KIFF 2020 To Be Organized Following Covid-19 Protocols
The press conference for the announcement for Kolkata International Film Festival took place in the presence of Gianluca Rubagotti, Consul General of Italy in Kolkata, Raj Chakraborty, Paoli Dam, Parambrata Chatterjee, Indranil Sen, and other eminent guests.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the film festival will be organized as per the norms laid down by the government. The audience must book the seats through the online system only. One person can book one seat for each show. The online seat booking will start from 10 am on every two days before the scheduled date of viewing of films.
The assembled guests praised Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her efforts to organize the film festival even in the midst of this global pandemic.
“Though this time, the film festival is organized in a limited manner, the enthusiasm is not any less than the previous years. The best films have been selected for the audience and the quality has not been compromised with” said Parambrata Chatterjee.
The inauguration of the film festival will be done virtually at Nabanna Sabhaghar by Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee. The inaugural film is Apur Sansar and this will be screened at 5 pm at Rabindra Sadan.
The total numbers of feature films that will be shown are 81 and 50 short and documentary films from 45 countries will be screened. The films were shortlisted from 1170 entries.
A special tribute will be paid to Soumitra Chatterjee, Fernando Solanas, Kim Ki-Duk, Basu Chatterjee, Rishi Kapoor, IrfanKhan, Tapas Pal, Amala Shankar, and Santu Mukhopadhyay.
The centenary tribute will be paid to Federico Fellini, Eric Rohmer, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Bhanu Bandopadhyay, and Hemanta Mukhopadhyay.
The Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture in 2021 will be delivered by Bollywood director Anubhav Sinha.
The exhibitions at the film festival include-
- An exhibition on the life and works of Soumitra Chatterjee at Nandan Foyer will be inaugurated on 9th
- An exhibition on the life and works of Pandit Ravi Shankar, Hemanta Mukhopadhyay, and Bhanu Bandopadhyay will be inaugurated on 9th January at Gaganendra Pradarshanshala.
- An exhibition on the life and works of Federico Fellini will be inaugurated at Gaganendra Pradarshanshala on 9th
The screening venues for the film festival are Nandan I, Nandan II, Nandan III, Rabindra Sadan, Sisir Mancha, Rabindra Okakura Bhavan, Kolkata Information Centre, and Chalachitra Satabarsha Bhavan.
The film festival will begin on 8th January and continue till 15th January.
Priyanka Dutta