The seven-day festival will feature 170 films from 25 countries besides having retrospective on five films of Indian director Shyam Benegal and the works of German filmmaker Alexander Kloog and the Spanish moviemaker Almodo Pedrovaar.

Apart from the best film, there will be a separate award for best Marathi film and also for the films made by film school students.

However, the inaugural ceremony was briefly disrupted when activists from an organisation, Lashkar-e-Bhim started shouting slogans against the censor board chairperson Sharmila Tagore during her speech. They were protesting against the board’s approval to an allegedly ‘offensive’ song in a film titled ‘Bhool Bhulayya’. The ceremony continued after police intervened.

Tagore, along with her co-star of the 60s,  Shammi Kapoor, received lifetime achievement award.