International Film Festival of India 2007

| Last updated less than one minute ago

Submit :

News Photos Just In Debate Topic Latest News Articles Local News Blog Posts Pictures Reviews Recipes

Home > Entertainment > Article

International Film Festival of India 2007

The 38th International Film Festival of India concluded recently, with the screening of ��Fados�� directed by Carlos Saura. The closing ceremony also saw the coveted honour, the Golden Peacock, going to director Lin Chih Ju��s ��The Wall��.

CJ: Amit R Agarwal

Sat, Dec 08, 2007 16:41:01 IST

Views:
2185
Comments:
3

Rate:

5.0 / 4 votes

Film Awards

THE TEN-day International Film Festival of India closed on December 3 in Panaji.

‘The Wall’ from Taiwan and directed by Lin Chih Ju, bagged the coveted Golden Peacock award. The film winning the award didn’t come as a surprise to many, as it was the favourite. The film won the top award for a finely crafted plot that deftly juxtaposed with politically turbulent times.

The ‘Most Promising Director’ award went to debutante Pongpat Wachirabunjong, Thai filmmaker, for her film ‘Khaw hai rak jong jaroen’ (Me Myself) with the Silver Peacock and a cash award of Rs 5 lakhs.

Buddhadeb Dasgupta, noted Bengali filmmaker, who was the chief guest at the closing ceremony, said, “This year’s festival had many innovations.”

A total 176 films from 46 countries were screened. Of these, 64 in Cinema of the World, 39 under the Retrospective/Homage Category and 59 were in various categories of the Indian cinema. Hungary was the ‘Country in Focus’. Seven films from Hungary were screened. Tributes were paid to stalwarts of Indian cinema like Vijay Anand, OP Nayyar, KK Mahajan and Vanmala Devi.

This year the eminent Hungarian filmmaker, Marta Mazaros, headed the jury with more than 60 films to credit. Other members of the jury were - Meltem Cumbul a leading actress from Turkey; eminent filmmaker from Kerala Shaji Karun; noted Argentinean film director Pablo Cesar and filmmaker Robert Sarkies from New Zealand.

The festival that drew flak for its previous editions was better organised this time around. The ticketing system, though started on a tentative note, finally brought in the much-needed discipline to the seating in the various auditoriums. Though a lot of festival delegates said that the crowd was better managed, as a lot of people didn’t turn up because of mismanagement in 2006.

Chief minister of Goa, Digambar Kamat, said, “The overall perception is that this year the festival has been a success. Goa would continue to strive for further improvements in the coming years.”

The best film and the most engrossing one, was without doubt this year’s Palme d’Or winner, ‘4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days’. It was the opening film of IFFI and directed by Christian Mungui. This Romanian film dealt with abortions (considered illegal) in Romania during communist era in the late 80s.

The stark film had a power-packed performance by the entire cast and won a loud round of applause in all the five screenings it had.

Despite the well publicised presence of Shahrukh Khan, as chief guest on the opening night, the opening ceremony wasn’t a grand affair. Though, there is no doubt that this year’s IFFI has been the best of the four editions in Goa, yet the selection of the films raised many an eyebrow.

Gauri, a festival regular, said, “the programming was the best in 2005.”

Though the celebrated filmmaker, Adoor Gopalakrishnan feels “IFFI is finally once again looking like a genuine film festival. I must say the Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) has done a great job in reclaiming the lost essence of IFFI’s true character.”