Inviting film makers to India is the endeavor of IFFI: Smriti Zubin Irani
48 th International Film Festival of India inaugurated at Goa
Cultural extravaganza highlight of IFFI 2017

The Union Minister of Textiles and Information & Broadcasting, Smt. Smriti
Zubin Irani has said that India is a land of festivals, celebrations, dynamic youth and
stories, where stories are told in over 1600 dialects. Minister said this while addressing
the opening ceremony of the 48 th international Film Festival of India in Goa.

Elaborating further, Smt Smriti Zubin Irani said that the endeavor of Government
of India through International Film Festival of India is to invite film makers from all over
the world to the land of stories. Speaking on the role of IFFI, Minister said that the
festival will help the film lovers to meet the biggest and brightest names of Indian film
industry.

Chief Minister of Goa, Shri Manohar Parikkar in his address welcomed all the
delegates to IFFI 2017 and said that Goa will be ready in 2019 to host the 50 th edition of

IFFI in a magnificent way Shri. Parikkar added that Goa has developed a good film
culture over the last few years and the state government would continue its work towards
further developing the film industry in Goa also assured that permanent venue for to host IFFI will be developed soon.

Earlier, Indian film star Shri. Shahrukh Khan while welcoming all film makers and
delegates to IFFI 2017 said that films are about loving, about an idea transformed into
reality by hundreds of people working together. He further added that story tellers and
story listeners are like a family and stories have the power to bind each and every one
together.

This year Country Focus in Canada and had the presence of his excellency Jordan Reeves Consul General for Canada in Mumbai along with his other Canadian film makers .

Also present for opening ceremony was year 2016 Dada saheb phalke award winner veteran film director from Telugu Film Industry Sri K.Vishwanath.

The opening ceremony of IFFI 2017 was anchored by Raj Kumar Rao and
Radhika Apte and eminent Indian film personalities such as A.R Rahman, Sridevi, Nana
Patekar and Shahid Kapoor graced the event. The inaugural ceremony also witnessed
some mesmerizing audio visual performances like ‘Drums of India’, a musical treat with
drums from all across the country and ‘Utsav’, a visual spectacle showcasing diversity of
Indian culture.

The 48th IFFI will showcase the best of recent International cinema, along with
special sections such as Retrospectives, BRICS Award-Winning films, Homages and and
Indian Panorama Section featuring the best of Indian Cinema produced in the past year,
with the aim of providing a platform for young creative minds to interact, view and learn.

IFFI 2017 will showcase 195 films from over 82 countries of which there will be
10 World Premieres, 10 Asian and International premieres and over 64 Indian premieres.
The International Competition section of IFFI 2017 will have 15 films competing for the
Golden and Silver Peacock awards. The International Competition jury is headed by
renowned filmmaker Muzaffar Ali and other jury members include Maxine Williamson
from Australia, Actor-Director Tzahi Grad from Israel, Russian Cinematographer
Vladislav Opelyants, Director and Production Designer Roger Christian from the United
Kingdom.

IFFI 2017 will also witness Indo-centric projects with a strong international
connect at the Opening as well as the Closing films. Iranian master Majid Majidi’s first
film made in India, “Beyond the Clouds” and Pablo Cesar’s Indo-Argentine co-
production “Thinking of Him”, centered on an episode in the life of Gurudev
Rabindranath Tagore will be screened as opening and closing films respectively.

As the first of its kind in the country, IFFI 2017 has a specially curated section of
James Bond films. The special section with 9 iconic James Bond films will showcase the
various leading actors who have essayed the character of James Bond from 1962 to 2012.
Further, IFFI 2017 will have a special focus on Canada curated by the Toronto
International Film Festival.
The Homage presentations at the 48th IFFI will include tributes to the late Actors
Om Puri, Vinod Khanna, Tom Alter, Reema Lagoo, Jayalalitha, Directors Abdul Majid,
Kundan Shah, Dasari Narayana Rao , Parvathama Rajkumar and Cinematographer Ramananda Sengupta.

IFFI 2017 will also host a special curated selection of 7 award winning films from
BRICS region as part of the BRICS Film package. The Accessible India, Accessible
Cinema section at IFFI 2017 will showcase 2 audio-described cinematic works for the
visually impaired thereby continuing the support for Government of India ‘Accessible
India Campaign’.

Indian Panorama 2017 will further screen both Feature & Non-Feature films in
Goa at 48th International Film Festival of India, 2017. The opening film of the feature
film section of Indian Panaroma will be Pihu, directed by Vinod Kapri and the opening
film of the non-feature film section of Indian Panorama is Pushkar Puran which has been
directed by Kamal Swaroop. This will showcase the new Indian cinema from across the
country.

Ajay.K.R