The press conference of 24^th Kolkata International Film Festival 2018 was organized in the presence of Rituparna Sengupta, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Indranil Sen, Vivek Kumar, Gautam Ghose, Mahua Banerjee, Director, KIFF and others.

The film festival will be inaugurated on 10^th November and the festival will conclude on 17^th November.

The guests on the inaugural day of the film festival will be Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Soumitra Chatterjee, Biswajit Chatterjee, Waheeda Rahman, Jaya Bachchan, Mahesh Bhatt, Madhabi Mukherjee, Majid Majidi, Sanjay Dutt, Sabitri Chatterjee, Simon Baker, Philip Noyce, Jill Bilcock, Nandita Das, Gautam Ghose, Ranjit Mallick and other eminent film personalities.

In 2017, the films were shown at 14 venues and this year films will be shown at 16 venues. This is the first time that KIFF has extended screening venues at Howrah (PVR Avani) and Dum Dum (PVR Diamond Plaza).

The focus country this time is Australia. Australian cinema has also completed hundred years like Bengali cinema. And hence a number of Australian films will be shown at this year’s festival.

There will be 171 feature films and 150 short and documentary films (shortlisted from 1500 entries) from 70 countries.

The Master Class will be conducted by Philip Noyce.

Actor and film maker Nandita Das will deliver the Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture.

A homage-special tribute will be devoted to Supriya Devi. There will be film retrospectives of Philip Noyce (Australia) and Majid Majidi (Iran).

Nikhita Gandhi has composed and sung the KIFF theme song.

The inaugural film is Anthony Firingee.

Special screening of some films will be organized during the film festival. The films are Shoojit Sircar’s October, Mahesh Bhatt’s Yours Truly, Shivendra Dungarpur’s Checkmate and Aditya Bikram Sengupta’s Jonaki.

Speaking at the event, Prosenjit Chatterjee said “In 2019, the film festival will be completing 25 years. So this year is like a teaser to the grand celebrations that will be organized in 2019”.

Two interesting exhibitions on 100 years of Bangla Cinema and 100 years of Australian Cinema are scheduled to be organized side by side. 100 years of Australian Cinema will feature posters of 35 classic Australian films and will be held at two different venues.

A brochure bringing out the context and historic significance of the celebration will be released. 14 legendary Bengali films will be screened during the celebration. A Bengali film directory (1917-2017) will be published. A Coffee Table Book in Bengali and English will be published. In the Jalsaghar section, new age singers will pay tribute to legendary singers and music composers. A theatre titled Hiralaler Bioscope by Krishti Potua with Rupankar Bagchi in the lead role will be staged on 15^th November at Madhusudan Mancha.

Along with the Royal Bengal Golden Tiger Trophy, the Best Film will be awarded Rs 51 Lakh rupees and the Best Director will be awarded Rs 21 Lakh rupees. The Best Short Film will be awarded Rs 5 Lakh this year. The Best Documentary Film will be awarded Rs 3 Lakh. In the Indian Languages Competition Section, the Best Film will be awarded Rs 51 Lakh and the Best Director will get Rs 21 Lakh.

The 24^th edition of Kolkata International Film Festival 2018 will be exciting and grand this time for sure!!

Priyanka Dutta