Plan to make India one-stop destination for content creation, filmmaking: Anurag Thakur at IFFI 2022

The Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur on Sunday attended the opening ceremony of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) being held at Goa this year. At the event he said that the Indian government aims to establish the international film festival as a one-stop destination for content creation, filmmaking and shooting.

"The IFFI is Asia's largest film festival and we are in the 53rd edition... We want to establish this as a platform where eminent filmmakers, directors, and artists of the country and the world get an opportunity to showcase their films. We want to make India a global content hub, be it for content creation, co-production, filmmaking or shooting," Thakur told reporters ahead of the opening ceremony in Panaji.

IFFI is a nine day festival that started on 20 November and will go on till 28 November. The 53rd edition of the nine-day festival will kickstart here with film personalities including Ajay Devgn, Kartik Aaryan, Pankaj Tripathi, Manoj Bajpayee, Suniel Shetty, Varun Dhawan, and Sara Ali Khan in attendance. 

Thakur mentioned that the focus is not only on celebrating cinema, but also on creating a collaborative ecosystem for the Indian film industry to go global through its Film Bazaar (market). 

The Union minister also informed that almost 40 per cent of the movies being showcased at the festival, under the in- and out-of-competition segments, are either directed or fronted by women.

Film Bazaar

The film market, which will be organised for five days, aims at discovering, supporting and showcasing South Asian content and talent in filmmaking, production and distribution for collaborations with international film fraternity.

For the first time, the Market Area will include pavillions for countries, states as well as private organisations. States participating in the market include Bihar, Punjab, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Russia and France will also have a major presence at the Film Bazaar.

IFFI 2022

Conducted jointly by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) and Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG), the 53rd IFFI will feature retrospectives on Dadasaheb Phalke awardee Asha Parekh and Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura, who will be honoured with the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement award at the opening ceremony.

As a part of the retrospective, Saura's eight films, including “La Caza del Conejo” and “Ana Y Los Lobos”, will be screened during the gala. Parekh's "Teesri Manzil”, “Do Badan” and “Kati Patang” will also be showcased.

Austrian movie "Alma and Oskar", directed by Dieter Berner, is the opening film this year. Total 280 films from 79 countries will be screened at the IFFI.

To mark the golden jubilee of Manipuri cinema, the festival will showcase five feature and five non-feature films, curated by Manipur State Film Development Society under Indian Panorama. Manipuri film pioneers like Aribam Shyam Sharma, Oken Amakcham, Nirmala Chanu, Borun Thokchom, and Romi Meitei will attend the festival.

Films from the National Film Archive of India -- including Sohrab Modi’s “Nausherwan-E-Adil” (1957), Ramesh Maheshwary’s “Nanak Nam Jahaz Hai” (1969), K Vishwanath’s 1980 Telugu movie “Sankarabharnam” and Satyajit Ray's “Shatranj Ke Khiladi” (1977) as well as “Ganashatru” (1989) --  will be showcased by the NFDC in the ‘Indian Restored Classics’ section.