IFFK 2011 starts on December 9

The 16th edition of International Film Festival of Kerala will commence on December 9, 2011. Around 200 films from various languages will be screened in the festival that lasts 8 days. The films from about 60 languages will be there in different categories such as Arab Cinema, Best of FIPRESCI, DEFA Films, Homage Films, Indian Cinema Now, Competition Films, Jury Films, World Cinema, Kaidan Horror Classics, Kicking and Screening, Contemporary Malayalam Cinema and Philippine Cinema. In Retrospective section, the films of Robert Bresson, Adolfas Mekas, Nagisa Oshima, Theodoros Angelopoulos, Yasuzo Masumura, Djibril Diop Mambety and Madhu will be screened. The films of Semih Kaplanoglu will be presented in the section Contemporary Masters.

The film festival was founded in 1996 and conducted by Kerala State Chalachithra Academy. The filmy extravaganza will be inaugurated by the Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy at Nishagandhi auditorium at 6 pm. Popular Hindi actor Jaya Bachan will be the chief guest of the function. Minister for films KB Ganesh Kumar will preside over the function. The Cultural minister KC Joseph will release the Festival catalogue and Shashi Tharoor MP will hand over the first copy of the Festival daily bulletin to Transport Minister VS Sivakumar. Thiruvananthapuram District Panchayat President Ramani P Nair, V Sivan Kutty MLA and K Muraleedharan MLA will deliver the felicitations. After the function, a Cultural programme named 'Destiny's Dice' will be performed. It's a 23 minute stage show which based on the twenty five characters from the epic Mahabharatha. The programme is directed by TK Rajeev Kumar.

The 2010 Chinese film 'Under the Hawthorn Tree' by Yimou Zhang is the opening film that will be screened then. Famous Australian director Bruce Beresford, is the head of Jury in the competition section of the festival. The other members of the Jury are French film maker Laurence Gavron, Philippino director Jeffrey Jetturian, Turkish director Semih Kaplanagolu and Indian actor and director Rahul Bose.

The Jury for the NETPAC consists of French writer and journalist Defne Gursoy, Philippino film maker Nestor O Jardin and Indian film maker Sunil Doshi.
The Jury of the FIPRESCI Award is composed of Pakistani film critic and writer Aijaz Gul, Mexican director Roberto Donati and Indian film critic Vidyasankar Joshi. The winner of Hassan Kutty award instituted by Meera Nair will be selected by the jury consisting of Romanian Director Adrian Sitaru, Writer Rachel Dwyer and Malayalam Director Dr. Biju.

In contemporary Malayalam cinema section, Kamal's Khadamma, V K Prakash's Karmayogi, Jayaraj's Pakarnnattam, Shalini Usha Nair's Akam, Ranjith's Pranchiyettan And The Saint, T V Chandran's Shankaranum Mohananum and Rajesh Pillai's Traffic will be screened. Urumi by Santosh Sivan will be screened in World Cinema section. The films Aadaminte Makan Abu and Adimadhyantham have been displaced from competition category. Aadaminte Makan Abu will be screened in Malayalam Cinema category.

The movies will be screened in eleven theatres. Sooner, the film festival will have its own theatre, as said by Priyadarshan, the Chalachitra Academy chairman. The film festival will conclude on 16th December.