul Tirtha I, and Nazrul Tirtha II.

There are 59 films in the competition section.

Parambrata Chatterjee said “We had hoped that this year the film festival will be organized in a grand way. But due to the pandemic, we have again moved one step back and are organizing the film festival keeping in mind all the Covid protocols”.

The Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture will be delivered by renowned filmmaker Shoojit Sircar.

The birth centenary of Satyajit Ray will be celebrated by felicitating and honoring veteran artists and senior technicians who have worked with the legend in his films. The event is titled Satyajit-er Shilpira and will take place at Rabindra Sadan on 8^th January 2022.

The centenary tribute will be paid to Satyajit Ray, Miklos Jancso, and Chidananda Dasgupta.

A special tribute will be paid to Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Dilip Kumar, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Claude Carriere, Swatilekha Sengupta, and Sumitra Bhave.

There will be exhibitions on the life and works of Satyajit Ray at Nandan Foyer and Nazrul Tirtha, New Town. Another exhibition at Gaganendra Pradarshashala on Special Tribute to Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Dilip Kumar, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Claude Carriere, Swatilekha Sengupta, and Sumitra Bhave will be inaugurated at 2 pm on 8^th January 2022.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, KIFF will be organized this year with 50 percent capacity.

The closing ceremony will be on 14^th January 2022.

Priyanka Dutta